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Firefly has signed two middle-grade translations from award-winning Welsh language author Manon Steffan Ros.
Penny Thomas, publisher at the children’s and YA indie, acquired world English rights from Christopher Combemale at Sterling Lord Literistic. Feather (Pluen) and Me and Aaron Ramsay (Fi ac Aaron Ramsay) are due to publish in 2024.
The acquisition follows Firefly’s publication of Ros’ YA title The Blue Book of Nebo (Llyfr Glas Nebo) this January. That book won in three categories of the 2019 Wales Book of the Year Award and also took the 2018 National Eisteddfod Prose Medal.
“The Blue Book of Nebo is a stunningly beautiful novel in English as I’m sure it is in Welsh,” said Thomas. “I have absolutely no doubt that Feather and Me and Aaron Ramsay will be terrific additions to our list too. We are very excited and feel privileged to be bringing more titles from Manon Steffan Ros to an English language readership with these two much-praised middle-grade novels.”
The publisher said of the first book: “Exploring themes of friendship, family bonds and the history of conscientious objection in the Second World War, Feather is both modern and historical. Huw always pops in to see his nan on the way home from school – she bakes him cakes and never fusses about his homework. And so it’s a great shock when, one day, Nan forgets his name, and calls him Hywel – the long-unmentionable name of her late brother. As Nan slowly slips into the grip of dementia, Huw and his friends go on a quest to learn more about Hywel and what happened to him.” The Welsh language original version, Pluen, won the Tir na n’Og in 2017.
Me and Aaron Ramsey, meanwhile, tells the story of Sam and his dad who both love football, which is always there for them however tough real life becomes, until Dad’s dreams of football stardom go horribly wrong. It’s a story about hope, and about the complicated and often fractious relationship between father and son when the one interest they share is taken away from them.
“I’m so excited to be joining the Firefly family once again to publish the adaptations of novels that are very close to my heart,” said Ros.