Farshore lands 'sparklingly funny' debut picture book by Dawson

Farshore has landed a “sparklingly funny” debut picture book from Juno Dawson, illustrated by Laura Hughes. 

Melissa Fairley, publishing director, bought world rights to You Need to Chill from Sallyanne Sweeney at MBA Creative. Tiffany Leeson, creative director, acquired illustration rights from Arabella Stein at the Bright Agency. It will publish in September.   

The publisher said: “You Need to Chill is a witty and fun-filled rhyming story about family, identity and allyship. When Bill can’t be found at school one day, the imaginations of the other children run wild. Is he on holiday? Is he lost in the park? Has he been eaten by a shark?! It’s up to Bill’s sister to explain…” 

Dawson said: “You Need to Chill came about very organically: someone asked me how I’d talk about being trans to the younger sibling of a trans teen and it went from there. When I was a Year 1 teacher, I loved anarchic, colourful, rhyming texts that the kids could scream along with at the top of their lungs! I feel honestly very excited that I can be part of primary school life again!’ 

Dawson won the YA Book Prize 2020 and is also writing epic supernatural series Her Majesty’s Royal Coven for Farshore’s sister company HarperVoyager, with the first book publishing in the summer.  

Fairley said: “With her brilliantly funny, pitch-perfect book, Juno Dawson encourages conversations around allyship for the youngest children, with exuberant illustrations from Laura Hughes. We are so proud to launch this exciting author and illustrator pairing and bring Juno’s picture book debut to the Farshore list.” 

Leeson added: “We all absolutely loved Laura’s colourful, energetic illustrations. She manages to capture just the right level of sassiness and fun into her characters, with lots of little details and interactions all the way through the story.”