S&S Children's scoops two Poskitt and Willmore titles

Simon & Schuster has acquired the third title in The Runaway Pea series by Kjartan Poskitt and illustrator Alex Willmore, in addition to an untitled picture book.

Polly Whybrow, senior commissioning editor, bought world rights for Poskitt’s text from Marilyn Malin at the Marilyn Malin Consultancy, and artwork by Willmore from Alice Larsson at Astound.

She said: "I am absolutely over the moon to be expanding The Runaway Pea brand. Kjartan’s unique sense of humour taps right into the heart of children’s imagination; pair that with Alex’s gloriously anarchic illustrations which positively bristle with life and energy, and you have the most joyful explosion of creativity, sure to reach even very reluctant of readers. It is a complete delight to have them on the list."

The third title in the series, The Runaway Pea Left Behind, will be published in July 2021, with the second book in the contract scheduled for 2022.

Kjartan Poskitt has sold 324,560 books for £1.51m, with his bestseller The Gobsmacking Galaxy at 31,046 copies sold (since 1998), though Nielsen BookScan's UK Total Consumer Market.

The Runaway Pea [the first title in the series] has been selected for the BookTrust 2020 Time to Read campaign, it was announced today, and this will see a copy going to every child in reception and year one in England and Northern Ireland later this year.