HCG lands 'magical' MG titles from Penny Chrimes

Hachette Children’s Group has acquired two "magical" middle-grade titles from author Penny Chrimes. 

Tiger Heart, the first book in the deal, will publish under the Orion Children’s Books imprint on 9th January 2020 (£7.99), with the follow-up coming in January 2021. Lena McCauley, commissioning editor at Hachette Children’s Group, acquired world rights from Lisa Babalis at Curtis Brown. 

"Told in bright, playful strokes, Tiger Heart is a magical tale of a bold young chimney sweep and a remarkable tiger, a dangerously hypnotic ruby and a mystical land that’s found across an ocean and through a storm," reads the synopsis. 

McCauley said: "In Tiger Heart, Penny Chrimes has exquisitely mixed animals, magic, adventure and emotion to create an epic coming-of-age journey – I can’t wait for readers to fall in love with fierce, clever Fly and her majestic, tender tiger."

Chrimes, a former television news journalist who has published children's books under a different name, added: "From the moment I started writing Tiger Heart I had all these images in my head of this glorious tiger, gleaming gold even in the darkest places that he and Fly end up. It felt like the tiger was pacing through the pages as I wrote it. I am delighted that Fly and her tiger have found such a good home with Hachette Children’s and I feel so lucky to have an amazing editor like Lena McCauley to work on the book."

After starting work in Fleet Street, Chrimes worked as a television news journalist for most of her career. The Curtis Brown Creative graduate has published children’s books under the name of Penny McKinlay, including three picture books with Frances Lincoln, and several education books for Watts and Harper Collins Educational. Tiger Heart will be her fiction debut and her first title published under her own name.