THE OTHER ONES by Fran Hart is a brilliantly wrought mixture of queer romance and spooky shenanigans, as two very different boys find themselves drawn to each other against the background of ghostly goings-on in a creepy old house. Think HEARTSTOPPER meets THE HAUNTING OF HILL HOUSE. We are representing the rights on behalf of Chicken House – you can read more about the title here.
Sal hates standing out. But he lives in a haunted house – and everybody knows it. His oldest friend, Dirk, tries to help… but he wants to stay popular, and Sal isn’t helping. Elsie was popular – until recently. Now she’s on the outcast’s table too… and she doesn’t want to talk about it.
Then there’s the new boy, Pax, who won’t leave Sal alone. His idea of a good time is hanging out in graveyards. And, for some reason, Sal just can’t stay away. Meet The Other Ones. Can they banish their ghosts together?
Fran is a writer and graphic designer from West Yorkshire, who loves bringing new ideas to life. After studying English Literature for a year at university, she changed disciplines and went on to graduate with a BA in Graphic Design. Fran wrote her first novel for NaNoWriMo in November 2019 and it went on to win The Chairman’s Choice Award in The Times/Chicken House Competition 2020, gaining Fran representation by The Shaw Agency and a publishing deal with Chicken House. THE OTHER ONES published on 13th October 2022.
JAMIE is an uplifting standalone novel set in contemporary England which tackles themes of bravery, acceptance and chosen family. It’s also interesting to note that the novel provides an accessible introduction into what being non-binary means, with definitions provided in Jamie’s narrative voice after certain chapters, explaining terms associated with LGBTQ+. Lapinski has previously written the STRANGEWORLDS trilogy, the most successful middle-grade debut series published in lockdown. JAMIE will be published by Hachette Children’s in April 2023. You can check out the bookseller announcement here.
Jamie Rambeau is a happy 11-year-old non-binary kid who likes nothing better than hanging out with their two best friends Daisy and Ash. But when the trio find out that in Year Seven they will be separated into one school for boys and another for girls, their friendship suddenly seems at risk. And when Jamie realises no one has thought about where they are going to go, they decide to take matters into their own hands, and sort it all out once and for all.
As the friends’ efforts to raise awareness eventually become a rooftop protest against the binary rules for the local schools, Jamie realises that if they don’t figure out a way forwards, they might be at risk of losing both their friends forever.
L.D. Lapinski lives just outside Sherwood Forest with their family, a lot of books, and a cat called Hector. L.D. first wrote a book aged seven; it was made of lined paper and Sellotape, and it was about a frog who owned an aeroplane. When L.D. grows up, they want to be a free-range guinea pig farmer. They have an MA in Creative Writing, and when not working, L. D. can be found online, usually talking about Spider-Man. Their first series, THE STRANGEWORLDS TRAVEL AGENCY, is out now from Hachette Children’s Group. Lapinski is represented by Claire Wilson at RCW Literary Agency.
IF YOU STILL RECOGNISE ME is an epic, evocative queer romance that is also a heartfelt love letter to comics and storytelling. It is a lyrical, contemporary story that feels incredibly poignant in light of the wonderful response to Alice Oseman’s HEARTSTOPPER, and the positive impact it is having for young queer people.
Elsie has a crush on Ada, the only person in the world who truly understands her. Unfortunately, they’ve never met in real life and Ada lives an ocean away. But Elsie has decided it’s now or never to tell Ada how she feels. That is, until her long-lost best friend Joan walks back into her life.
In a summer of repairing broken connections and building surprising new ones, Elsie realises that she isn’t nearly as alone as she thought. But now she has a choice to make…
Cynthia So was born in Hong Kong and lives in London. They graduated from the University of Oxford with a BA in Classics in 2016. Their work has appeared in Uncanny, Strange Horizons and Cast of Wonders, among other places. They are also one of the new voices in PROUD, an anthology of LGBTQ+ YA stories, poems and art by LGBTQ+ creators, published by Stripes in March 2019.
WILDER THAN MIDNIGHT is an empowering story of companionship and unlikely alliances, which pitches a trio of very different girls into a desperate mission to save the village of Silverthorne. It is a bold and evocative new novel, which celebrates difference and found family.
Silverthorne is a place of secrets. A forest of twisting paths and tangled thorns. A castle with locked towers and whispers of tragedy. A village trapped between terrors known and unknown. But something is stirring in the leaves…
Saffy is a good girl, tired of being told to stick to the forest paths, and always follow the rules.
