Kerr’s smartphone tale Mummy Time due in September

Judith Kerr’s next picture book, Mummy Time, will be published by HarperCollins Children’s Books in the UK in September, the publisher’s head of rights Carla Alonzi has told The Bookseller Daily.

Set in a park, the book is about the adventures a small child has when his mother is distracted by her phone. It has already attracted "considerable" interest from overseas publishers, as has HarperCollins’ publishing around the 50th anniversary of Kerr’s The Tiger Who Came to Tea, said Alonzi.

The publisher has struck several foreign rights deals for new authors, accepting an Italian pre-empt for Anna James’ Pages & Co trilogy before the fair. Publishers in France and Germany are bidding for début author/illustrator John Bond’s Mini Rabbit picture book series, which HC signed earlier this month.

Alonzi said the publisher also had one of its "busiest ever auctions in Germany" for Dominique Valente’s Starfell series, and that publishers at Bologna were "very excited" about Michael Morpurgo’s latest, Flamingo Boy, which has already sold in multiple territories, including France, Italy and Japan.