Scholastic to bring Callender's Hurricane Child to UK

Scholastic UK has acquired UK and Commonwealth rights to Kacen Callender's Hurricane Child, with publication slated for June 2021. 

The deal was struck between Scholastic UK executive editor Linas Alsenas from Beth Phelan and Ellen Greenberg at the Gallt & Zacker Literary Agency. 

The middle-grade novel was originally published by Scholastic US in 2018 and follows 12-year-old Caroline Murphy, who was born during a hurricane and has continued to have bad luck since. She's hated and bullied by everyone in her small school on St Thomas of the US Virgin Islands and a spirit only she can see won't stop following her. When Kalinda arrives from Barbados, Caroline's luck begins to change. She must confront her feelings for Kalinda as they both set out in a hurricane to find Caroline's missing mother. 

The title won a Stonewall Book Award, Lambda Literary Award and a National Book Award. 

Callender is also the author of middle-grade title King and the Dragonflies (Scholastic, 2020), YA novels This is an Epic Kind of Love Story (HarperCollins, 2020) and transgender coming-of-age tale Felix Ever After (Faber & Faber, 2020), as well as adult novels Queen of the Conquered (Little, Brown, 2020) and King of the Rising (Little Brown, 2020). 

Alsenas says: “Kacen Callender is one of the most exciting talents writing children’s books today, and they have the awards to prove it! I’m over the moon that Scholastic is publishing a second middle-grade novel by them here in the UK, putting this gut-twisting, powerful story into the hands of young readers all across the country. This book blew me away, and I guarantee that anyone who reads it won’t soon forget Caroline Murphy.”

Callender commented: "It’s an honour for my first book, my first love, to find an even wider audience of readers, and I couldn’t be more thrilled that Hurricane Child’s home will be with Scholastic UK.”