OUP snaps up QI producer's debut children's series

Oxford University Press has snapped up rights to QI assistant producer Anne Miller's debut children's series, with illustrations by Becka Moor. 

Senior commissioning editor for children’s books Clare Whitston acquired world rights for Mickey and the Animal Spies and the next two books in the series from LBA’s Louise Lamont. Mickey and the Animals Spies will be published in the UK in February 2020, with books two and three coming in August 2020 and February 2021.
 
"Mickey is the whipsmart heroine of the series, with a love of code-cracking," said OUP. "When she solves a coded message on the bus home one day, she is recruited by a Top Secret spy ring like no other. COBRA is an organisation run by a band of eccentric animal spies to protect this country in ways that humans can’t even think of."

Miller said: "Mickey and the Animal Spies combines three of my favourite things - animals, spy stories and puzzles - and it is beyond my wildest dreams to work on the series with the brilliant team at Oxford University Press."

Whitston added: "I always wanted to be a spy when I was a kid and I loved animals, so this debut series from the indomitable Anne Miller is a double whammy in the wish fulfilment stakes. With codes to crack and mysteries to solve, Anne really knows how to keep a reader on their toes/paws/tail. There's never a mystery that the Animal Spies can't solve and remember: they have ways of making you squawk!"

Miller is a scriptwriter and assistant producer for QI, the co-author of 2,024 QI Facts To Stop You In Your Tracks (Faber) and produces Radio Four’s "The Museum of Curiosity". Mickey and the Animal Spies is her debut book for children. Moor is a children’s book illustrator who has worked on a variety of picture books, fiction and non fiction, including Enid Blyton’s Famous Five and the Wigglesbottom Primary series written by Pamela Butchart (Nosy Crow).