Hegarty moves to Hachette Children’s for young reader series

Hachette Children’s Group will this year publish the first series for young readers by Shane Hegarty, author of Darkmouth (HarperCollins Children’s Books).

Boot is about a little robot trying to find his way home with a “rag-tag group of rusty, on-the-shelf old bots to help”. Hodder Children’s Books, part of the Hachette Children’s Group, bought world rights and has hired Ben Mantle to illustrate. The first title will be published in May 2019, with books two and three to follow in 2020.

Hegarty said: “I am incredibly excited that Boot will be published by Hachette Children’s Group, home to so many of the books and authors loved by me and my children. Boot is such a special character for me – a little, lost-but-determined toy full of all the questions and innocence of childhood – and the enthusiasm of everyone at Hachette Children’s Group has exceeded anything I could have hoped for.”  

Senior commissioning editor Samantha Swinnerton acquired world rights from Marianne Gunn O’Connor of the Marianne Gunn O’Connor Literary Agency.

Hegarty’s Darkmouth series was shortlisted for the 2016 Waterstones Book Prize and the Irish Book Awards, and a film is in production with Alcon Entertainment, with directors Dave Pimentel and Doug Sweetland attached.