LBBYR Nabs Second Sheff
Nic Sheff, the one-time drug-addled son of New York Times reporter David Sheff (and subject of his dad's memoir, Beautiful Boy), has sold his second book to Little, Brown Books for Young Readers. Sheff's first memoir, about surviving his meth addiction, Tweak, was published by Simon & Schuster Children's Publishing in February 2008, around the same time as Beautiful Boy, and hit the Times and USA Today lists. Sheff's new memoir, We All Fall Down, was acquired by Elizabeth Bewley and will pick up where Tweak left off, detailing his relapse and struggle to get sober. Amanda “Binky” Urban at ICM sold North American rights and pub is slated for spring 2011.
Dutton Kids Gets 'Imaginary'
Prevailing over five other houses at auction, Julie Strauss-Gabel at Dutton Children's won North American rights to Nova Ren Suma's YA debut, Imaginary Girls. The novel, which is tentatively slated for summer 2011, features various spooky elements—Penguin called it “reminiscent of Shirley Jackson's supernatural family dramas”—and follows two sisters, one of whom is shunned by their town after discovering a dead body in the local reservoir. Suma, a grad of Columbia's M.F.A. program, has ghost-written more than 17 books and has been published in various literary journals. Michael Bourret of Dystel & Goderich brokered the deal.
On Regeneration
Anna Sternoff of Hudson Street Press nabbed world rights to Alice Park's currently untitled book on stem cell research. Park, senior health writer at Time magazine, details some of the cutting edge science happening in the stem cell field and how it could change everything from our concept of disease to how doctors practice medicine. Park sold the book on her own; pub is slated for 2011.
Hustle and Flow
Jan Miller of Dupree/Miller sold Mark Seal's The Man in the Rockefeller Suit, expanded from the journalist's January 2009 Vanity Fair story, of the same name, about the headline-stealing con man Clark Rockefeller. Clare Ferraro and Alessandra Lusardi at Viking bought world rights to Seal's account of Rockefeller's exploits, from the 30 years he spent crafting fake identities—the German-born grifter, real name Christian Gerhartsreiter, came to the U.S. as a foreign exchange student and claimed he was a member of the famous, aristocratic New York family—to his recent apprehension and conviction for kidnapping his daughter. Viking says the book is in the tradition of such con artist capers as The Talented Mr. Ripley and Catch Me if You Can.
Two Winters YA Works to HC
Sarah Sevier, of HarperCollins Children's, acquired world rights to Ben H. Winters's The Secret Life of Ms. Finkleman. The two-book deal, which includes a second untitled work, was sold at auction by Molly Lyons of Joelle Delbourgo Associates. Winters, who co-wrote Quirk's The Worst-Case Scenario Survival Handbook: Middle School and is tapped to do that house's sequel to Pride & Prejudice & Zombies, follows a mousy teacher with a secret past in Finkleman.
Bloomsbury Kids Gets 'Moore' Freckles
Melanie Cecka at Bloomsbury Children's nabbed world rights to actress Julianne Moore's third installment in the Freckleface Strawberry series. David Kuhn of Kuhn Projects brokered the deal; the book will explore the friendship between the titular redhead and her best bud, Windy Pants Patrick. Moore's second book in the series, Freckleface Strawberry and the Dodgeball Bully, recently fell off the Times bestseller list.