Faber Children’s secures début picture book on feelings from Christou

Faber Children’s has secured Blue, a “beautiful and stylish” picture book about coping with worries from début author and illustrator Sarah Christou. 

Alice Swan, editorial director, acquired world rights directly from the author. Blue will be published on 16th January 2023. 

The publisher wrote: “An important post-pandemic book for children who spent their formative years in lockdown and missed out on socialisation with their peers, Blue deals with the universal theme of ‘Big Feelings’ and how to handle them, in a stylish colour palette that will comfort young readers.” 

Christou commented: “Blue is a story inspired by a younger me experiencing big and difficult emotions and not knowing how to handle them. My hope is that children will love the story but also recognise themselves in the main character and know it’s okay to share our feelings, even the sad ones. Blue is a very personal project and I’m so pleased that Faber will be publishing it. Ever since winning the FAB Prize in 2019 they’ve taken me under their wing and encouraged me to develop as a writer and illustrator. I feel like I’m part of the Faber family and I’m working with people I trust.” 

Swan added: “Sarah Christou is a very impressive new talent. She manages to hold so much emotional depth in each image, tackling big themes with a light touch. Her characters are super friendly – even Blue the monster – and will bring so much comfort to young readers. We are thrilled to welcome this award-winning début author/illustrator to our list.”