You are viewing your 1 free article this month. Login to read more articles.
Hachette Children’s Group bags ‘taboo-breaking’ YA debut Sh!t Bag from Knox
Hachette Children’s Group has acquired Sh!t Bag, a “taboo-breaking” YA debut from author Xena Knox “full of dark, ‘Fleabag’-style humour” and inspired by the author’s experience with an ostomy bag.
Harriet Wilson, publisher of fiction brands and classics, secured world rights alongside film and TV rights in a two-book deal made with Jo Williamson at Antony Harwood.
Publishing in paperback, e-book and audio on 22nd June 2023, Sh!t Bag is described by the publisher as a “ground-breaking story representing Freya’s experience of a hidden disability with honesty and humour".
The synopsis outlines: “When 16-year-old Freya collapses and wakes with a temporary ileostomy bag on her stomach, her dreams of the perfect summer go down the toilet. Instead of partying with the hockey team in the Algarve, she’s packed off to ‘Poo Camp’ – a bowel disease wilderness retreat. Could things get any worse?"
“Yes. Yes, they can. Someone has started the nickname ‘Sh!t Bag’… and it’s catching on. So Freya decides to embody her nickname, raging at her friends, her ex, and even her new campmate – Chris, who isn’t fooled by her new attitude. Can Freya get her sh!t together or will she end up with only her bag by her side?
“Sh!t Bag is a fresh, fierce and sharply funny YA novel drawing directly from Xena’s own experience navigating her teenage years with an ostomy bag.”
Knox said: “It’s time to openly and humorously discuss the last taboo of poo (bags), while representing teens living with such things as being attractive, desirable and even sporty. Ostomies aren’t ‘dirty little secrets’. They’re life-saving, life enhancing and liberating, and sometimes they simply provide hilarity when things blow up, blow off and turn to sh!t.”
Wilson commented: “I first read Sh!t Bag five years ago, but, at the time, it felt impossible to publish in the way that it deserved. But Xena’s fierce, flawed, outspoken heroine stayed with me. When I joined Hachette Children’s Group I knew this was the time and the team to publish this taboo-breaking story. The conversation around hidden disabilities has progressed in five years, but my passionate hope is that Sh!t Bag will be the catalyst for the next leap forward.”
