The UK publishing industry is in danger of “losing readers as they grow up”, especially boys, as it is not catering sufficiently to the post-middle-grade audience. That is a view of many attendees at the 63rd Bologna Children’s Book Fair, which opened its doors yesterday (13th April).
Emma Matthewson, executive publisher at Piccadilly Press and Hot Key Books, admitted: “With the siren call of romantasy, books for teens have struggled. Boy readers are especially hard to reach, seemingly less drawn by the lure of BookTok, so key to the rise of romantasy.”
At Usborne, the fiction team has been focusing on “the need to target what we have termed ‘core YA’, so YA for younger readers”, said publisher Rebecca Hill, who noted that school librarians were “actively seeking high-quality, commercial titles suitable for 12-year-olds”.
Faber’s children’s publisher Leah Thaxton ( 1) said there was “a dearth of thrilling fiction for teens and it doesn’t meet kids where they are”, adding: “Most short-changed are the boys, and there’s a fear in talking about it or suggesting not enough men are writing for kids. We need more humour, higher-octane stakes, more adrenaline-fuelled fiction and genuinely entertaining reads matching the thrills these boys are watching on-screen – that aren’t trying to teach anything at all.”
Thaxton also called for stories that “explore male identity and centre it”, adding: “What’s the new Stand by Me we will all look back to? YA can’t all be romantasy.”
On the latter point, several industry figures noted that the huge boom in crossover titles had squeezed out books for younger teenagers. Matthewson said: “The rise of YA and especially romantasy means that age-boundaries have blurred – readers often want to read ‘up’ but may be catapulted into a style of narrative and content before they are ready.”
Commenting on the gap between middlegrade publishing and YA, Macmillan Children’s Books fiction and non-fiction publisher Eishar Brar said: “The graphic-novel market is huge. Those readers are flocking to something… but then, what happens next? What happens when the reader of [John Patrick Green’s comics series] InvestiGators turns 15 and the only thing on the shelf is, let’s say, romantasy. That isn’t a natural progression. So we will lose readers as they grow up.”
Darley Anderson Children’s Book Agency MD Clare Wallace said she had recently noticed “a real call-out” from publishers asking for core YA, which the agency’s head of international rights Kristina Egan said she had also seen in the international market as the YA crossover market risked becoming oversaturated.
However, Brar stated: “Right now, it’s the industry that’s asking for it [core YA], because we can see that the romantasy market is oversaturated. But in practice, that is still the biggest, most thriving area of the market – it’s still where the readers are.”
Julia Churchill ( 2), head of the children’s books department at AM Heath, conceded that the younger teen area “has always been hard to crack”.
She added: “What I notice is that the more commercially minded authors tend to focus on the YA area of the market, where there is a wide reach in terms of capturing readership. And what succeeds in the slightly younger teen area of the market tends to be less genre- and seriesdriven and more unexpected.”
Some felt that part of the issue was that retailers were shelving younger teen and crossover titles side-by-side without a clear distinction between them. “Crossover YA/New Adult is a different age category altogether. Teens have their own areas of interest and it’s crass to suggest that it sits alongside the novels marketed to 18- to 25-year-old women,” said Thaxton.
Day Planner
09.40
Norwegian Comics: The Fun and the Furious The Content Café
Norway is making the most of its turn as the Guest of Honour, with almost 50 events happening this Bologna. Today’s stream kicks off with this brilliantly named panel, which will take a look at the country’s comics scene. Speakers include Nora Dåsnes (below) who has recently published two graphic novels in the UK with Farshore. Other highlights today include a Translation Slam (Translators Café, 15.30), The History of Bees author Maja Lunde (above) leading a discussion on reading in the digital age (Norway Café, 10.45) and an appearance by fantasy author Siri Pettersen (Norway Café, 15.00), who undoubtedly ranks as Norway’s current biggest global star in kids’ books.
Magic Cat moves for Anna James’ ‘heart-warming’ fantasy anthology
TOM TIVNAN Deputy editor
Magic Cat is to publish Anna James’ ( 1 ) “heart-warming” cosy fantasy anthology about gnomes; aimed at ages four to eight, it is the bestselling author’s first foray into books for younger readers.
Rachel Williams, Magic Cat co-founder and publisher, bought world rights to Cosy Gnomes from Claire Wilson at RCW.
The book will be illustrated by Bulgarian-born and Netherlandsbased Mona K, with rights acquired directly. Mona K has previously worked with Magic Cat for Gabby Dawnay’s 5 Minute Story series.
Williams said James “has a unique ability to sprinkle magic on her readers, allowing them to inhabit the worlds in which her characters belong. Her stories are full of whimsy, wonder and fun – and are pitched perfectly for that reassuring read at bedtime”.
Cosy Gnomes is set on the “gnomestead”, a magical miniature farm where a group of hardworking gnomes each play a special role in keeping their world thriving. Characters include Lilac, the gnomestead’s gardener who organises spring planting day; Marigold, who tends the crops and is on the lookout for a very hungry worm; and Peanut, the farm’s tailor, who loves to make and mend.
The publisher said the books would “invite younger readers to discover a cosy land where the sun shines, the bees hum, the flowers bloom and the farmyard
[James] has a unique ability to sprinkle magic on her readers, allowing them to inhabit the worlds in which her characters belong
Rachel Williams, Magic Cat
DK flip nabs books by Jeffrey Brown and Sophie Cousens
DK flip has celebrated its first anniversary by making a raft of acquisitions including a second LEGO illustrated middlegrade fiction from Jeffrey Brown ( 2) and debut trilogies from Sophie Cousens and historian Fern Riddell.
Editorial director Tori Kosara acquired world rights to the second book in the Nikolas Nurdblok original LEGO fiction series by Brown from Marc Gerald at Europa Content. The book is described as a “hilarious adventure set in a future world
where the art of building has been forgotten”. Nikolas Nurdblok 2 will be published in paperback in the UK and US in October 2027.
DK flip has also pre-empted three titles from Cousens. Molly Wild Wants to Be Normal is Cousens’ children’s fiction debut, introducing Molly, aged nine-and-threequarters, as she navigates life where almost no one is normal. Trade strategy director Arabella Stein acquired world rights from Clare Wallace at Darley Anderson
Children’s Book Agency, with the “funny and emotive celebration of childhood” for readers aged eight and up scheduled for publication in August 2027, and other titles to follow.
Meanwhile, associate publishing director Francesca Young acquired world rights to Fern Riddell’s debut YA fiction trilogy from Kirsty McLachlan at Morgan Green Creatives. The first book, The Dark Summer , will be published in March 2027 with titles following annually.
The news of these acquisitions comes 12 months since DK flip was launched at Bologna Children’s Book Fair.
JACK WRIGHTON
I grew up with stories like Brambly Hedge and the Flower Fairies, so I’ve loved coming up with my own whimsical, cosy, miniature world
Anna James
is always busy”. The anthology features seven stories and seven gatefolds, each of which invite a reader to open the front door of a gnome’s house and explore their world.
The stories have “light” educational elements on topics such as planting and harvesting vegetables, pollination, sewing, caring for animals and baking.
James, whose work has been published in 24 languages, has previously written for the middle-grade space, including her Pages & Co and Chronicles of Whetherwhy series. Her and illustrator Matthew Land’s standalone retelling of Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland , Alice with a Why , won the 2025 Blackwell’s Children’s Book of the Year. James recently sold her adult debut novel, Good Fortunes , to HQ.
James said: “It has been such a joy to create the world of the gnomestead with Mona, whose art is utterly beautiful. I grew up with stories like Brambly Hedge and the Flower Fairies, so I’ve loved coming up with my own whimsical, cosy, miniature world.”
Cosy Gnomes is scheduled for an August 2027 release.
YA Fiction UK Top Five
Data source: NielsenIQ BookScan’s Total Consumer Market, 14 weeks to 4th April 2026. Excludes World Book Day titles
The UK YA Fiction sector had a sizzling 2025, up 20.9% to £44.7m through NielsenIQ BookScan, the best return since 2010. Sales for the first 14 weeks of 2026 are tracking well behind (-35%) last year, but that compares against 2025’s Suzanne Collins-led monster first quarter.
Piccadilly Press has acquired Doodleworld, a young graphic-novel adventure series from award-winning authorillustrator Adeola Sokunbi ( 3)
Ella Whiddett, editorial director at the Bonnier Books UK imprint, acquired world all-language rights to three books from Clare Wallace at Darley Anderson Children’s Agency.
The publisher said Doodleworld was “brimming with uplifting messaging, [and will] inspire children to believe in themselves [and] unleash their creativity”.
The titles focus on Dara, who loves to doodle – but when her drawings do not look perfect, she scribbles them out. Then, one stormy night, a lightning bolt zaps her straight into her sketchbook and into Doodleworld. With only her sidekick Zigzag to guide her, Dara must “track down the Golden Pencil to draw her way home. To do so, she must cross the Crayon Canyons, raft down Watercolour Waterfall, squelch
Candlewick bags two more from picture-book star Jon Klassen
Candlewick Press has acquired two new books from “visionary” multiaward-winning picture-book creator Jon Klassen ( 4), both followups to his upcoming The House with Nobody In It.
