FSG Kids Inks Brody For Four
Bill Contardi at Brandt & Hochman closed a four-book deal for Jessica Brody (The Karma Club) at Farrar, Straus, and Giroux Books for Young Readers. In the deal, Janine O'Malley acquired world English rights to a stand-alone novel and a planned trilogy. The new series, set a century in the future, follows a 16-year-old plane crash survivor who's trying to reclaim her identity with only one tidbit of information: she was supposedly the subject of a science experiment. Contardi said the trilogy is "a love story set against a sci-fi backdrop of time travel and gene manipulation." Book one in the series, Unremembered, is scheduled for 2012. Contardi also closed a film deal for the series, selling dramatic rights to producer Doug Davison with screenwriter Whit Anderson attached to the project. (The pair is currently working on the Warner Brothers feature reboot of Buffy the Vampire Slayer.) The stand-alone YA novel from Brody is scheduled for 2013.

Danza Lands at Crown
Tony Danza has sold a memoir about his most unexpected role to date: a high school teacher. The actor, who signed on to teach 10th grade English for a full academic year at Philadelphia's Northeast High School for the A&E series Teach: Tony Danza, has sold North American rights to what his agent is calling an "untitled memoir project" to Rick Horgan at Crown. Peter McGuigan, at Foundry Literary + Media, and Danza's manager, Dan Farah (of Farah Films & Management), brokered the deal for the book, which is tentatively scheduled for fall 2011. In the work Danza will discuss how, per Foundry, "he had to earn [his students'] respect and attention the old-fashioned way: coming to class prepared, showing everyone respect, and investing in his students' education."

Life on the Nile
In a six-figure world English rights deal, Anjali Singh at Simon & Schuster and Jessica Leeke at Simon & Schuster UK acquired Enid Shomer's debut novel, The Twelve Rooms of the Nile at auction. Rob McQuilkin at Lippincott Massie McQuilkin brokered the deal for Shomer, who's written a number of poetry books and won the Iowa Fiction Prize for her 1993 collection, Imaginary Men (University of Iowa Press). In the novel, Shomer works off the historical nugget that Florence Nightingale and Gustave Flaubert were on the same ship, in 1849, bound for Cairo. Shomer has the two form a friendship that, McQuilkin said "alters their destinies in the early, heady days of the European exploration of the Nile."

Wolitzer Kids' Novel To Dutton
Julie Strauss-Gabel at Dutton Children's Books acquired North American rights to a stand-alone children's book by bestselling adult author Meg Wolitzer. The Fingertips of Duncan Dorfman, slated for a September 2011 publication, follows three seventh-graders whose paths cross at a national Scrabble tournament. Wolitzer, whose 1988 novel, This Is Your Life, was adapted into the film This Is My Life, dabbled in children's books earlier in her career, having written some middle grade series titles, but this is her first major foray into children's book writing. Suzanne Gluck at William Morris Endeavor brokered the deal.

Martin Closes Hat Trick At HMH
Rux Martin, senior executive editor at Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, acquired three cookbooks recently. In the first deal, Martin bought U.S., Canadian, and Philippine rights to chef Michael Romano and Karen Stabiner's Family Meals from agents David Black and Jannis Donnaud. Romano, a longtime chef at Danny Meyer's Union Square Cafe, will deliver over 100 recipes from Meyers's restaurants (which, among others, include Gramercy Tavern and Eleven Madison Park); the book will also feature a foreword by Meyer. The title is scheduled for fall 2012.

In the second deal, Martin took U.S., Canadian, and Philippine rights to a third title by the bestselling authors of Hello Cupcake! (HMH, 2008), Karen Tack and Alan Richardson. Martha Kaplan of the Martha Kaplan Agency brokered the deal for the bakers, and the book is scheduled for February 2012.

In the third acquisition, Martin took world rights to Patricia Jinich's Pati's Mexican Table. Jinich is the host of the forthcoming PBS TV show of the same name, and the cookbook will feature 125 recipes for authentic Mexican dishes. Peter Smith of Thompson Hine LLP brokered the deal, and the book is scheduled for spring 2012.

Briefs
Juliet Grames at Soho Press bought three books in Helene Tursten's bestselling Swedish crime series featuring detective Irene Huss. Anneli Høier at Leonhardt & Høier brokered the deal, and Soho plans to start publishing the books in 2012.