Hachette scoops award-winner Pang's first children's book

Hachette Children’s Group will publish Perfectly Weird, Perfectly You: A Scientific Guide to Growing Up, the debut children’s book from Dr Camilla Pang, the youngest person and first writer of colour to win the Royal Society Science Book Prize.

Laura Horsley, editorial director, signed the deal for world rights with Adam Gauntlett at Peters, Fraser and Dunlop. It will be published in paperback, e-book and audio on 17th March 2022 on the Wren & Rook imprint.

Perfectly Weird, Perfectly You: A Scientific Guide to Growing Up will draw on Pang's experiences of growing up being autistic, and will aim to teach children to grow up with the courage to be themselves. Readers will learn that finding their confidence is a lot like programming a computer, that understanding photosynthesis can teach them about following their passions, and that peer pressure and Isaac Newton have more in common than they might think. It will be illustrated throughout by Laurene Boglio.

Horsley said: “Camilla is seriously impressive, and as the youngest-ever person to win the Royal Society Prize, she is a role model to young people everywhere. Her debut children’s book doesn’t disappoint. Encouraging, supportive, comforting, sometimes hilarious and 100% unique, it’s a growing-up guide like no other, and we are delighted to be publishing it."

Pang commented: "We are all born scientists, and our curiosity is the compass to our journey. It is an absolute honour to write this book, which marks the milestones of my childhood. I hope it will inspire many more children to come. This is the first step."

Pang holds a PhD in Biochemistry from University College London and is a postdoctoral scientist specialising in translational bioinformatics. At the age of eight, she was diagnosed with Autistic Spectrum Disorder; at 26 years old, she was diagnosed with ADHD. She is the author of Explaining Humans (Viking), which won her the Royal Society Science Book Prize last year.