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Hachette Children’s Group has acquired two “page-turning, dual-perspective YA murder mystery” thrillers from Self-Esteem Team founders Nadia Mendoza and Grace Francis.
Polly Lyall Grant, senior commissioning editor, acquired world rights from Chloe Seager at Madeleine Milburn. The debut fiction title, Friends Don’t Tell, will be published in paperback and e-book in June 2022. The second title is set for publication in July 2023. Both books will be published under the Hodder Children’s Books imprint.
The publisher explained: “Friends Don’t Tell centres around a death which takes place during a music festival. Nadia and Grace were inspired by the numerous festivals they have attended together. Told in alternating chapters in characters Jade and Lexi’s voices, Friends Don’t Tell twists and turns through the past and the present as Lexi desperately tries to make sense of her best friend’s death. Readers will be desperate for Jade and Lexi to survive, even though they know only one makes it home alive."
Grant said: "Nadia and Grace have an exceptional ability to pull you into the minds of two teenage girls as they explore freedom for the first time at a festival—it’s this cocktail of heady festival fun, coupled with nail-biting whodunit tension that makes for such compelling reading. I know teens will devour this book, and I am thrilled to be launching Nadia and Grace into the YA thriller space with it."
Francis is a musician who, in 2020, launched I Am Ally, which provides anti-racist support for schools. Mendoza is a journalist and editor who has written for a number of UK tabloid newspapers. Together, they founded Self-Esteem Team, a company delivering emotional and lifestyle education to students, parents and teachers.
The authors said: “The writing has been cathartic, joyful and a roller-coaster—we hope the reading is too!”