Emma Ledbetter, Candlewick’s executive editorial director for picture books, and Ann Stott, executive creative director, bought world rights to The Castle with Nobody In It and The Cave with Nobody In It from Steven Malk at Writers House.
through Smudge Swamp and soar along Sticker Street – all while dodging scribble bugs at every turn. Can Dara stop chasing perfection and finish what she has started? Or will she be stuck in Doodleworld forever?”
Sokunbi is the author of the Destiny Ink series, the first of which, Destiny Ink: Sleepover Surprise, won the 2025 IBC Award for highly illustrated children’s fiction. She said: “I’ve been having so much fun creating Doodleworld… I’m so excited to share Dara’s story and I hope readers love it as much as we do.”
The titles are due for a 2028 and 2029 release, respectively, and will be published simultaneously by sister companies Walker Books in the UK and Australia.
The publisher said the two new titles would “further break boundaries and subvert expectations of the board-book format as readers explore mysterious rooms and caverns within two clever new spaces that are totally and completely empty… or are they?”
The publisher’s relationship with Klassen goes back 15 years, when his debut as an author-illustrator, I Want My Hat Back , won the Theodor Seuss Geisel Award and claimed several book-of-the-year accolades. His numerous prizes include a Caldecott Medal and a Kate Greenaway Medal. His books have sold close to 12 million units worldwide and have been published in more than 30 languages.
Klassen said his new titles were an “idea of a space between a narrative story and a game, and even a physical place, that you ask the audience to move through with you. There is so much more to explore, and I can’t wait to get into it”.
Nila Aye inks debut authorillustrator deal with Hachette
Children’s
TOM TIVNAN Deputy editor
Hachette Children’s Group (HCG) has bought a fourstrong “warm and witty” picture-book series by Nila Aye ( 1), the Queen’s Knickers Award winner’s first titles as an author-illustrator.
HCG group picture book and preschool publisher Hannah Ray bought world rights to the text and illustrations of the quartet from Claire Meiklejohn at Meiklejohn Illustration Agency. The series –“brimming with joy, humour and imagination” – centres around Lili and her toy elephant, who comes alive just for her.
The launch title, Lili and Elephant: Grown-Upping, will be published in 2027. It has the titular characters doing a lot of “adult” things for the day: “They feel big and important and have lots to do. From looking after their babies, visiting the shops and going to work – it’s a busy day. But maybe there’s just one thing they can leave for the real grown-ups…”
Aye was born in Myanmar and emigrated with her family to the UK at the age of three. She studied graphic design at Central St Martins and she has been the illustrator for
Puffin launches new picturebook list, Puffin Studio
Puffin Studio, a new picturebook list “created to champion standout creative voices with strong international app eal”, was launched at the Bologna Children’s Book Fair yesterday (13th April).
Led by Andrea MacDonald, publisher at Puffin Picture Books, alongside deputy art director Clare Doughty, the “globally focused” list aims to spotlight both established creators, including Ed Vere and Nadia Shireen; “rising stars” such as Huw Aaron ( 2 ) , Polly Noakes and Dylan Hewitt; and new voices, including Dan Ojari and Conor Merriman.
Launch titles include The Slimy Cave Full of Slime , by authorillustrator Aaron, whose debut picture book Sleep Tight, Disgusting Blob won the Waterstones
many picture books, including Julia Donaldson’s The Book of Names, Abie Longstaff’s Story Soup, Camilla Reid’s Who’s series and collaborated with Hollie Hughes on her HCG-published Little Bugs, Big Feelings range.
Aye has also adapted the late Benjamin Zephaniah’s work for HCG, including People Need People, Nature Trail and the recently released A Poem in the Sky. In 2024, People Need People won the Queen’s Knickers, the Society of Authorsbacked award for an outstanding original illustrated book for infants to seven-year-olds.
Aye said inking the deal with HCG for her author-illustrator debut was “beyond my wildest dreams”. She added: “I am so proud of Lili and Elephant, which is loosely based around memories of my daughter Lili and her cuddly toy. It’s a tiny and amusing glimpse into their own secret world of imaginative play, which I hope will bring joy and smiles to many children and adults alike.”
Ray said: “We are thrilled to be building on our flourishing partnership with Nila by launching her first ever author-illustrated strand and bringing her wonderful creative visions to life. These adorable, child-centred stories are bursting with heart and happiness.”
Children’s Book Prize 2026, and Waffles and Julius: No Room for You!, the second book in a new series by Vere. Meanwhile, Shireen returns in April 2027 with Fluffykins and the Big Day Out; Ojari with his second picture book, Hoof!; and Merriman releases his first picture book, The Last Starcatcher , a “beautiful and atmospheric folkloric tale of a little girl who wishes on a shooting star for a true friend”.
MacDonald said: “For more than 85 years, Puffin has published the very best picture books, by the most talented picture-book creators. These books, so often the books that inspire a lifelong love of reading and storytelling, have defined and redefined the picture-book landscape.
“This heritage of exploration and creativity informs how we work today, acquiring the very best creators and building careers in the long term. So, I am incredibly proud to be launching Puffin Studio: a list which gathers together an incredible roster of author-illustrators.”
09.45
Chris Haughton: The Story of How I Became a Picture Book Maker The Illustrators Survival Corner
It will be extremely busy at the alarmingly named Illustrators Survival Corner, with 62 events over the day. Creators and publishing professionals will run masterclasses, conduct workshops and give portfolio reviews to new and early-career hopefuls. Those giving their time include Sydney Smith, winner of the Hans Christian Andersen Award for Illustration, London-based author/illustrator Frann Preston-Gannon (below) and The Plum Agency dealmaker Becky Wilson. The star turn is arguably Haughton (above), who will talk about his journey from designer to bestselling picture-book creator – a trip that was kick-started 15 years ago when, as an unknown, he travelled to Bologna to hawk his wares.
Flying Eye signs
Flying Eye Books has acquired Zsofi Lang’s ( 1) full-colour illustrated non-fiction series aimed at showing every seven- to nine-year-old how to explain any subject to an adult.
Fay Evans, editorial director at the east London-based independent, acquired world rights in four books from the How to Explain Anything to Grown Ups series directly from author-illustrator Lang. The initial quartet will launch in 2027 and the series will continue to expand with four titles every year.
Lang uses “bite-sized, easily digestible” facts in a graphic format. Launch title Human Body, for example, reveals that the body makes one litre of mucus a day while Dinosaurs shows that when pterosaurs were not flying, they walked on four limbs.
Evans said: “We are absolutely delighted to work with Zsofi on this hilarious and unique series. How to Explain Anything to Grown Ups is a mile-a-minute run through all our favourite subjects.”
Zsofi Lang’s How to Explain Anything to Grown Ups series Little Tiger scoops sixth Poo in the Zoo
Lang grew up in Budapest and is now based in Brussels. She studied international relations and picked up drawing as a hobby, subsequently deciding to pursue illustration, and since 2012 her work has included large-scale live illustrations at events alongside sketchbooks and infographics for businesses, governments and NGO campaigns.
The How to Explain Anything to Grown Ups books came out of a passion project of weekly Instagram posts on science facts, inspired by Lang’s two children and their curiosity about the world.
17.40
A Story of Resistance from WW2: Referencing the Holocaust in Picture Books Illustrators Café
Let us be honest: the last event of a fairgoing day is usually a bit of a struggle as speakers tend to have to compete with popping corks and hubbub from stand parties. Bologna organisers are no doubt keenly aware of this as they have rolled out some big guns for the conclusion of the Illustrator Café’s day two stream in the form of picturebooks legend Michael Rosen (above) and author-Illustrator Benjamin Phillips. The two will tackle a difficult subject, though. Using their collaboration on One Day – based on Rosen’s family history – as a startpoint, they will discuss how to create books about the Holocaust for younger readers.
Puffin wins seven-way auction for Kelly Smith’s middle-grade debut
Little Tiger is marking the 10th anniversary of the Poo in the Zoo series, written by Steve Smallman ( 3 ) and illustrated by Ada Grey, with a sixth book, Poo in the Zoo: Unicorn Poo Commissioning editor Perry Emerson acquired world alllanguage rights for the text from Tormenta Illustration and Literary Agency. Illustration rights were bought from Jodie Hodges at United Agents. Little Tiger will publish in June 2027.
The latest Poo title focuses on “flamboyant, fabulous and a real demanding diva” Rose the Unicorn. The other animals try their best to make her feel welcome, but soon Rose is making everybody miserable with her never-ending list of demands. “Will everything change when Rose rushes to do a poo? Could this be… the doo-doo of their dreams?”
Emerson said: “Steve and Ada are a dream bookmaking duo, pairing Steve’s inexhaustible
LAUREN BROWN Deputy news editor
Puffin has acquired
The Shadow Six , an “epic” fantasy by debut author Kelly Smith ( 2 ) , secured in a seven-publisher auction.
Editorial director Linas Alsenas bought world rights, excluding Canada and the US, for the book and two other titles in the series from Natalie Beckett at Curtis Brown. North American rights were pre-empted from Gwen Beal at UTA by senior editor Jessica Smith at Simon & Schuster’s Aladdin imprint. The Shadow Six will be published on 3rd June 2027, supported by a “major” marketing and publicity campaign.
