Daniel Ehrenhaft of Soho Teen bought North American rights to a new YA mystery by a screenwriter and a Booker-nominated novelist. Mark Bomback (Live Free or Die Hard) and Galaxy Craze (By the Shore) have teamed up for Mapmaker, in which a 17-year-old girl with a knack for cartography lands an internship at the digital map–making company where her dead father once worked. Once there, she begins a search for her 19-year-old mentor (and crush), after he suddenly disappears. Soho Teen said the deal came about after Ehrenhaft introduced the two authors, as he is friendly with both of them. Publication is set for spring 2014. Dorian Karchmar at William Morris Endeavor handled the deal for Bomback, while Inkwell Management's Kim Witherspoon represented Craze.
Don Weisberg of Penguin Young Readers Group and Michael Green of Philomel Books have bought world English rights to a new picture book by Eric Carle called Friends. Puffin U.K. will be publishing the title in England. According to Penguin, the book is about "the love that binds people and the obstacles they will overcome in order to be together." Set for fall 2013, Friends will have an announced first printing of 300,000 copies. Carle did not use an agent in the deal.
Farrin Jacobs at the Poppy imprint of Little, Brown Books for Young Readers has acquired Wildlife by Fiona Wood. It’s the story of two teen girls – one still reeling from the death of her boyfriend, and the other, the reluctant model for a new ad campaign who is trying to figure out who she is and who she wants to be; they meet during a semester in the wilderness and learn about friendship, loyalty and love. Jacobs acquired it plus an untitled novel, as well as the author's first novel, Six Impossible Things, which was first published in Australia. Wildlife is scheduled for summer 2014; Cheryl Pientka at Jill Grinberg Literary Management brokered the deal for North American rights.
David Gale at Simon & Schuster has acquired world English rights to debut author Isaiah Campbell's The Troubles of Johnny Cannon. In this humorous middle-grade novel set in 1961, a boy from Alabama has to dodge the CIA, escape from Cuba, and face off against the Klan to prove his father didn't sabotage the Bay of Pigs invasion. The projected publication date is fall 2014; Marietta Zacker of Nancy Gallt Literary Agency brokered the deal.
Noa Wheeler at Henry Holt has bought Beastkeeper, a middle-grade novel by Cat Hellisen. It's a reimagining of Beauty and the Beast and what might have happened if they didn't actually live happily ever after, set two generations later when a girl discovers that the curse is hereditary. Tentative publication date is fall 2014; Suzie Townsend at New Leaf Literary & Media sold the book at auction.
