Buzzed-About Thriller to Thomas Dunne
After being preempted in Germany for six figures, Rebecca Drake’s Only Ever You was nabbed, in a two-book North American rights deal, by Jaime Levine at Thomas Dunne Books. Only Ever You, which is set for a 2016 release, was sold by Rachel Ekstrom at the Irene Goodman Agency. The thriller is about a mother who, while searching for her abducted daughter, becomes the prime suspect in the missing-person case. Ekstrom said the novel is “in the vein of Lisa Scottoline.”

FSG Goes Six Figures for Middle-Grade Debut
Grace Kendall at Farrar, Straus and Giroux Books for Young Readers took North American rights at auction to Kate Beasley’s debut, Gertie. The middle-grade novel was sold by Emily van Beek at Folio Jr./Folio Literary Management in a two-book, mid-six-figure deal. The novel follows a girl who, van Beek said, is attempting to be the best fourth grader possible, in order to “show her distant mother that she doesn’t need her a bit.” The title character’s scheme hits a roadblock, though, when the daughter of a famous movie director arrives in town. Speaking about the novel’s plucky young heroine, van Beek said that when she encountered the character, she “couldn’t help but think she’s the kind of girl who would get along just beautifully with Ramona Quimby and Sheila Tubman.” Gertie is set for fall 2016. Beasley, who lives in Georgia, has an M.F.A. from Vermont College of Fine Arts.

NWL Teaches ‘Old Dog’ New Tricks
New World Library’s Jason Gardner won North American rights, at auction, to My Old Dog: Rescued Pets with Remarkable Second Acts, by photographer Lori Fusaro and Today.com writer Laura Coffey. The pair was represented by agent Cheryl Pientka at Jill Grinberg Literary Management, and the title is slated for fall 2015. The book grew, ultimately, out of a story Coffey wrote. Fusaro, who shoots for the Best Friends Animal Society of Los Angeles, adopted a 16-year-old canine named Sunny in 2012, expecting the dog to pass away shortly thereafter. When Sunny survived—he’s still kicking—Fusaro began taking shots of “senior dogs” to inspire others to adopt them. Coffey learned of the project and wrote a piece called “No Dog Should Die Alone,” which was picked up by outlets like the AP and NBC Nightly News.

Briefs
Europa publisher Kent Carroll bought U.S. rights to Rebecca Hunt’s sophomore novel, Everland, from Sarah Luytens, at U.K.-based Luytens & Rubinstein, and David Forrer, at Inkwell Management. The novel, which was released in the U.K. earlier this year by Fig Tree, achieves, as Europa put it, “the potential of the best Antarctic adventure stories.” It follows three researchers who, in 2012, are given the chance to reenact an exploration that took place a century earlier. Europa explained that the novel “relays between the two expeditions, peeling back the truth of the 1912 expedition, as the researchers of 2012 take cues not from the historical narrative they know by heart, but from the stark reality they encounter.”

Book to Film
Shaftesbury Films acquired television rights to the Wondrous Strange trilogy by Lesley Livingston. HarperCollins began publishing the novels, about a woman who learns she is the heir to the Faerie realm, in 2008. Jennifer Weltz at Jean V. Naggar Literary brokered the deal.