Wendy Loggia of Delacorte Press acquired a three-book YA fantasy series called Modelland, by model-turned-media-personality Tyra Banks. The series tells the story of a teen girl in a make-believe society who finds herself competing for a way of life that's both desired and out of reach at an academy for Intoxibellas, the most exceptional models in the world. The first novel in the series will pub in summer 2011; Andy McNicol of William Morris Endeavor Entertainment was the agent.
Regina Hayes at Viking Children's Books has bought world rights to a new YA novel by bestselling author Sarah Dessen. Cut and Run, which is scheduled for May 2011, is about a high school senior who, after her parents' divorce, assumes a new identity in each of the four towns she's lived in. Leigh Feldman, of Darhansoff, Verrill, Feldman did the deal.
Michelle Nagler at Bloomsbury has bought world English-language rights to Ghost Sickness, the tentatively titled new novel from the team of Carrie Jones and Steven Wedel. In the book, Aimee turns to the new kid in town (and romantic interest) Alan, for help in battling the evils of an ancient spirit. Publication is set for 2011. Edward Necarsulmer IV at McIntosh & Otis was the agent.
Barbara Lalicki at HarperCollins Children's Books has bought debut author Tara Hudson's Hereafter trilogy, about 18-year-old Amelia, whose afterlife is altered the night she saves a boy from drowning, in a major pre-empt, for publication in summer 2011. Catherine Drayton at InkWell Management was the agent.
Connie Hsu at Little, Brown Books for Young Readers has acquired Happyface author Stephen Emond's next illustrated YA novel, Winter Town. , for fall 2011 publication. In the book, which is told from two perspectives and accompanied by scrapbook entries and comics, childhood friends grow up, grow apart, and eventually fall in love. Kirby Kim at William Morris Endeavor did the deal for world rights.
Janine O'Malley at Farrar, Straus and Giroux bought Struck, a debut YA by Jennifer Bosworth, at auction. The premise: after Los Angeles is devastated by an earthquake, Mia finds herself in the middle of a power struggle between two fanatical doomsday cults, one that wants to save the world, and another that wants to destroy it. Jamie Weiss Chilton at the Andrea Brown Literary Agency negotiated the deal for world English rights.
