Editors earn stripes in a string of deals at Bologna

Stripes Publishing has struck a brace of deals at this year’s fair, inking a wild swimming adventure for teens and its first book in translation.

Commissioning editor Katie Jennings signed world rights to Fig Swims the World, by début author Lou Abercrombie, in a two-book deal from Gill McLay of Bath Literary Agency. The novel features 15-year-old Fig, who resolves to swim around the world... but she can’t actually swim.

Stripes junior editor Mattie Whitehead, who is part of an Arts Council England-funded scouting trip to Bologna, co-ordinated by translator Daniel Hahn, has bought Siri Kolu’s Finnish bestseller The Robbersons from Hanna Pajunen-Walsh at Rights & Brands.

The novel, about a "high-speed-loving bandit family", has been sold into 18 languages and was selected as part of BookTrust’s In Other Words project, which showcases writing from outside the UK to encourage UK publishers to acquire foreign-language children’s books in translation. Whitehead said: "I couldn’t be more thrilled."