Gallery Kids snaps up middle-grade series from rapping 'sensation' MC Grammar

Gallery Kids has snapped up the middle-grade series from "viral rapping social media sensation" and World Book Day ambassador Jacob Mitchell, also known as MC Grammar. 

Editorial director Yasmin Morrissey acquired world all language rights in a three-book deal from Liz Hadley and Ashley O’Kane at Okley Management. The Adventures of Rap Kid, the first book in the series, will be published in paperback May 2025. 

The series follows a boy called Z who rhymes every times he speaks. The synopsis continues: " As a toddler no one really noticed, but at school, things soon started to change. Taking the register, answering questions in class, the dreaded school lunch queue, the Christmas nativity, Show and Tell… You name it: when Z speaks, it always rhymes… Trouble deepens when Z is unexpectedly given a speaking part in his class assembly. That’s when everything goes downhill… r does it?!" 

MC Grammar is a persona created by Mitchell, also a teacher, who went viral in 2019 after a video of him rapping Julia Donaldson’s The Gruffalo received over five million views.

He commented: "From reading books to my class and children, to rapping them on social media and now writing my own. I can’t wait to now share the epic adventures of Rap Kid to get more and more kids hooked on books and the magic of reading."

Morrissey added: "No-one brings books and reading to life like MC Grammar. The children at arena shows adore him, and we need more people like Jacob to advocate for reading, its benefits and rewards. We’re proud at Gallery Kids to be bringing empowering and entertaining fiction to market with MC Grammar, and Rap Kid is the perfect character to champion the power of words to young readers."