The first book begins on Greycloak Island, where the souls of disobedient children can “break” and release dangerous shadow creatures. To protect everyone, good behaviour is strictly enforced.
Young Myrtle Rainwater is very well-behaved, or at least she thinks she is. But when “she finds a panther soulshadow wearing the name tag ‘Six’ in the bathroom of her grim boarding school, she comes to realise that – impossibly – he is hers”.
Horrified and ashamed, Myrtle decides to to hide Six and flee the
A totally irresistible, page-turning adventure like this one doesn’t come along very often
Linas Alsenas, Puffin
school with her mischievous sister, Natty. Their ensuing adventure leads Myrtle “to question everything she’s been told”.
The synopsis continues: “What are soulshadows, really? What happens to these creatures and their children after they are captured by the authorities? And why does the Grand Principal, the mysterious leader of the government, seem have a special interest in Myrtle’s fate? When the answers to Myrtle’s unsettling questions are revealed, can Myrtle keep her heart – and soul – from breaking apart forever?”
East London-based Smith praised the Puffin and Aladdin teams’ “passion and ambition” for the series. She added: “This story is a very personal one, shaped by the sense of imperfection I felt growing up, and so it was a huge surprise and delight that it resonated with so many people. We live in a world where children are so often powerless, and I can’t wait for readers everywhere to discover their powerful inner shadow animal and come along on Myrtle and Six’s wild adventure.”
Alsenas said: “A totally irresistible, page-turning adventure like this one doesn’t come along very often, so once it arrived on submission, I was desperate to acquire it. [Smith] is a discovery, an exceedingly rare writer of incredible energy and heart, and her story of a profound animal-child bond is sure to be an instant classic. This will be the biggest middle-grade series launch of 2027, so expect to see a lot more of this shadowy panther in the months to come.”
capacity for witty rhyme with Ada’s endless delight in illustrating even the silliest of poo jokes. Their innate sense of what makes children laugh creates books that readers reach for again, and again, and again.
“We are excited to continue to build on the success of this pooptacular series with a fabulous new story featuring a not-so-fabulous unicorn and a bold new cover look for the brand.”
Grey said her and Smallman’s latest had “all the usual silliness of poo, and the glamour of a Unicorn with several surprises along the way… it’s been so much fun to work on!”
Children's Comics UK Top Five
Data source NielsenIQ BookScan’s TCM, 14 weeks to 4th April 2026. Excludes World Book Day titles.
The surprise for Britain’s kids’ comics is that Dav Pilkey and Jamie Smart do not bag the entire top five. In 2025 the creators combined to notch up the first 19 bestsellers. This year, Neill Cameron breaks the hegemony with third-placed Donut Squad: Make a Mess! – but it is still a Dog and Bunny-fest as Pilkey and Smart claim 21 of the top 25 spots.
46,124
Copies sold
44,729
Copies sold
43,082
Copies sold
31,829
Copies sold
29,588
Copies sold
Sticker Dolly Dressing series gets K-pop twist
Usborne is celebrating the 20th anniversary, and almost 43 million units of global sales, of its Sticker Dolly Dressing series with a new title that taps into the K-pop trend.
Lesley Sims and illustrator Sandrine Lamour’s Sticker Dolly Dressing: K-pop will be published next month, and already has a combined global print volume of more than 283,900 across all markets, according to the publisher, with 11 translations confirmed and “further deals expected”.
Featuring more than 300 stickers and including two pages of foiled stickers, the book follows aspiring pop group BYOP – Yumi, Hana and Gem – as they record their first single, meet fans at a festival and star in a spectacular concert alongside the legendary boys from YNOT, Soomin, Kodi and Milo.
The Sticker Dolly Dressing series has grown to more than 100 titles in its two decades and was conceived by former Usborne publishing director Jenny Tyler and editorial director and author Fiona Watt ( 4). With 22.5 million copies sold for £125.7m through NielsenIQ BookScan, Watt is the sixth-bestselling author in the UK since accurate records began, with the Sticker Dolly Dressing range accounting for £32.6m of that total.
“With core values promoting imagination and storytelling, each Sticker Dolly Dressing book provides a gateway into literacy, offering screen-free fun, encouraging creativity and bringing joy,” the publisher says.
Magic Cat pounces for Robin Shaw
Magic Cat has acquired Us Two , a picture book from the Bafta-nominated animator and illustrator Robin Shaw.
Rachel Williams, Magic Cat managing director and co-publisher, bought world rights from Vicki Willden-Lebrecht at The Bright Agency. The title will publish in hardback in January 2027.
Us Two is a story about a young girl and her father spending the day together at the park – climbing trees, playing on the swings, watching trains and sailing paper boats that become the starting point for imagined adventures.
Shaw is best known for his adaptations of The Tiger Who Came to Tea and Mog’s Christmas. His other screen credits include The Snowman and The Snowdog and Paddington 2. For the latter, he designed the hand-drawn animation sequences. Shaw has previously created a picture book, Me and My Dad , for Hodder Children’s Books.
Shaw said: “I’m absolutely thrilled that Us Two has found its perfect home with Magic Cat. Every one of their beautifully crafted books seems to have that extra special little something, so I really couldn’t be happier to be working with them.”
Katie Cotton, picture book publisher at Magic Cat, called Us Two “a story that will chime with any parents of young children, and may even bring a tear to their eye”.
Hachette signs ‘deeply moving’ non-fiction Holocaust picture book
LAUREN BROWN Deputy news editor
Hachette Children’s Group (HCG) has acquired Stephanie van den Bergh’s ( 1) My Aunt Lucie, illustrated by Aura Lewis. The non-fiction picture book for readers aged nine and up tells the true story of a young Jewish woman whose life is changed by the events of the Second World War in the German-occupied Netherlands.
Britain’s 2026 picture-books market enjoyed Easter, with three of the top five titles, and 11 of the top 20, themed around the holiday. Martha Mumford and Laura Hughes set the pace, though Rod Campbell was a close second. The heritage big beasts – Judith Kerr, Julia Donaldson, Michael Bond – dominate the non-Easter bestsellers; the 45,000 copies shifted this year by Eric Carle’s 1994 paperback of The Very Hungry Caterpillar pushed lifetime sales for that edition over two million units. Excludes World Book Day titles.
Publishing director of colour non-fiction Leah James acquired world rights from Julia Churchill at AM Heath, who is the author’s daughter. Colour non-fiction art director Shelley Nicoli acquired the illustration rights from Emily Jones at The Bright Agency. My Aunt Lucie will be published in January 2027 on the Wren & Rook list.
The book “brings history to life through the lens of family memory”. It tells the story of Netherlands-born Van den Bergh’s
aunt, who was killed in Auschwitz aged 38, and the life she led prior to the outbreak of the war. The book offers young readers, HCG says, a “deeply human understanding of the Holocaust and an important opportunity to remember someone as a loved individual”.
James described the book as a “true family story told with clarity and care”.
Van den Bergh was born during the Second World War and, as her father was Jewish, her family members lived in hiding – though some were captured. She said: “As I grew up, my aunt’s name was rarely mentioned, I knew nothing of her life. Then, a few years ago, my daughter Julia told me that Lucie was an archaeologist. She’d found a short Wiki entry about her. I had no idea.”
That led Van den Bergh to learn about Lucie’s life through family letters, school reports and Leiden University archives.
Churchill said that “it was always chilling and painful” to think of how the lives of Lucie and her other relatives ended in the camps. But when she found the Wikipedia entry, she came to know more than just Lucie’s name. She added: “I urged mum to dig deeper. What she found was the story of a woman who loved learning, history and adventure.”
Illustrator Lewis said her work on My Aunt Lucie felt “deeply personal” as her great-greatgrandmother was killed in the Kovno concentration camp. She added: “This book is a reminder of why these individual stories matter so much, especially for young readers – behind every name is a whole life, with dreams, interests and possibilities. I am honoured to help bring Lucie’s story to the page.”
This devil wears Balenciaga Horace Bent at the Bologna Children’s Book Fair
Ciao, ragazzi! Here we are, back in the Fat City, careening to the Penguin Random House (PRH) bash where the talk – above all the great issues of the day, like the reading crisis and whether Freida McFadden’s now-retired wig will be put into the Smithsonian next to the ruby slippers and bottle of amphetamines Judy Garland used for The Wizard of Oz – was of fashion. Or, rather, the chaos that the rainy, cool Bologna weather has wrought on fairgoers’ planned ‘lewks’. Out are spring/summer transitionals; so hot right now are autumn blue macs and red hats, aka Paddington chic.
“Layers, darlings, layers,” was my advice. Though I must say, publishing let itself down at the PRH party. I know it
Fashion is not really a problem for ol’ Horace, as I am styled by
Pierpaolo Piccioli and Miranda Priestly
‘Books? For Bologna? Groundbreaking’: Streep herself would struggle to compete with Horace’s impeccable sense of style
takes place on a Sunday, and most attendees were just arriving in town, but some were kitted out in – the fingers tremble as I type –jeans. The industry’s fashion standards are dropping faster than Gen Alpha’s literacy levels (too soon?). What next? Will people rock up next year in Juicy Couture trackie bottoms like they just got off a Jet2 flight from Malaga?
