Walker Books snaps up Katie Clapham and Nadia Shireen's 'laugh-out-loud' picture book

Walker Books has snapped up The Tour, a "laugh-out-loud" picture book by bookseller Katie Clapham and illustrator Nadia Shireen.

Editorial director Maria Tunney acquired world rights for the text from Louise Lamont at LBA, and bought the illustrations from Jo Unwin at the Jo Unwin Literary Agency. The book will be published in July 2025 in the UK by Walker Books and in North America by Walker Books’ sister company, Candlewick Press.

"The Tour is a book for new kids, nervous kids, first-day-at-school kids, starting-nursery kids and any kid who wants to know how they can create a safe and welcoming space for others. It’s a laugh-out-loud rollercoaster tour around a new school, with special highlights including the wonderfully echoey toilets, the library with its one million books, and the pet fish, Barry (may he rest in peace).

"Assistant art director Marty Cleary has worked closely with Nadia Shireen to complement Katie Clapham’s lively text with illustrations that are bursting with joy and humour, creating a witty new picture book guaranteed to have readers in stitches."

Clapham is the co-owner of the independent bookshop Storytellers, Inc. in Lytham St. Annes, Lancashire, while Shireen has been making picture books since 2010, when her debut Good Little Wolf (Jonathan Cape) was shortlisted for the Waterstones Children’s Book Prize. Shireen has also won the UKLA Book Award twice, and she is the co-presenter "The Island of Brilliant" podcast, alongside screenwriter Frank Cottrell-Boyce.

Clapham said: “I wrote this story in lockdown when I was obsessively watching Fran Lebowitz walking around New York on Netflix. I knew I could channel her funny anecdote-filled narration into a tiny tour guide character who I could really have some fun with. For that story to be illustrated by the Nadia Shireen — an illustrator I’ve long admired — as my debut picture book with Walker is genuinely a dream come true. I couldn’t be more excited for The Tour to become a book with a bear on the spine.”

Shireen added: “When I first clapped eyes on The Tour, I knew it was very special indeed. Not many texts make me laugh out loud, and I was immediately struck by the originality, wit and authenticity of Katie’s voice. I’m over the moon to be working with the Walker team, who I have long admired, and really hope everyone enjoys taking The Tour as much as I have.”

Tunney added: “It is rare to laugh out loud when reading a picture book story — it just doesn’t happen very often. But Katie is, naturally, a very, very funny writer. She inherently understands small children — their wit, their syntax, their weirdness, but also their kindness and their generosity of spirit — and she embraces it all. The Tour is a text brimming with personality, and it could only ever be matched by Nadia’s brilliant visual humour and pitch-perfect visual storytelling."