Walker Books lands K-Pop inspired children’s début from Women’s Prize-longlisted Goldie

Walker Books is to publish Women’s Prize for Fiction longlistee Luan Goldie’s first book for children, a K-Pop-inspired, “laugh-out-loud body-swap adventure”.  

Walker publisher Denise Johnstone-Burt and senior editor Megan Middleton acquired world rights in Skylar and the K-Pop Headteacher, and another title, from Eve White at the Eve White Literary Agency. Skylar... is slated for a March 2024 release, with the second book to follow in 2025.

Skylar and the K-Pop Headteacher is centred on K-Pop-obsessed child Skylar, who inexplicably switches bodies with her super strict 71-year-old headteacher, Ms Callus. Hilarity ensues, with a dancing headteacher gone viral and school rules thrown out the window as Skylar "figures out whether her K-Pop dream come true is worth risking being stuck as an old lady forever". 

Former primary school teacher Goldie’s debut novel, Nightingale Point (HQ), was longlisted for the Women’s Prize and the RSL Ondaatje Prize in 2020 and has recently been chosen as one of the titles for World Book Night 2023. She is also the author of Homecoming and These Streets (both HQ). In 2018 she won the Costa Short Story Award and is a First Story Writer-in-Residence, working with young people in Tower Hamlets.

Johnstone-Burt said: "From her very first sentence, [Goldie] transports us into a joyfully kooky and hilarious adventure of K-Pop fandom and unreasonable grown-ups. [She] really is a terrific talent, bursting with ideas and a true master of voice. Children are going to love her fabulously fun story about being true to yourself and following your dreams.”