Puffin scoops funny new fantasy series from author and agent Sam Copeland

Puffin has acquired a new series from Sam Copeland, a literary agent at RCW, who is also the author of the Charlie Changes into a Chicken series.

Fiction publisher Ben Horslen acquired world rights in three books from Julia Churchill at A M Heath, with the first book—Alex vs Axel—set to be published in February 2024.

The publisher describes the new middle-grade trilogy as combining “laugh out loud humour and huge heart”. Alex vs Axel tells the story of Alex, a normal everyday kid living in a normal everyday city, and Axel, a monster-slaying hero, living in a world of magic.

Its synopsis continues: “Unfortunately, they look exactly the same. So when the boys mysteriously swap places, each of them ends up being mistaken for the other. With zero knowledge of dragon hunting and a very real aversion to danger, Alex is thrust into an epic quest to defeat the evil Master of Flies, Felonius Gloam, who has stolen the Book of Lifetales and is using it to unravel the very fabric of the world of Aerth.

“Axel’s chances aren’t much better. Faced with double maths, a grandma who’s six months behind on the rent, and a crucial chess tournament he’s expected to win, his ‘decapitate first, ask questions later’ strategy isn’t yielding the best results. Can the two boys complete their impossible quests and find their way back to their own lives, or will they each discover they don’t have a life to come back to?"

Copeland, whose books have been shortlisted for the Waterstones Children’s Book Prize and translated into 26 languages, said: “I’m over the moon to be doing more books with Puffin. This is the book I have been thinking about for 20 years. Creating two worlds and two groups of characters has been the most rewarding challenge of my writing career to date, and I’m so excited for people to read it.”

Horslen said: “From the moment Sam pitched me Alex and Axel’s story, I was hooked. Packed with belly-laughs, spiced with heart-tugging moments of perfectly judged emotion and crowned with a talking dog, this is classic Copeland. I can’t wait for readers to meet this unlikely pairing next year.”