Candlewick Nabs MG Book on Thai Cave Rescue
At auction, Candlewick Press’s Andrea Tompa bought world rights to Christina Soontornvat’s middle grade nonfiction title All Thirteen: The Incredible Cave Rescue of the Thai Boys’ Soccer Team. The book is an account of the headline-grabbing story, which broke in late June, about the boys’ soccer team that was rescued in a daring operation from a cave in Thailand. The title will, Candlewick said, draw on the author’s “knowledge of Thailand and her expertise in key STEM topics that impacted the crisis and rescue.” All Thirteen, which was sold by Stephanie Fretwell-Hill at Red Fox Literary, is slated for a 2020 publication.

Smith Debut to Berkley

In a world rights agreement, debut author Sarah Smith sold two own-voices romance novels to Berkley’s Sarah Blumenstock. The publisher said the books are “office rom-coms,” and that the first title, Faker, is set to be released as a Jove trade paperback in fall 2019. Faker, Berkley continued, “follows a 26-year-old half-Filipino woman fighting to make her way in a male-dominated industry of power tools, while resisting her attraction to an office foe.” Smith was represented by Sarah Younger at the Nancy Yost Literary Agency.

Briefs
Alexandro Roxo sold world rights to F*ck Like a Goddess to Diana Ventimiglia at Sounds True. The author is a filmmaker and, per the publisher, a “feminist artist turned transformational coach.” Sounds True said the book will be a “step-by-step practical guidebook to sexual healing, reclaiming divine feminine power and magnetism, and stepping into your full radiance and power for the modern.” Roxo was represented by Marilyn Allen at Allen O’Shea Literary Agency.

For First Second, Calista Brill nabbed world rights to Lucy Knisley’s Go to Sleep (I Miss You): Cartoons from the Fog of New Parenthood. Knisley’s agent, Holly Bemiss at Susan Rabiner Literary Agency, said the gift book is “made up of comic strip–style cartoons that help new parents feel understood and connected, and help them remember the joy of it all.”

At Amazon Original Stories, Barry Harbaugh and Julia Sommerfeld took world English rights to Southside: Waiting for Justice in Chicago, a story collection edited by Bill Keller. The book will feature true stories by Chicago writers who were published by the Marshall Project, a Pulitzer Prize–winning nonprofit news organization where Keller is executive editor. Elaborating on the book, which is being released this week, Amazon said its stories portray “real people fighting for justice in a city struggling to overcome a brutal legacy of violence and corruption.” Keller, who previously worked at the New York Times as a columnist and then executive editor, did not use an agent in the deal.

For more children’s and YA book deals, see our latest Rights Report.

Correction: An earlier version of this article misspelled the name of Andrea Tompa at Candlewick Press.