Egmont and Hardie Grant team up to buy US middle grade at auction

Egmont Publishing UK has teamed up with its Australian counterpart, Hardie Grant Egmont, to acquire a middle-grade novel by US authors Holly Goldberg Sloan and Meg Wolitzer in a three-way auction.

To Night Owl From Dogfish, described as ‘The Parent Trap’ for a new generation, follows the correspondence between bookish, intense Avery (Night Owl) and fearless, outgoing Bett (Dogfish), who are determined to interfere in the blossoming romance between their two dads.

Ali Dougal and Liz Bankes, fiction publishing director and commissioning editor at Egmont Publishing, and Marisa Pintado, publishing director at Hardie Grant Egmont, won UK and Commonwealth rights from Cecilia de la Campa, executive director at Writers House.

Dougal said: “We’ve all gone gaga over Avery and Bett. It’s incredibly exciting to be collaborating on this hooky, life-affirming middle grade gem with our brilliant colleagues at Hardie Grant Egmont, and we’re fired up to make this book the global hit it deserves to be. I’m sure we’ll be seeing readers everywhere identify as either Dogfish or Night Owl – there’s a bit of Avery or Bett in all of us.”

To Night Owl From Dogfish will be published on 21st February 2019.