This might be a me thing, as I always have one eye in the mirror while I watch myself gavotte, as the great Simon & Schuster heiress once sang of me. Yes, Carly, I thought that song was about me. Though, I also think most songs are about me, particularly Raye’s WHERE IS MY HUSBAND! and Shaboozey’s A Bar Song (Tipsy). Of course, I realise my privilege, as fashion is not really a problem for ol’ Horace, because I am styled by Pierpaolo Piccioli and Miranda Priestly, who accompany me on Bent Force One to every fair. Though, Pierpaolo made a slight misstep (almost literally) as he had not reckoned on how slippery Bologna is when wet. Sure, the polished porticoed walkways look great in the postcards, but when it is sheeting it down, traversing them in Balenciaga Palermo moccasins is an ankle-turning nightmare.
Bee-tee-dubs, it was interesting to see AI evangelist Markus Dohle wheeling around the bash, the belle of the ball. He looked fresh, lively and suspiciously younger than when he was running the PRH show. But as he schmoozed and moved about the room, I thought of Alice Roosevelt’s assessment of her dad, Teddy Roosevelt: “He wants to be the bride at every wedding, the corpse at every funeral and the baby at every christening.”
This week may be a spicy Bologna (as in exciting, not the Sarah J Maas way) for we will be rubbing shoulders with others who are not usually in the city for book-fair week. First, we are amid HOG Primavera, the annual Italian spring meet-up for Harley-Davidson enthusiasts (a few of whom, I imagine, are not in biker gangs). Which perhaps explains why Belinda Ioni Rasmussen was at yesterday’s Fiere in leather motorcycle trousers and a black T-shirt emblazoned with “Ride or Die”. And the claret-and-blue-clad groups you have passed outside the bars speaking in a barely comprehensible language (Brummie) are supporters of Aston Villa, who will face off against Bologna’s XI in some sort of Euroball tournament. This also explains why Rebecca McNally was on the Bloomsbury stand in a Youri Tielemans strip, belting out a rendition of Mrs Robinson with the words: “Here’s to you, Unai Emery.” As McNally might say: Forza Villa!
of the fair at Bologna, Frankfurt and London, and the organiser of the Diagram Prize for Oddest Book Title of the Year.
Feature
Scaling up: Eishar Brar on her new role at Macmillan Children’s Books
MCB’s fiction and non-fiction publisher explains how she plans to take her prize-winning approach to new heights. Caroline Carpenter reports
At last year’s Bologna Children’s Book Fair, speculation was rife about who would replace Samantha Smith as Macmillan Children’s Books’ fiction and non-fiction publisher. A few weeks later, it was revealed that Eishar Brar, formerly editorial director at Knights Of (KO), was stepping into the role.
Brar – who worked on titles that won highprofile awards, including the Waterstones Children’s Book Prize and the Carnegie Medal, at KO – says of the move: “I was ready for a fresh challenge. I’d been at KO for six years, and I’d done so much in that time with my amazing team – we’d grown, we’d broken boundaries, we’d shaken up the industry, and I just wanted to take all of that and go somewhere that was representing the same ethos, but on a bigger scale.”
During our conversation at MCB’s office, she shares that she was very careful about choosing where to take her next step, explaining: “So much that I did before was through the lens of ‘this is brand new’, but going into Macmillan, it’s clear that there is and was a strategy before me on how representation and inclusion and diversity could be threaded through the DNA of its publishing… It wasn’t that I had to create that strategy from scratch.”
She continues: “The growth strategy that exists here is to publish books for every reader, to make sure they can see themselves, and for us to publish commercial successes that do that, but that don’t hinge on that. That is what I was trying to do at KO – to publish commercially successful, inclusive fiction. So, it’s just doing that globally, with a brilliant team.”
Though Brar started her career in big publishing houses – joining Penguin Random
House’s rights team through a Creative Access internship 12 years ago before moving into an editorial role at Scholastic – she admits that returning to mainstream publishing was daunting. “Maybe when I was hired, I felt a bit of imposter syndrome, because so much of KO existed outside of traditional publishing, so coming back into that has probably been the biggest challenge, being part of the machine in a way again,” she says.
“But I do feel like this is what I’m capable of, this is what I’m good at, this is where my experience has led me. And the reason I’m here is because this team and this company wants that broad range of experience to inform the publishing strategy, so it works really well.”
Breaking cycles
Since Brar left KO, the award-winning indie has closed. While she believes that KO is “a singular case that has its own things that fed into [the closure]”, she highlights that its demise came in the wake of the shuttering of The Good Literary Agency (set up to represent marginalised writers) and the stark drop in representative children’s books reported by the Centre for Literacy in Primary Education at the end of 2024.
“We have to be aware that diversity and representation can come in a trend cycle,” she warns. “What I want to do is to take it out of that trend cycle and just have it intrinsically part of the stories that we’re getting to young readers. I think once that happens in a widespread way across the industry, the work that KO did will live on, and it will have been an effective vehicle for change.”
While Brar acknowledges that “disruptors are always needed in the industry”, she believes she can have a greater impact in her current position than she did before. “I’ve done that disruption, but change really comes from the top down. There are so few women of colour in leadership roles still in the industry. I feel that by heading up an editorial team, I can now set the tone.”
According to Brar, the main differ ences between her role at MCB and working at KO are “the sheer quan tity of publishing and the fact that it’s not only me who’s acquiring”. Leading a 10-strong editorial team, she has “much more of a bird’seye view of the strategy and informing what is published, and how that all works together as one big picture”.
She continues: “One thing I’ve been thinking about a lot this year is the read ing-for-pleasure crisis. Last year the National Literacy Trust report said only one in three children would choose to read for pleasure. That’s a huge amount of young people [not reading]. If it’s because they don’t want to read the books that are in front of them, what is another way that we could reach them?”
Change comes from the top down. There are so few women of colour in leadership roles in the industry. By heading up an editorial team, I can set the tone
According to Brar, this is “really tied to representation… because if you don’t see yourself, your interests, the world around you, reflected in the pages of a book, then why would you go there?”
Staying hands-on
As well as the strategic side of her role, Brar is acquiring and editing a select list of titles. “I never wanted to let go of that hands-on editorial work, because I feel that for me to be a good publisher and to support my team, I can’t lose sight of the work they’re doing every day,” she says.
Her biggest acquisitions for MCB so far include winning a five-way auction for British author Gem Rayner’s YA romantasy duology and striking a deal for eight books from former KO middle-grade author Elle McNicoll, with whom she has worked since her debut. When KO wound down, Brar was already exploring frontlist middle-grade publishing with McNicoll (who publishes adult and YA titles with Pan Macmillan) and took the opportunity to acquire her backlist too.
“It just made sense to bring everything under one umbrella and to develop her as a Pan Macmillan brand author across everything and give her that holistic publishing strategy,” Brar explains. “She’s such a talent. It was a no-brainer.”
Macmillan Children’s Books’ Bologna highlights
Clive Gifford Epic Football Comics Rocket Fox, 4th June, £7.99, PB New non-fiction graphic-novel series about football heroes, kicking off with: Bellingham (9781035096220), Saka (9781035096336), Mbappé and Salah (9781035096282 / (9781035096367).
Thiago de Moraes’ comic-book series
Don’t Panic Poncho (see sidebar, right) is one of MCB’s key YA titles
At Bologna Children’s Book Fair, the MCB team will be pushing its YA list, First Ink, as well as its “incredible graphic-novel list”, including Thiago de Moraes’ recently announced full-colour younger comic-book series Don’t Panic Poncho and middle-grade graphic-novel series Tiny Hercules by Jon Lock and Nich Angell, who are heading to the fair to meet foreign publishers.
Brar says: “We are finding that graphic novels, especially on the younger, cute side, are highly in demand.” In terms of her wish list, she is on the lookout for “buzzy, exciting YA”, “topic-led non-fiction that’s in an exciting format” and “the next shift in middle-grade, because I do feel like there’s something really commercial and hooky that can break
Beyond Bologna, MCB has “ambitious plans to grow”. Brar tates: “We want to be the go-to publisher for representative and accessible children’s books. And so far, we are doing that well, but where we want to be is doing it with high impact, being known for that.” She is keen to focus on “spaces that currently are underserved”, such as publishing for five- to seven-year-olds, middle-grade and ‘core YA’ books. This all ties in, she believes, to her overall strategy and ethos for MCB – “leading and having commercial success by doing something slightly different”.
Thiago de Moraes Don’t Panic Poncho
Macmillan Children’s Books, 4th March 2027, £8.99, PB, 9781037400469
First in a full-colour comic-book series starring adorable pug Poncho, in which he goes camping with his friends.
Jen Williams A Thousand Fathoms High First Ink, May 2027, £16.99, HB, 9781035092765
New YA offering from the author of The Sleepless and The Dreamless
Elle McNicoll Ungifted
Macmillan Children’s Books, September 2027, £7.99, PB, 9781037411465
First title in awardwinning McNicoll’s middle-grade series.
Natalie Haynes, Hannah Peck (illus) Goddesses
Two Hoots, October 2027, £20, HB, 9781035074198
Haynes’ first book for a young audience, illustrated in colour, will introduce children to the world of Greek goddesses.
