DK moves into middle grade fiction with Cornelia Funke’s The Green Kingdom 

DK is moving into middle grade fiction, acquiring Cornelia Funke’s The Green Kingdom.  

Children’s publisher Francesca Young acquired UK and Commonwealth volume, e-book and audiobook rights from Jenny Savill at Andrew Nurnberg Associates. The Green Kingdom will publish in hardback in April 2025 with the paperback following a year later. 

The Green Kingdom was co-written by Tammi Hartung, an ethnobotanical herbalist and organic farmer with more than 40 years of experience working with plants and translated from German by Anna Funke. 

It tells the story of 12-year-old Caspia who has to spend the entire summer with her parents in Brooklyn. “She hates big cities, especially New York – too many people, too loud, too dirty”, the publisher said. “When she discovers mysterious, old letters from a girl who travelled the world with her botanist father, each one opening with a puzzle, Caspia soon finds herself on a quest to solve them all.” 

Young said: “Cornelia’s publishing is world renowned and I, like so many, have loved escaping to her magical worlds time and time again. The opportunity to bring Cornelia onto the list wasn’t one I was going to miss. As DK builds its children’s fiction list it felt like the perfect match to have such an internationally renowned author here with us and we can’t wait for the world to be just as captivated by Caspia’s adventures as we are.” 

Funke added: "The books of DK Publishing have been glorious companions since I was able to read books in English and I am happy that one of my books will now be part of this publishing programme. I very much hope it won’t be the last collaboration.”