Aurelia is a hidden girl, locked in a castle tower, dreaming of escaping the fate she’s told awaits her.
Wild Rose is a fierce girl, raised by wolves, full of spells and fearlessness and cunning.
Together, they will change life in Silverthorne forever.
Cerrie Burnell is an actress and writer best known for her work on CBeebies, a role that has earned her critical recognition and a devoted fan base. Alongside this she works very closely with a number of charitable organisations linked to childhood and diversity, subjects Cerrie is passionate about. In 2011 Cerrie was named in the Observer’s top ten children’s presenters and in the Guardian’s list of 100 most inspirational women. Cerrie is author in residence for Great Ormond Street hospital and a patron of Polka children’s theatre. She trained at Manchester Metropolitan and her credits prior to CBeebies include Eastenders, The Bill, Holby City, and Comedy Lab for Channel Four and various plays, including Winged, an original play she wrote and starred in at the Tristan Bates theatre. Cerrie’s one woman show The Magical Playroom opened in Edinburgh in 2013 and she has published seven books for children with Scholastic. Harper And The Sea of Secrets was a world book day title in 2016. Cerrie adapted her picture book Snowflakes for the stage, which was performed at the Oxford Playhouse in December 2016.
Cerrie is represented for books by Claire Wilson at RCW Literary Agency, and WILDER THAN MIDNIGHT is published on 28th April 2022.
FIVE SURVIVE is a US-based YA thriller set in real-time, as 6 friends travel across the states in an RV for Spring Break. And yes, you guessed it … only five survive. Have you been watching YELLOWJACKETS? It will be published in US by Delacorte Press in November 2022; UK rights are with Farshore at Harper Collins, with a publication date to be announced soon.
FIVE SURVIVE begins at 10:00 p.m. It follows a group of six friends as they travel across the states in an RV for Spring Break. But when one of their tires blows out on a remote, dirt road, the group soon realize that there is a sniper out there in the dark, shooting at them. They are trapped. A game of cat-and-mouse plays out across eight hours as the group desperately tries to escape, and to figure out which one of them is the target. Buried secrets are forced to light in the cramped, claustrophobic setting of the RV, and tensions within the group will reach deadly levels. Not all of them will survive the night.
Holly Jackson’s first novel, A Good Girl’s Guide to Murder, has become the UK’s bestselling YA and children’s debut of 2019 and is a #1 New York Times bestseller. It has won the National Book Award for Children’s Book of the Year in 2020, Waterstones Children’s Book of the Year, longlisted for the Branford Boase, and was a Waterstones Paperback of the Year. It was an Observer Book of the Year and WH Smith Thumping Good Read. It was published in the UK and in the US and has been translated in many other languages around the world. An adaptation has recently been green-lit and is being produced by Moonage Pictures. Holly is represented by Sam Copeland at RCW Literary Agency.
*This title is currently under option*.
Reminiscent of An American Werewolf in London and Stranger Things, BITE RISK is a slick thrill ride in a fascinatingly contained setting – with a pacy, filmic plot and loveable central characters. We already have strong interest in this title, which will be published in June 2023. Sophie is planning more books set in the world of BITE RISK.
Children all over the world know the routine on a full moon: do your homework, tidy your room, check your perimeter traps, put your parents in their cages. No biggie – it’s the way things have been for more than twenty years. Life goes on. It’s normal. Boring, in fact.
Thirteen-year-old Sel lives with his mum in the isolated community of Timorglade, sheltered from the worst of the world’s problems by sheer remoteness. For him, Confinement nights mean freedom – roaming the streets with his friends on their bikes, tranquillizer guns slung casually over their shoulders in case of emergencies that never happen. But this quiet life begins to unravel. Birds fall from the sky, ordinary incidents take on a sinister tone and, most alarmingly, security measures fall apart, leading to the unthinkable: escapes. It seems there’s more to their little town than they thought. As Sel and his friends try to figure out exactly why things are the way they are in Timorglade, they are frustrated at every turn – almost as though their every move is known, and being manipulated. When a tragedy occurs, it’s clear that the truth is being covered up.
Someone is lying to them. But it can’t be everyone, can it?
Sophie grew up in Chelmsford, Essex. She failed the 11+, had a weekend job at a boarding kennels where she suffered workplace bullying from a goat, and nurtured a dream to have a career she could do in her pyjamas. She worked at two London publishers before finally achieving her ambition by going freelance in 2003. Sophie lives on the edge of south-east London with her family and is author of The Orphans of St Halibut’s and Pamela’s Revenge, both illustrated by David Tazzyman.
