Bloomsbury Children's nabs four 'blockbuster fiction titles' ahead of Frankfurt 

Bloomsbury Children’s Books has nabbed four YA, teen and middle-grade books, which its rights and international sales teams will be presenting to publishers at Frankfurt Book Fair.

First to publish in paper in June 2024 will be debut author Helen Comerford’s The Love Interest, described as a "swoony, speculative and entirely electric YA" satirising the conventions of the "superhero-verse". Carla Hutchinson, previously commissioning editor at Bloomsbury, acquired world all-language rights from Christabel McKinley at David Higham Associates.

Comerford said: "Debuting with Bloomsbury Children’s Books is a dream come true. The team have been so generous and their passion for my swoony, ridiculous tale of superheroes and self determination has pushed The Love Interest to new heights."

Bloomsbury Children’s also seized Chibundu Onuzo’s middle-grade novel Mayowa and the Sea of Words. Editorial director Hannah Sandford acquired world rights in all languages (excluding Gambia, Ghana, Liberia, Nigeria, Sierra Leone and Cameroon) from Georgina Capel at Georgina Capel Associates Ltd.

The first title in a "dazzlingly imaginative" adventure trilogy, the book tells the story of "one girl’s power to change the world through the magic of book-jumping". It will be published in the UK in hardback in June 2024 and simultaneously publish in paperback for export markets, with the paperback for the UK following in 2025.

Onuzo is already an established adult author and her most recent book, Sankofa (Virago) was a Reese Witherspoon’s Book Club choice. She said: "In this book, Mayowa discovers how books can change the world. Words can make things and words can break things. Bloomsbury, which has published so many iconic books, is the natural home for the Mayowa series."

Also to Bloomsbury is contemporary teen rom-com Taylor Blake Is a Legend by Laura Jane Williams. Hutchinson acquired UK and Commonwealth plus translation rights from Ella Kahn at Diamond Kahn & Woods Literary Agency.

Williams is the author of seven adult novels and her work has been translated into a dozen languages, with TV rights in development for her debut novel, Our Stop (HarperCollins). Her debut teen series, which tells the "hilarious and heartfelt" story of Taylor Blake, will publish in paperback in July 2024.

Williams commented: "I am truly beside myself to have Taylor Blake in the capable, creative hands of Bloomsbury Children’s. The team made me feel so very welcome, and I can’t wait to have Taylor Blake Is a Legend in the hands of every young teen who needs to feel like being the main character in the adventure of their own life is not only okay, but absolutely encouraged."

Finally, Bloomsbury has acquired Katya Balen’s Ghostlines, a standalone novel about "home and what defines it for us". This is the first book on a new two-book contract that sees Bloomsbury controlling rights in Balen’s upper-middle-grade writing for the first time. Head of fiction Ellen Holgate acquired world rights in all languages from Catherine Clarke at Felicity Bryan Associates. Ghostlines will publish in hardback in September 2024, with the illustrator soon to be announced.

The author has written multiple books for children, including The Space We’re In (Bloomsbury Children’s), The Light in Everything (Bloomsbury Children’s) and October, October (Bloomsbury Children’s), which won the Yoto Carnegie Medal and the UKLA Book Award. Barney Duly, children’s rights director, said: "It’s a huge privilege to be selling rights to a writer of Katya Balen’s calibre and reputation. Ghostlines is a very special book and we can’t wait to share it with our friends across the globe."