Hachette Children's signs new instalment in Kes Gray & Jim Field's 'super-selling' series

Hachette Children’s has signed a new instalment in Kes Gray and Jim Field’s Oi Frog! series with Oi Dinosaurs! 

Group trade publisher Emma Blackburn acquired world rights for the text from Anne McNeil at Anne McNeil Creative and for illustrations from Jodie Hodges at United Agents. Polly Whybrow, editorial director for picture books, will publish Oi Dinosaurs! in autumn 2024. 

This year also marks the 10-year anniversary of Oi Frog! and Hachette Children’s will publish an anniversary edition of the picture book on 11th April 2024. 

Oi Dinosaurs! will see the return of frog, cat and dog with "oodles of prehistoric rhyming" in a "roaring" new story. 

McNeil said: "I published the uniquely brilliant Kes Gray’s first picture book in 2000 and have been lucky to work with him since, so bringing a new Oi book to market as his agent is a true joy and privilege. Oi has earned its place as a children’s super-selling classic series."

Gray commented: "It has long been my mission to take Oi somewhere new. It will be an absolute jOi! to bring dinosaurs, prehistoric animals and some stone age seating arrangements to the shelves!" 

Field added: "As it’s 10 years since Oi Frog! published, this felt like the right year to bring back the rhyme-seating-obsessed trio. Having rhymed and drawn more animals than David Attenborough’s back catalogue, we thought where better to go than back in time, 100 million years or so, to see when the ‘Oirigins’ of seating really began."