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Breaking through: why Taiwanese kids’ authors are gaining a global reach
Three Taiwanese creators are up for this year’s
Astrid Lindgren prize, reflecting a growing international footprint in the country’s children’s sector
For an indication of the surging international appeal of Taiwan’s kids’ authors and illustrators, just look to the list of nominees for today’s (14th April) joint Bologna and Stockholm announcement of the Astrid Lindgren Memorial Award (ALMA). Three Taiwanese creatives are in the running for the prestigious “children’s Nobel”: picture-book star Hsu-Kung Liu, authorillustrator Bei Lynn and writer Yih-Fen Chou, perhaps most familiar to global readers as the creator of the Mimi series.
It is an impressive representation, even more so as Taiwan is punching well above the rest of the region – no other East or South East Asian territory has as many individuals in ALMA contention.
It is probably no coincidence that the trio is vying for the ALMA, as their stars are also on
the rise internationally. Liu has now been published into nine languages, with his most recent book in English, Little Monk Writes Rain (translated by Rachel Wang Yung-Hsin), released just ahead of this Bologna by Michigan-based Eerdmans in a clever format that unfolds vertically. Liu is also no stranger to international prizes: his trophy case includes the 2019 Silver Star of Sweden’s Peter Pan Prize for Are You My Brother?
Lynn, meanwhile, has been published in eight languages, with particular success in the Spanish markets. As an illustrator she has collaborated on other Taiwanese global hits, including Julia Liu’s Leilong the brontosaurus titles. And while Chou’s standalone picture books are feted at home and abroad – The Story of Grandma Snowflower has been a particular hit with prize juries – the Mimi series is that
rare commodity that works just as well as IP (it has been licensed in 14 languages and has been adapted into an animated series) and a deep, universal character study.
It is also interesting that many international editors at this Bologna have been talking about the need for humorous, playful titles that “spark joy”. But ones that can also weave in serious, weighty topics – death, hardship, mental health issues – amid the smiles. And the work of all three of Taiwan’s ALMA contenders, in their own ways, falls neatly in this space, bang on 2026’s biggest trend.
Mamma Mimi, here we go again
Chou ( 1) will be familiar to many in the aisles of the Fiere. She is not only a bestselling author with more than one million units sold globally but also the founder and editor-in-chief of Taipei-based picture-books publisher Heryin, which she launched in 1998 following her return to Taiwan after living in the US.
Both Heryin and the Mimi series are rooted in Chou’s educational psychology background and her “particular passion for writing and editing”. Chou says: “I found that picture books with carefully chosen words were especially well-suited to me. I could painstakingly refine every single word and every single image, almost to the point of obsession. [Picture books] combine both literary and visual aesthetics, becoming the place where everything I do best comes together.”
The first Mimi outing, Mimi Says No ( A), was not conceived on a whim, as Chou used her doctoral research on humour and children to inform the content. She also wanted the series to instruct and give life lessons without
being didactic, and that the range would be “books that children would genuinely enjoy. I thought that if I could write works that were truly attuned to young children’s inner worlds, viewed through the lens of developmental psychology, they would probably meet real needs in early childhood”.
Chou was full of trepidation when she first brought Mimi to Bologna, knowing how difficult it can sometimes be to sell picturebook rights. But, she says: “To my surprise, Mimi Says No sold to 14 countries in one go, far exceeding my imagination. That was the first time I deeply felt the power of a children’s book to transcend borders.”
She has developed the Mimi range slowly, “as a 10,000-metre race, not a 100-metre sprint”, aiming to keep it within its original values. The key to successful IP, she says, is “uniqueness”. Chou adds: “Many cultures have their own iconic character IPs that tell their local stories. I hoped to create a beloved character that truly belongs to our own culture. The character of Mimi and her world intentionally blends elements and aesthetics from both Eastern and Western traditions. I believe that in today’s globalised era, this kind of fusion is a more genuine and authentic portrayal, and one that resonates with readers everywhere.”
Wish fulfilment
The Damascene moment for Lynn ( 2) came when she was studying fine art at university and was struggling with the direction of her work. Then she stumbled upon American author Ezra Jack Keats’ Caldecott winner The Snowy Day. Lynn says: “I hadn’t really read picture books growing up, so it was my
first time encountering one of this kind. The short, engaging text and the simple yet richly expressive illustrations really drew me in.”
Taiwanese creator Li Chinlun’s Spit the Seeds further inspired, so she went on to do a master’s in children’s literature. She began obsessively reading picture books, creating her own and entering competitions. She triumphed in one of those, leading to the publication of her debut, Let’s Pretend We’re Fish ( B), which itself bagged the Hsin-Yi Children’s Literature Award, one of Taiwan’s most prestigious kids’ prizes. Lynn says: “I’ve continued creating ever since. Creating and publishing have brought me a great sense of fulfilment.”
She must be very fulfilled, as Lynn has since produced nearly 30 titles across a wide range of genres. Picture books shade it as her favourite medium, but “sometimes, the story itself reveals the form it wants to take, and it guides me along. But at other times, if I decide in advance to work in a particular format – like comics – the process brings many fresh experiences and the joy of problem-solving”.
Engineered success
Liu ( 3) might be the only author-illustrator visiting this, or any, year’s Bologna who studied civil engineering at university. But while doing his degree he took a picture-book course at the Taipei Fine Arts Museum. After graduation he had a varied CV – engineer, elementary school teacher, site supervisor, research assistant – but the urge to write and draw kept gnawing, so he eventually chucked his job and decided to make a go of it in picture books.
His energetic, vibrant and gently humorous outings were a success from the off, partially, he reckons “because [the early work was] quite simple and tended to focus on everyday experiences – like eating durian, swimming, rainy days and travel”. Liu gained international traction from the early 2000s, both with sub versive outings such as Let’s Go to the Tortoise Country and more emotionally charged titles, including Whose Stop Is This?. Asked why his books – which include The Orange Horse ( C) – appeal across cultures, Liu suggests it is because they “have a sense of everyday life, with simple stories and a hint of mystery. Sometimes they’re funny, and I like to look at things from different angles so readers can take part in the story and let their imagination run”.
He adds: “There are universal themes in children’s books. Life, fun, emotions, imagination: these are the things that matter to kids. And they make perfect subjects for children’s stories.”
Aussie rules: the presses Down Under reversing the flow from the UK
Australian kids’ houses Five Mile Press and Smith Street Books recently announced moves to expand their UK footprints. Bosses Fiona Horman and Paul McNally tell Heloise Wood about an Antipodean British invasion
About a year ago, Fiona Horman ( 1) – who has led Australia’s Five Mile for the past eight years –thought she needed to shake things up.
“I decided, let’s look at really getting into the UK properly,” Horman tells me over Zoom, 10,000-plus miles away in the south-eastern state of Victoria, as her pet Cavoodle (known
as a Cavapoo in Britain) wanders in and out of shot. The house had long used the US-based Independent Publishers Group to export and sell rights into the UK but is now changing tack to go direct via wholesalers Gardners.
Of course, this counters a lot of the usual publishing traffic, as the content generally flows from the UK to its Commonwealth partner. But Horman says the move made sense for
Five Mile, not least culturally: “The English and Australians have quite similar tastes – not in all things, but most things. And we felt that we have some great backlist titles and we create about 100 new books each year… it was the right opportunity and timing.”
You have retailers in the UK that want the books for practically nothing. Well, I have retailers in Australia that want the books for nothing
Fiona Horman, Five Mile Press
Five Mile launched 35 years ago and has undergone various iterations: launching as an independent to being acquired by Bonnier in 2016 and then sold off a mere two years later to entertainment firm Regency Media. Its wheelhouse is in the board, colouring and picture-books space, working with local Australian creators along with international licences such as Zootopia, Disney Doorables and ZURU Smashers.
Horman likes to keep the business streamlined: “We do not come to London Book Fair (LBF); we prefer Bologna, as we feel that that’s more focused. We only have eight staff and we do sell throughout the world. So we sell in America, we sell to the big box stores in America as well. And we license our content, so, we sell to the big box stores in America as well… We’re sort of owning the board-book space at the moment.”
But Horman notes that the market across both Australia and the UK is tough. “It’s competitive in Britain; it’s competitive in Australia. You have retailers in the UK that want the books for practically nothing. Well, I have retailers in Australia that want the books for nothing. There are idiosyncrasies in the markets because Christmas is our summer. But we produce snowy Christmas books anyway. But we need to careful: we had a book for the UK that we were looking at putting a polar bear on the front, but that wouldn’t sell for Australia… So, it’s just those little things you’ve got to be mindful of when serving both markets.”
Another difference is the colour palette, as Australian book buyers have traditionally favoured bolder colours, while the UK shades towards muted pastels. Five Mile’s illustration styles have changed, moving away from having more large-eyed characters. “But there are global trends in illustration… That’s why it’s good to go to Bologna to see what everyone else is actually doing.”
On artificial intelligence, Horman admits to “dabbling” but says: “We’ve played around with it just to see if we could get a book written very quickly. But the illustrations are just not right. They end up looking cheap and nasty.”
Five Mile announced its intentions to enter the UK last September, and in the same month Aussie indie Smith Street Books declared it would open a children’s imprint, Little Smith, partially with a view to exploring the British kids’ market.
Managing director McNally ( 2) founded the company as the only employee 11 years ago, focusing on high-end design titles, in particular cookbooks. He named it Smith Street after the road where the office resides in Melbourne and its titles have always been distributed in the UK, currently by Thames & Hudson.
