Jean Feiwel at Feiwel and Friends has signed a three-book deal for a new series, called High School Horror Story, in conjunction with DiGa Vision LLC, a production company/studio headed by Tony DiSanto and Liz Gateley, who created and produced such shows as The Hills, Jersey Shore and Laguna Beach. The new series, written by YA author Chandler Baker, will reimagine classic literary monsters in a high school setting in Paris, Texas. The first book, tentatively titled Teen Frankenstein, will draw inspiration from Mary Shelley's Frankenstein, and is told through the lens of a teenage girl who falls in love with the popular classmate she both accidentally kills and then brings back to life. It will publish in fall 2015; future books will follow interconnected characters in the same high school and will modernize Jekyll & Hyde andThe Phantom of the Opera. Andy McNicol at WME brokered the deal.
Zareen Jaffery at Simon & Schuster has bought a new YA novel by Becca Fitzpatrick, author of the Hush, Hush saga. In her new standalone thriller, Sapphire Skies, 17-year-old Stella lives with her mother in a country manor near Philadelphia's Main Line. But one fateful night, Stella witnesses a crime, forcing her into the witness protection program, and must start life over as someone else, in Nebraska. Publication is set for fall 2015; Catherine Drayton at Inkwell Management brokered the deal for North American, audio, and e-book rights.
Elizabeth Tingue at Razorbill has acquired Zodiac by debut author Romina Russell, first in an SF-meets-fantasy series billed as "Star Wars for the Snapchat generation." Set in a galaxy of 12 solar systems inspired by the 12 astrological signs, the book stars Rho, a young Guardian from House Cancer, who must unite the 12 Houses of the Zodiac before an ancient, power-hungry evil returns to destroy their world. The first book in the series will be published in December 2014; Laura Rennert at the Andrea Brown Literary Agency did the three-book deal for world rights.
Nick Eliopulos at Scholastic Press has acquired two new novels by Dan Poblocki. The first, The Book of Bad Things, which will be published this fall, is about a girl who documents all her fears – zombies, ghosts, hauntings and curses – in her journal, but a summer in a pleasant suburb reveals that there are a lot more bad things out there than she ever imagined. The second, The House on Stone's Throw Island, tells of a brother and sister who stumble upon the ghostly, vengeful crew of a Nazi submarine while vacationing on a private island off the coast of Maine; it will come out in fall 2015. Barry Goldblatt at Barry Goldblatt Literary did the deal for North American rights.
Annette Pollert at Sourcebooks Fire has bought Jessica Verdi's new novel, What You Left Behind, about a teen wrestling with guilt that if he hadn't gotten his girlfriend pregnant, she wouldn't have postponed her chemo treatments – and would still be alive. But as Rhy struggles to be a good father and grieve his girlfriend's death, he uncovers secrets that will make him reconsider every relationship in his life. The book is scheduled for publication in 2015; Kate McKean at Howard Morhaim Literary Agency brokered the deal for North American rights.
Nicole Frail at Skyhorse's Sky Pony Press has acquired The Lost Marble Notebook of Forgotten Girl and Random Boy by Marie Jaskulka, a debut YA novel in verse. It tells the story of two imperfect people in first love: a 15-year-old girl struggling through her parents' breakup, and a beautiful outcast boy who finds solace in his poetry as she does. Lana Popovic of Zachary Shuster Harmsworth Literary Agency did the deal for world rights.
Kristen Pettit and Jennifer Klonsky at Harper Teen have acquired two novels by Rapture Practice author Aaron Hartzler. The first, What We Saw, about a girl who discovers that a classmate was raped while they attended the same party and then sets out to uncover the real story of what happened, is scheduled for publication in spring 2015. The second book, Twitch, about a boy whose popular older sister is suddenly struck with spasms and vocal tics, and the chaos that ensues as her malady seems to spread among her classmates, will follow a year later. Michael Bourret at Dystel & Goderich Literary Management negotiated the deal for world rights.
Alessandra Balzer at HarperCollins imprint Balzer + Bray has bought debut author-illustrator Joseph Kuefler's The Pond, an ode to childhood imagination in which a boy discovers that the pond in his backyard contains a whole world, frightening, thrilling and full of adventure, ready to be explored. Publication is slated for fall 2015; Elena Giovinazzo at Pippin Properties did the deal for North American rights.
Arianne Lewin at Putnam has acquired world rights to Scripted, a YA novel by former Writers House agent Maya Rock. The book, which is Rock’s debut, follows a girl living on an island where people disappear; the island is Truman Show–esque, and characters are cut if ratings dip too low. Rock, who now works as a freelance writer and editor, was represented by Michelle Andelman at Regal Literary; the book is slated for winter 2015.
Alvina Ling at Little, Brown has bought the fourth book in Grace Lin's Ling & Ting early reader series starring identical Asian-American twins. Together in All Weather will be published in spring 2016; Rebecca Sherman at Writers House brokered the deal for North American rights.
