Month: September 2023

Thrilling news for our children’s list: The Skeleton by Malin Klingenberg and Maria Sann has been sold to Latvia, where it will be published by Zvaigzne ABC. This marks the 3rd foreign sale for the title, which has previously been sold to Korea and to World Dutch.

The book follows Theo, who is not fond of spooky skeletons: when he is invited to a costume party at his friend Roni’s house, he is terrified of the skeleton costume worn by the host. He tries to make a run for it, but he trips and falls. There’s nothing to do but go see the doctor and take x-rays. 

Let’s have a look at your skeleton, says the doctor. Teo is horrified: is there a skeleton inside me? Of course there is, his mother whispers tenderly. But Teo is chilled to the bone. Is there a skeleton inside everyone? What if the little brother living inside Mommy’s tummy sees her skeleton and is frightened?

Skeleton is a tenderly told story about a child overcoming his fears while learning what each of us is made of. Sometimes parts of us break and need to be fixed with a cast.

Congratulations to the authors!

Iida Turpeinen’s debut novel Beasts of the Sea, praised in reviews as“world-class literature”, has been pre-empted in Germany just three weeks after its publication in Finland.

Iida Turpeinen’s debut novel Beasts of the Sea  is quickly becoming the literary phenomenon of autumn 2023 in Finland. The novel was published in the first week of September, and it got a glorious start when the biggest Finnish newspaper, Helsingin Sanomat, declared it “world-class literature”. The first print run was sold out in a week.

In Finland Beasts Of The Sea is published by S&S, part of Schildts & Söderströms.

Last week, the foreign rights of the novel were sold to one of Estonia’s foremost publishing houses, Tänapäev, and now the title has been pre-empted in Germany by S. Fischer Verlag.

Sebastian Guggolz, the acquiring editor at S. Fischer, said:

“What a wonderful novel! I love the idea of telling the story of the expeditions in different times, and of the skeleton of Steller’s sea cow holding all that together, connecting the centuries. I also loved the way Iida tells her story: it is so clever to do it with different individuals, linked to the Stellar’s sea cow, and also focusing on female characters who are part or background. Iida has a beautiful style of writing, and the novel is also telling many things about science, in a very welcoming way for readers.”

In the novel, fascinating history meets nature loss and extinction, and science goes hand in hand with a literary, yet page-turning story.  The novel spans over 200 years in three different time periods. The stories of the individuals are bound together by a wonderful, strange marine mammal, Steller’s sea cow, which became extinct soon after being discovered.

In the novel, human ambitions result into destruction of other species, but also create the urge to resurrect and preserve what can be saved.

Warm congratulations to the author!

Spooky season is almost upon us and this year it’s extra special.

That’s because Raspberry Hill, the mini series based on The Mystery Of Raspberry Hill – a thrilling title for middle grade readers by Eva Frantz, already sold to seven territories and counting – is about to drop, and the trailer is already out.

The Mystery Of Raspberry Hill follows Stina, a twelve-year-old girl with a lung disease, as she is sent to a mysterious sanatorium in the middle of nowhere in the 1920s. The place is gorgeous but something unsettling is afoot: why are so many patients disappearing into thin air? Why isn’t anyone allowed contact with the outside world? And why does her mysterious new best friend only appear at night?

The series has set great expectations: Variety has dedicated it an exclusive feature , praising the fact that it is contributing to fill the gap for darker series that are suitable for young audiences.

This resulted in a challenge for the production team, thus quoted in Variety: “The task was to maintain the same level of horror as in the book. In my experience, pre-teens and teens love to be scared. And since the end of the story is happy and hopeful, there is room for dark shades before that.”

Congratulations to the author and the production team, and fingers crossed!

Can’t wait? Read more about the story here. But whatever you do, don’t miss out on this series!

More exciting news for our children’s list: The Senior Squad by Malin Klingenberg has been sold to Azerbaijan, where it will be published by Alatoran.

This marks the second foreign sale for the series, which has previously been sold to Bulgaria. The series follows Patrik, a quiet school boy whose life is suddenly turned upside down.

The class tearaway, Irene, bullies Patrik into escaping from school. When he ends up on a wrong bus full of pensioners, things seem a bit awkward but then take an exciting turn. It appears that one of the senior citizens has been kidnapped and a group of villains are very interested in taking the other pensioners out of the game as well…

Patrik and The Senior Squad is the first book in a series of six novels for middle-grade readers, praised for their crazy humour, quirky characters and action-filled plots. The five books already published have been a huge Finland-
Swedish success and have since been translated into Finnish and loved just as much.

The series consists of six titles:
Patrick and the Senior Squad
The Senior Squad #2, Irene and the Moneyhoover
The Senior Squad #3, Fake Bernice
The Senior Squad #4, Fantastic Alfredo
The Senior Squad #5, Rakel’s Miracle  
The Senior Squad #6, The Magnificent Senior Match

Warm congratulations to the author!

Fantastic news for the Anna Glad series by Eva Frantz: all four books in the series have made it to Storytel’s top 50.

The Anna Glad series has recently welcomed its fourth instalment, You Will Not Take My Child, where police officer Anna Glad is juggling her roles as a parent of a toddler and a senior detective. There are several suspicious deaths happening around the city, a school secretary is missing and something is at odds at the closed school building, soon to be demolished. And what exactly is going on with the family of her son’s playground best friend?

The Anna Glad series is a skilful series of crime novels where the inhabitants of a small town are divided and bound together by the secrets of the past. In Finland alone the three first books of the series have sold over 55,000 copies.

Warm congratulations to the author!