McNally says, over Zoom: “We started with 16 titles when we first went to market in 2016 and have grown organically from there, always
doing trade illustrated books, a mix of subjects including cooking or pop culture, but always with that eye on high production values and design. We can’t afford to scoop up those high-profile authors. So, we compete on creating beautiful, evocative content – which is kind of how we’ve ended up publishing into the kids’ book space.”
McNally, who first cut his publishing teeth at the now defunct UK branch of New Holland, has always been focused on global appeal. “Everything that we published from the very beginning had a life internationally,” he says. “We don’t do anything that’s specifically Australian content, as that’s obviously not going to work elsewhere.”
The aims for Little Smith are to “grow organically and with integrity”, says McNally, who describes the choice to venture into children’s publishing as “an organic process”. He adds: “So for the first year, 2026, we’re launching six titles under the imprint, which is a range of big titles, including natural history titles. Next year, we’re looking to grow to 10 titles. But we’re not planning on getting to 100 titles in the next three years; we just want to kind of keep the list tight, designled with high production values.”
Everything we have published had a life internationally. We don’t do specifically Australian content, as that’s obviously not going to work elsewhere
Paul McNally, Smith Street Books
The headcount might also expand beyond the current nine-strong roster: “There is an ambition to grow the Little Smith list and that will probably include staff.”
In terms of the changes over the decade since launching, McNally says: “I think early on we were very reactive and we were kind of pumping out books very quickly depending on whatever trends were happening. Now we’ve slowed down and we’re a little bit more sensitive to the market and a bit more cautious.
“[Another] big change of the decade has been getting our books into places that aren’t necessarily traditional bookstores. So gift retailers, museums and galleries, but also g etting into those homeware stores now taking books. The other change is we have increasingly produced more special editions for particular retailers.”
McNally travels to Frankfurt each year and has gone to LBF a few times. Now, he has his sights set on Bologna. Though he suggests that Little Smith might be too little just now: [It’s maybe] not enough to turn up to Bologna with six titles… I can’t justify an amazing trip to Italy with that but we have ambitions to go when we have a more complete list.”
He adds with a determined glint in his eye: “Yes, take me to Bologna – next year.”
Trade profile
Molly Ker Hawn:
‘Bologna is like summer camp. There’s so much joy’
The agent on selling up to David Higham, the power of outrage and publishing’s need to take chances. Tom Tivnan reports
‘The adrenaline of selling a book is addictive. It’s like spr ead betting. It’s pretty much legalised gambling.”
Molly Ker Hawn ( 1) is midflow, riffing on the joys and keys to being an agent – particularly those who specialise in children’s – energised by the excellent kale and herb fritters we are snacking on at a Thai restaurant near London’s Borough Market. She is being mischievous, but then goes on, more soberly: “Though I am very calm in my personal life, it helps that I can be fundamentally indignant and outraged as an agent because the
author is, almost always, the underdog. So we are starting out in a position where the power is out of whack, and I am here to make sure that imbalance gets redressed.
“Plus, you have to be a relentless optimist. Every time you open your submissions inbox, you see a lot of manuscripts from people who are probably never going to see their dreams realised. But then nothing beats that thrill when you find an author who clearly knows what they’re doing, and just by reading the first couple of paragraphs you think: ‘I’m in really good hands here.’
”
Ker Hawn is feeling relentlessly optimistic on the corporate level following the late 2025 acquisition by David Higham Associates (DHA) of her The Bent Agency (TBA) UK. Ker Hawn – California-born-and-bred but a Londoner for many years – set up TBA’s British base 14 years ago, linking with her long-time friend and TBA founder Jenny Bent (the two first met at Cambridge University, two Americans assigned to nearby rooms in their halls of residence).
Time on our side
Even before the DHA acquisition last December, publishing’s chattering classes assumed something was afoot with TBA UK as there were significant departures: Gemma Cooper left a year and a half ago to set up Gemma Cooper Literary and Nicola Barr exited last summer to launch Rye Literary. Companies House filings reveal Bent resigned as a TBA UK director in May 2025 (though the TBAs shared a name, branding and some clients, the British outpost was a separate entity and Companies House documents show Ker Hawn was the sole shareholder).
Ker Hawn insists that the split basically came down to her wish to get back to the joy of agenting: “I ran a small business, started from scratch, learned a ton. I’m lucky to have had that experience. But I reached a point where the administrative burden was becoming so high and so heavy that the ratio of time I was spending on client work compared with running the business wasn’t where I wanted to be.”
Hardinge –the 2015 Costa Book of the Year winner and another of Ker Hawn’s high-profile clients
All of Ker Hawn’s roster – including The Hate U Give author Angie Thomas, Loki series creator Louie Stowell, YA fantasy star Alwyn Hamilton and Costa winners Frances Hardinge and Hilary McKay – came with her to DHA. “I was nervous telling my clients [about the sale] because nobody likes change. But, really, the only question most of them asked was: ‘Does this mean you’re going to have more time?’ And it was exactly what it meant because I no longer have to do things like shop around for professional liability insurance.”
Ker Hawn chose DHA partially because of its managing director Lizzy Kremer, with whom Ker Hawn has been friends since they were on the board of the Association of Authors’ Agents: “I liked the way she thought about our responsibilities to authors and publishers’ responsibilities to authors – our thinking was aligned in so many ways.”
The DHA culture has “proven to be such a good fit. They’re – we’re – intensely collaborative, which I knew, but I didn’t fully understand until I had the opportunity to sit in on all kinds of conversations about other people’s lists, issues, clients and concerns; the alacrity with which my new colleagues are willing to weigh in on my concerns is such a shot in the arm”.
Make it snappy
Ker Hawn has bolstered the DHA children’s side as it heads into Bologna. It is much altered, though, with Caroline Walsh’s retirement at the end of 2025 – Walsh’s starry list of clients such as Jacqueline Wilson, Cressida Cowell and Liz Pichon have been taken over by other DHA staffers – and the addition of Isobel Boston, who crossed the aisle from publishing to join as children’s agent.
Ker Hawn herself hits the Fiere on a high, having just sold a younger YA debut novel in an “intense” US auction, of which she cannot yet reveal the details. But that dovetails into what she is seeing high on the agenda from editors at the moment: “short and snappy middle-grade that doesn’t sacrifice on quality” and funny books. Though Ker Hawn adds it is tough to pin down trends with “editors saying it is hard to know what’s going to work, which leads to a sense that some of them don’t actually know what they want. I say that is an opportunity: if it’s hard to make everything work, then shouldn’t you take chances?”
She is all in for the current vogue for shorter titles and respects “highly consumable books – there is nothing better than [Dav Pilkey’s] Dog Man in getting an eight-year-old reluctant reader to devour a whole series. But we can
DHA is intensely collaborative. The alacrity with which my new colleagues are willing to weigh in on my concerns is such a shot in the arm
balance highly consumable books with those that have challenging ideas and introduce kids to the ways that authors play with language. I think about [Patrick Ness’ modern classic] The Knife of Never Letting Go. If I tried to send something like that out now, I worry publishers would say: ‘Ooh, this is too complicated.’ But I think kids love when they can tackle a book like that – to know that it’s a challenge, but it still feels like it was written for them. That’s what makes reading addictive”.
Ker Hawn grew up in Marin County (the other end of the Golden Gate Bridge from San Francisco). Her parents were not readers, but she spent a lot of time in the library because “in the 1970s libraries were like daycare: I’d be dropped for hours while my mother did errands”. A year abroad at a school in Dorset was a formative experience, leading her to apply to Cambridge.
After university, Ker Hawn bagged a children’s editorial assistant role at San Franciscobased Chronicle Books. She switched coasts to New York for a job at Penguin’s Dial imprint, then was drawn to a variety of magazine roles as “the money was nice”. The work, however, was “soul-destroying”, so she “came screamingly back to children’s books”, initially at trade body the Children’s Book Council. She moved to London when her husband was transferred for work and took maternity leave. When she returned to work, Bent called wondering if she might fancy becoming an agent.
As we leave, she tells me she cannot wait to get to Bologna: “Are you kidding? I look forward to it like it’s summer camp. There’s so much joy there. Even when we’re complaining, there’s a baseline level of joy, because children’s publishing is always going to be more than just a business. There is that sense of shared social purpose. As terrible as the news is, as rotten as the world is, most people in children’s publishing get up in the morning and think: ‘Maybe what I’m doing is going to make a difference to a kid somewhere.’ ”
Ker Hawn on… a new category?
“The audience getting overlooked a lot is post-middle-grade, especially as YA has crept further up into that [adult] crossover market. Which I understand, because it sells. But is that YA developmentally appropriate, or even interesting, for a 13-year-old? If you go into Waterstones, you have your eight-to-12 bay, then a 13-plus bay. So we end up having early YA authors stocked next to Sarah J Maas. Part of the problem is that we just don’t have a universally recognised name for [post-middlegrade], though a lot of publishers call it ‘teen’. Publishers say: ‘We’d love to do more teen’, but then it gets lost because a lot of retailers just don’t know what to do with it.”
