Macmillan Children's tees up Smith's latest festive foray
Author/illustrator Alex T Smith is to write another festive-themed title for Macmillan Children’s Books, a “heartwarming and unlikely” story which promises to be like a mash-up of A Christmas Carol and Germanic fairytale the Krampus.
MCB’s editorial director for non-fiction and poetry Gaby Morgan and senior editor for fiction and non-fiction Cate Augustin snapped up world rights to The Grumpus from Tamlyn Francis at Arena Illustration.
The story is part-inspired by the Krampus and features “a loveable anti-hero, who doesn’t really like anybody, or anything at all really”, the Grumpus. But the Grumpus particularly does not like Christmas and hatches a plan to go to the North Pole and stop it. But on his journey the Grumpus meets some friends, and might soon learn the true meaning of Christmas.
Smith said: "The Grumpus is essentially my riff on A Christmas Carol – a mean and unhappy character is changed over the course of three acts to understand the spirit of Christmas. But I hope readers will take more than just that; I wanted with this book to consider how people (or in this case Grumpuses) can change if only they are treated without judgement.”
MCB previously published Smith’s festive hits, How Winston Delivered Christmas in 2018 and its follow-up, How Winston Came Home for Christmas, last year. The two titles have combined to shift just under 40,000 units through BookScan UK and MCB has said they have shifted 150,000 copies worldwide. Both titles have been sold into 14 languages.
All told, Smith has sold £2.5m through Nielsen, led by his Hachette Children’s Group-published Claude titles which have been adapted for an animated series on Disney Jr.
