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Bloomsbury Children’s wins Holly Bourne’s debut picture book illustrated by Ella Okstad
Bloomsbury Children’s has signed the “heartwarming” debut picture book from Holly Bourne, illustrated by Ella Okstad.
Editorial director Pari Thomson won world all-language rights for the text in a “heated” auction from Rachel Yeoh on behalf of Madeleine Milburn. Illustration rights were acquired from Paul Moreton at Bell Lomax Moreton. The Long Way Home is due for publication in February 2026.
The Long Way Home “celebrates the joys and challenges of family life”, following Ivy and her new baby brother, Joel.
The synopsis continues: “Joel is super cute – but he does not like to sleep! He will only nap in his buggy while it’s moving... which means that Mummy and Ivy go on lots of really long walks. Ivy always gets to have a strawberry glitter cupcake afterwards – but today’s walk includes all sorts of noisy things that threaten to wake up Baby Joel. Will Ivy get her cupcake? And will Mummy ever get to rest?”
“When I became a mother, I had a baby who hated sleep so much that one sleep expert we hired offered us a refund,” said Bourne. “I found myself deliriously pushing a buggy around town, clocking more than 20,000 steps a day, as that’s the only way I could get them to nap, and everything could get ruined by a loud busker or passing skateboarder. I met so many other mums along the paths of my town, also going through the same desperate step-count in an attempt to get their babies to sleep. On one of those marathon buggy walks, the story of The Long Way Home came to me, and I started drafting and redrafting the manuscript in the tiny amounts of time I had to myself. It was a little project to give me something to think about (other than how exhausted I was) and having it get published by Bloomsbury is beyond my wildest dreams.”
Okstad added: “I’m so excited to be working with Holly and Bloomsbury on this incredibly sweet and funny story. Like Ivy, I now have a glitter cupcake every day after some doodling and a long walk.”