Angie Thomas (inset), author of The Hate U Give, is one of Ker Hawn’s authors at David Higham Associates
Frances
Books
Author Profile Alice Oseman
The award-winning author-illustrator reflects on the legacy of their bestselling graphic novel series. Caroline Carpenter reports
In September 2013, The Bookseller reported that HarperCollins Children’s Books had made a “major” pre-empt for the debut YA novel from 18-yearold Alice Oseman. Written when she was just 17, Solitaire showcased the writer’s talent for authentically reflecting teenagers’ concerns, relationships and online behaviour. It also introduced young couple Charlie Spring and Nick Nelson. The secondary characters cap tured Oseman’s imagination and she decided to explore their story further in a novella, Nick and Charlie (published in 2015), and then in a free webcomic named Heartstopper. Launched in 2016 and originally published on Tumblr and Tapas, Heartstopper follows the boys as they fall in love, as well as exploring the lives of their friends. Within a couple of years, it had gained more than 50,000 subscribers. When the author-illustrator turned to crowdfunding to produce a physical version in 2018, she reached her target within two hours. Later that year, Hachette Children’s Group signed the series. Now, five Heartstopper graphic novels have been published, alongside an official colouring book and a yearbook.
According to Hachette, the series has shifted over 10 million copies in more than 40 countries worldwide. In the UK, the Heartstopper graphic novels have sold 1.3 million units in the UK through NielsenIQ BookScan’s Total Consumer Market, and volume five is the UK’s fastestselling graphic novel ever. The series’ reach grew in 2022 when Netflix’s screen adaptation of the books aired, for which Oseman is the Emmy-winning and BAFTA-nominated writer and executive producer.
Talking to me at the London Book Fair, where Oseman was the first ever Creative of the Fair and Heartstopper received a YA Book Prize Special Achievement Award, she says that the popularity of the series has been “a really wonderful surprise”: “Heartstopper has blown up on such a massive scale, it’s completely unexpected. It’s not something that happens very often to books.” The author-illustrator attributes some of this success to her early online following, but admits that space has “changed so much” since she started out. “Back then, in 2013, the internet was very different. If I was that at that age now, and having to navigate TikTok and Instagram, I don’t know if it would be the same. I doubt it would. It was so much easier back then to find that connection with readers.”
When Oseman reached her crowdfunding target in 2018, she stated: “I hope this shows UK YA publishing that not only are LGBT+ stories very much desired, but there’s also a place for British YA graphic novels too.” In the intervening years, the graphic-novel market has boomed, with Nielsen IQ BookScan reporting a 27.8% rise in sales of Children’s Comic Strip Fiction & Graphic Novels last year.
“It’s really special to think that Heartstopper has been a part of changing the landscape of graphic novels and boosting their popularity, because I definitely felt the lack of them when I first started making Heartstopper,” recalls Oseman. “I didn’t really think it had much chance of traditional publication. But now there are so many YA graphic novels, which is really wonderful. I think they’re such an amazing way for young people in particular to get into reading.”
Another reason behind her decision to selfpublish was her belief that signing with a UK publisher would make it hard for international readers, who form a large part of her audience, to get a copy. Rights for Heartstopper have now been sold in 40 territories. “It has strong fan bases all around the world, which, again, is so
unexpected,” says Oseman. While the series is very rooted in the UK (Nick and Charlie play rugby, for example), she feels that the series’ widespread appeal is that its core is “the romance and the friendships, and that’s a universal thing that can be felt wherever you are”.
Oseman believes there are several lessons that the industry can learn from the success of Heartstopper.
“Firstly, trusting creators with their own story. I’m very lucky, my publisher trusts me to take ownership over that story and do what I want with it, almost, which is really wonderful as a creator. And also, trusting [the audience]... Heartstopper is online to read for free, and I think a lot of publishers would see that and be a little bit horrified. But actually, the fact that it is online is the reason that it’s so popular, because people read it online, and then they can go and buy the book. So I would be interested to see more publishers embracing that in the digital landscape.”
The sixth and final Heartstopper book will be released on 2nd July 2026. Oseman teases: “Nick and Charlie’s lives are slowly starting to diverge. Nick is going to be going off to university pretty soon, and Charlie has decided he wants to try and become head boy of Truham Grammar… They are facing the reality that they’re not going to be in the same place anymore. What is that going to mean for them, and do they really know who they are without the other person?”
In terms of timeline, the final Heartstopper book covers the same period as the Nick and Charlie novella, posing a “big and difficult” question for the creator. “How am I going to incorporate the Nick and Charlie novella?
Am I going to try to incorporate the novella?”
A major plot point in Nick and Charlie is that the boys have a small break-up before getting back together. Oseman explains: “Try as I might, I could not find a way to get that into volume six and it make sense without it having to take up most of volume six, because it’s not the sort of thing you can just skim over.
“I decided I don’t want to spend most of volume six exploring something that I’ve explored before in a different story. I think I know Nick and Charlie much better now… So now I consider them different universes, different stories, and I’m content with that. Reactions to that will be mixed, I think, but I’m happy with my decision.”
Following the book’s publication, Netflix’s Heartstopper series finale will hit screens later this year as a feature-length film based on both the sixth volume of the graphic-novel series and the Nick and Charlie novella. Post-production on the Heartstopper Forever film wrapped last month, but the release date is yet to be announced. Oseman will spend most of this year promoting Heartstopper and “meeting as many readers as I can”. Beyond this, she has “no plans”.
She states: “I’m going to try and take a proper break from creative work for a little while, just to refresh my brain, because I’ve been working to deadlines non-stop since the beginning of my career… and then, who knows?” Having not written prose since her 2020 novel Loveless, she is “really excited” to return to the format in the future but predicted that she will produce more graphic novels too. “I can’t see myself abandoning comics. It’s something I just love to do.” While she is “really open to whatever idea comes”, she admits: “I do feel excited by the prospect of getting to write adult fiction for the first time. I’ve only ever written YA and now I am over 30, and I would be very interested to explore writing for adults.”
Oseman calls ending the series “very bittersweet”: “It’s really, really sad to be saying goodbye to these characters and this story that I’ve loved working on for so long, but I also feel really happy and proud of where I’ve taken the story, just the whole journey that it’s been on.”
Considering the legacy of Heartstopper, she hopes that fans will “look back on it with fond memories”, and adds: “I really hope that it continues to encourage more people to support and produce young queer art of any kind.”
Alice Oseman, recipient of the YA Book Prize Special Achievement Award, with Caroline Carpenter, chair of the prize
Thinking big: Little Simon UK reflects on the imprint’s first year
Isobel Booth and Mara van der Meer outline their plans and priorities for S&S’ new early-years list. Caroline Carpenter reports
It has been 12 months since Simon & Schuster Children’s Books launched preschool and novelty imprint Little Simon UK at Bologna Children’s Book Fair, “inspired by the success” of the longstanding US list of the same name. “A lot has changed in a year,” says Isobel Booth, preschool and novelty editorial director. “We’ve been reminiscing about this with our Bologna deadlines, because [at the start of 2025] we were sending our very first books off to get printed. Now, we’ve got lots of titles.”
Booth joined S&S in August 2024 to set up the new imprint. A couple of months later, Mara van der Meer came on board as pre-school and novelty art director. Both began their careers at Ladybird and have been “completely immersed in novelty and pre-school” ever since. Van der Meer, who previously spent 11 years as Priddy Books’ art director, says of the
move to S&S: “The opportunity to start up a new list from scratch very rarely comes up, so that made it incredibly appealing for me.”
Booth agrees and reflects on working in pre-school and novelty publishing: “It’s so creative and there are so many different things to think about in terms of making it fun, making it safe, making it easy for people to use… I just love the layers of that challenge.” Both note that the market for early-years books has changed significantly since they started out. “It’s got a lot more challenging because the competition is incredible,” states Van der Meer. Another complication is the increased price of including novelty elements. “The challenge now with the cost so high is to still make something impactful… You’ve got to be more clever, more creative, which is great fun.”
Booth adds: “I think it’s an exciting time to be working. We’re seeing a lot of innovation
L-R: Isobel Booth, pre-school and novelty editorial director, and Mara van der Meer, pre-school and novelty art director
from printers.” She continues: “The other thing that’s really changed in the pre-school space is how many brands are coming down into this younger area… there’s so much that people recognise and know and love already, so trying to elbow some of them off the shelves is a challenge.” One way they intend to do this is by adapting some of S&S’ bestselling picturebook brands for the pre-school and novelty audience, including Benji Davies’ Storm Whale series, Chris and Rosie Ramsey’s There’s a Poonami… titles and the bestselling Supertato range by Sue Hendra and Paul Linnet (building on their recent work consulting on a Supertato lift-the-flap picture book).
“That’s going to be our focus over the next year or so, to start really getting to grips with the picture-book brands,” says Van der Meer, “And of course, our new stuff too. I get incredibly excited about any new formats, and that’s what we would like to focus on – like the Tuck Me In series.” Booth snapped up the titles (which features sturdy pockets with cutout play pieces on every page) from authorillustrator Naomi Tipping after a video of the handmade dummy Tipping designed for her MA in children’s book illustration went viral on social media. The first two titles will publish this July, with two more to follow in 2027, and another series from Tipping also in the works.