Sophie is represented by Kate Shaw at The Shaw Agency. Bite Risk will be published by Simon & Schuster in June 2023.
*This title is currently under option*.
Lies We Sing to the Sea is a sapphic, feminist reimagining of The Odyssey, in which a failed oracle and a vengeful immortal must break the curse on their kingdom by killing its prince.
In the cursed kingdom of Ithaca, each summer brings the hanging of twelve maidens, a tithe to the vengeful Poseidon.
When Leto is sacrificed, she awakens on the shore of a long-forgotten island, home to the immortal Melantho. Eternally bound to guide the girls that the sea gives back, Melantho tells Leto that there is only one way to break Ithaca’s curse: kill the prince before the winter solstice.
Together, Leto and Melantho escape the island and infiltrate the palace, assuming the guise of an Athenian princess and her handmaid. To their dismay, the last son of Ithaca – Prince Mathias – is no monster; he is guilt-ridden by his role in overseeing the yearly executions, grieving the loss of his beloved sister, and searching for his own way to end Ithaca’s curse.
As Leto becomes closer to Melantho and Mathias, she must unravel Ithaca’s terrible history – a history that binds the three of them together – before the sea claims them all.
A reclamation of a story from thousands of years ago, LIES WE SING TO THE SEA is about fate, about grief and sacrifice, and the power we can find within.
Sarah Underwood grew up in Devon, England. She obtained her MEng in Computational Bioengineering at Imperial College, London, and is now studying for her MPhil in Population Health Sciences at the University of Cambridge. Sarah is currently working on a second novel called THE LOVELY GRAVE OF KITTY JAY, based on the folklore of Dartmoor. Sarah is represented by Catherine Cho at Paper Literary. Lies We Sing To The Sea will be published March 2023.
*Currently under option*
This book is currently under option.
Ash Persaud is about to become a reaper in the afterlife, but she is determined to see her first love Poppy Morgan again, the only thing that separates them is death.
Car headlights.The last thing Ash hears is the snap of breaking glass as the windscreen hits her and breaks into a million pieces like stars. But she made it, she’s still here. Or is she?
This New Year’s Eve, Ash gets an invitation from the afterlife she can’t decline: to join a clan of fierce girl reapers who take the souls of the city’s dead to await their fate.
But Ash can’t forget her first love, Poppy, and she will do anything to see her again … even if it means they only get a few more days together. Dead or alive …
By Holly Jackson
Currently Under Option
A 2019 WHSmith Thumping Good Read selection.
A debut YA crime thriller as addictive as Serial as compelling as Riverdale and as page-turning as One of Us Is Lying
The case is closed. Five years ago, schoolgirl Andie Bell was murdered by Sal Singh. The police know he did it. Everyone in town knows he did it.
But having grown up in the same small town that was consumed by the crime, Pippa Fitz-Amobi isn’t so sure. When she chooses the case as the topic for her final project, she starts to uncover secrets that someone in town desperately wants to stay hidden. And if the real killer is still out there, how far will they go to keep Pip from the truth . . . ?
HACKING, HEISTS AND FLAMING ARROWS is book one in Robert Muchamore’s brand new four-book ROBIN HOOD series, which sets the classic legend smack-bang in the middle of the 2020s. This is Robert’s first series in six years, his CHERUB novels alone have sold over fifteen million copies in more than thirty countries, and been translated into twenty-four languages. This new adventure is another triumph – an exciting, modern reimagining of legendary British characters which include Marion Maid, Freya Tuck, Little John and Will Scarlock, in a story which promises to be thrilling, cheeky and relevant to its readership.
It’s spring 2020. Locksley City has been on a downward spiral since the last car plant closed. Schools and hospitals are falling apart, abandoned houses get trashed by vandals and the Police Department is controlled by local gangster, Guy Gisborne. When Robin Hood’s dad speaks out against corruption, he’s framed for a robbery and thrown in jail, and twelve-year-old Robin finds himself on the run.
The only place to hide is Sherwood Forest, which stretches hundreds of kilometers, from Lake Victoria to the Eastern Delta. It’s a dangerous place, where the bears and snakes are almost as scary as the human population of bandits, terrorists, cultists and biker gangs.
Robin wants revenge on the people who threw his dad in jail. But first, he must learn to survive in the forest.
