Little Island sells Grehan novel to Houghton Mifflin Harcourt

Irish press Little Island Books has sold North American rights to Houghton Mifflin Harcourt for Meg Grehan’s The Deepest Breath.

The middle-grade verse novel is about an 11-year-old girl, Stevie, coming to understand that she has feelings towards her female friend, Chloe. 

Little Island said: “This is a sensitive, warm and reassuring book told in lyrical but accessible language which covers an important topic which is under-represented in middle grade literature.”

Rights were sold with the help of the BookStop Literary Agency following a meeting at this year’s Bologna Children's Book Fair. It will be published in the US in 2020.

Grehan is the author of one previous book, The Space Between (Little Island), a novel for older teens that won the Eilís Dillon Award for a debut at the Children’s Book Ireland awards in 2018.