Booth says: “We just loved the idea so much, it’s so clever. It’s all about play, all about these cats having their own life outside the book, and then you tuck them safely into bed. But turning a beautiful, handmade dummy into something you can sell was a real challenge.”
Van der Meer adds: “It took us about six months to get to the final iteration.” The art director has also come up with her own new format series, Tickle My Tummy, which features floating tactiles that wiggle when the characters’ stomachs are tickled. It launches in 2027 and is a key range for Little Simon at this Bologna.
Playing the long game
The Little Simon UK team works to a 13-month critical path, producing books so far ahead of publication date to ensure they can be pitched at two book fairs before paper orders are finalised, with the pair currently working on the list for 2028. They praise the S&S Children’s rights team for the fact that the list is launching into 16 languages this year. “The in-house support from sales and rights has been phenomenal,” says Booth. “Everyone really believes in this list, and that means that we can deliver formats of the highest quality… So we’ll always be commissioning and acquiring with that in mind, and we are trying to cater for the global child.” In their regular meetings with foreign publishers, they are seeing interest in “anything format-wise that is different… which is right up our street”.
Despite the long lead time, they are prepared to move faster for a special project. One example of this is the Magic Milestones series by
Rights sold: Catalan, Croatian, Estonian, French (world), Greek, Hungarian, Portuguese (Portugal), Slovenian, Spanish (world)
child behavioural expert Amanda Jenner, which kicks off with Ready for My Potty this June. These titles cover important toddler-first experiences and feature pull-tabs that slide to reveal stars to reward and reassure children as they tackle new challenges. They also mention Nik-Nak Bunny: Footballer, a new volume in a narrative-led novelty series written by Carys Bexington and illustrated by Jenny Wren, which has been turned around quickly to publish ahead of this summer’s World Cup.
Something that we feel very strongly about is that whatever we’re doing, we’re having
fun, and the children are having fun as well
Mara van der Meer
Fiz Osborne, Kayt Bochenski (illus) Hello…
Rights sold: Finnish, Greek, Italian, Portuguese (Portugal), Spanish (Latin America), Swedish
Rights sold: Dutch, French (world), Portuguese (Portugal), Spanish (Latin America), Swedish, Turkish
Booth describes it as “so serendipitous” that the first Little Simon UK books are released in the National Year of Reading. “It feels like exactly the right time to be bringing a new list to market… We’re just trying to meet families where they are, and I think that really embodies the mission of the National Year of Reading.” One way that they plan to reach consumers is with a Little Simon UK installation at Edinburgh International Book Festival, which they are currently designing. “It will be great for getting people engaged with what we’re already doing,” says Booth, “but it will also help us learn from how the children interact with things.”
Little Simon UK will publish between 15 and 25 books annually. Booth’s dream for the future of the list is to “meet the needs and wants of every little consumer we possibly can while retaining the sturdiness and quality and play value of all of the books”. Van der Meer concurs: “Something that Izzy and I feel very strongly about is that whatever we’re doing, we’re having fun, and the children are having fun playing with it as well… [But] we’re not just putting novelty in for novelty’s sake. Everything is incredibly well considered.”
They hope to explore paper engineering and sound books, and to “cover all the age ranges”, with plans to focus on books for newborns next. “The sky’s the limit, really,” agrees Booth, who calls her role “a pinch-me job”.
“What excites me a lot is the top end [of the audience’s age range] where we can maybe do something a little bit more fancy in terms of pops and novelty,” says Van der Meer, adding: “The problem for us is that there is so much we could do – it’s like a blank piece of paper and we’ve got about 50 million ideas… After all these years, we’re still so passionate about what we do.”
Naomi Tipping, the author-illustrator behind Little Simon’s upcoming Tuck Me In series
Discover what happened to the forgotten Bennet sisters
Set six months after Pride and Prejudice , Kitty and Mary tell their stories through letters and journals. Perfect for fans of Jane Austen and historical fiction.
Visit our stand: Hall 25, B108
Find out more: rights@andersenpress.co.uk
• Rights sold in 8 languages: Albania, China, France, Germany, Italy, Poland, Slovakia and Turkey
• English-language audio rights sold
• Highly illustrated throughout by debut talent Charley Rabbit
• Features graphic novel-style pages with exciting detective scenes
Find out more: rights@andersenpress.co.uk
Visit our stand: Hall 25, B108
12:23
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Rights Assistant Post Wave Children’s Books
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The HR manager plays a critical role in shaping and sustaining our high-performing, values-led organisation. You will be the custodian of our culture, ensuring that our people experience reflects our commitment to excellence, independence, passion and long-term stewardship.
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As a stand-alone role, the HR manager will collaborate with the senior leadership team on strategy and is responsible for the delivery of initiatives, documentation and reports. What you will do:
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Featured Post Wave Children’s Books is looking for a Rights Assistant to join our recently established team. We are looking for a motivated self-starter to support the Rights Director in selling Post Wave books in various languages around the globe, either as licenses or as co-editions. This is a critical role in growing company revenue, and it will involve collaborating with all internal teams as well as with external business partners. You will be highly proficient in written and spoken English and a second language is preferred.
£28,000pa London
International Sales Assistant (Rights) Nosy Crow
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Nosy Crow is looking to recruit an International Sales Assistant to support a dynamic and collaborative Foreign Rights team, responsible for selling translation rights to global publishers. The successful candidate will report to the Rights Manager and provide administrative support to all seven members of the team, travelling to Frankfurt and Bologna Book Fairs and other key territories (language depending). This is a full-time position and is a hybrid role, working a minimum of three days per week in our office near to London Bridge.
Sheffield, London, Bristol, Edinburgh £30,000-£52,000pa DOE
Commissioning Editor/Senior Commissioning Editor (12-month FTC) Little, Brown Book Group
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We are looking for a highly organised editor who is already working at Editor level or higher within commercial publishing and has strong experience publishing crime and thriller. The ideal candidate will have a passion for the crime genre and an excellent market awareness, as well as a wide network of contacts. It is vital that you are a confident structural editor and are experienced in leading successful publications, ideally high-profile ones. The ability to multi-task and work calmly under pressure is key.
Oxford
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Sales Operations Administrator, Bloomsbury Professional & Digital Resources
Bloomsbury Publishing
We are looking for a new Sales Operations Administrator, who is a self-starter and is excited by the entrepreneurial nature of Bloomsbury Publishing. The role will work across Bloomsbury Professional and Digital Resources, working closely with and reporting into the Associate Sales Operations Manager. The ideal candidate will be a confident, creative, collaborative person with excellent communication, analytical and organisational skills as well as strong IT skills.
London
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Head of Publishing Operations/ Publishing Operations Manager
Quarto Publishing
We are looking for an experienced and proactive Publishing Operations lead to head up our metadata and digital publishing function and to drive efficiency, consistency and innovation across all publishing operations. This is a pivotal, highly collaborative role working across editorial, production, sales and finance to ensure publishing schedules are met, metadata is delivered to the highest standard and systems and workflows continue to evolve to support a growing business.
London £30,000pa
Sales Material and Jacket Coordinator DK
DK+ is seeking a Sales Material and Jackets Coordinator to help create bestselling books for dedicated fans. Responsibilities include coordinating sales materials and ensuring projects run smoothly from concept to publication. You will collaborate with the UK, US and International Sales teams to manage all DK+ sales materials, including sales copy, presentation spreads and Amazon assets. Strong organisational skills will be crucial, as the successful candidate will need to maintain sales deadlines and ensure the timely delivery of materials.
London £36,900pa
Publishing Project Editor Royal Museums Greenwich
Working within the Commerce and Visitor Experience team and reporting to the Publishing Manager, the Publishing Project Editor is responsible for the project management of a range of publishing projects (including collections titles, guidebooks, children’s titles, exhibition catalogues and digital products) and takes an active role in all aspects of the publishing process. The successful candidate will have experience in copy-editing, proofreading and writing copy, ideally on illustrated books.
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Madeleine Feeny, Will Smith, Caroline Carpenter, Charlotte Heathcote
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And Other Stories is seeking an experienced, numerate, tech-savvy and organised person, who is good with people, to join our team as Associate Publisher / Publishing Manager. In this newly created role, the candidate will manage the press’ day-to-day operations and help to drive the organisation’s success through good work in sales, financial management, operations and also aiding in governance and relations with our funding partners. This role is ideal for someone with a strong publishing background in operations, sales or finance.
Commercial Operations Manager Hauser & Wirth
Hauser & Wirth Publishers is looking for a Commercial Operations Manager to lead the strategic coordination of its bulk warehouse operations across its European and US facilities, oversee the day-to-day management of seven Shopify storefronts and manage the end-to-end logistics of its printer delivery operations. The successful candidate will have experience managing multiple projects at the same time. The position will suit someone able to work as part of a small team willing to use their initiative.
London From £45,000pa DOE (6-month FTC)
Senior Commissioning Editor/Associate Publisher Quarto Publishing
The Quarto Group is seeking a creative, driven and experienced candidate to work on the Quintessence imprint. This is a co-edition imprint producing illustrated non-fiction reference and covering categories such as visual arts, natural history, popular science, popular culture, food culture, interiors, lifestyle and gift. You will generate and commission standout book concepts with strong market appeal, editorial quality and good commercial sense. Experience in English Language Co-Edition and expertise in relevant categories is a plus.
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