Author: Chiara Stanziani

We are really excited to share this bit of news: We’ll Just Ride Past by Ellen Strömberg has been sold to Slovenia, where it will be published by Mladinska Knjiga.

Mladinska Knjiga is the largest publishing house in Slovenia, boasting titles like Harry Potter, Kazuo Ishiguro’s Never Let Me Go and John Green’s The Fault In Our Stars: we could’t have wished for a better home for this title.

The book follows Manda and Malin, who are best friends in a small town where nothing ever happens. The girls are known as the Bicycles, because they’re always riding around looking for excitement, be it people to hang out with, a party, a little love – anything goes. When they’re not riding around, they can be found loitering around the convenience store or the library. 

In We’ll Just Ride Past, Strömberg, a perceptive depicter of emotional shifts and relationships, depicts in an equally believable and sharp way the restlessness of teenage, and its bittersweet nature.

Warm congratulations to the author!

We are happy to announce that our children’s book Night Express by Karin Erlandsson has been sold to Ukraine. This is the 10th language territory for the title.

Night Express will be published by The Black Sheep in Ukraine. The Black Sheep was founded in 2015 and it specialises in children’s literature, bringing international titles to Ukrainian readers.

The book follows Dania, whose granny lives in an old station building next to a disused railway. Every year Dania and her family move to their grandmother’s for December in the run-up for Christmas.  

One evening Granny seems exceptionally absent-minded before disappearing from her room. The same night Dania hears something and sneaks out to see it with her own eyes: an express train is pulling up at the station. 

On the train she meets Konrad, and it soon transpires that everyone on the night train has lost someone they love. Will the children find their lost loved ones?

The book is brimming with the magic of Christmas and has 24 chapters: it is also splendid for reading out loud, during Advent and long after.

Warm congratulations to the author!

Book fair season is yet to start, and we’ve already been hitting the road!

Our agent Urpu Strellman has visited Serbia as a member of the Novi Sad Fellowship.

Novi Sad Fellowship 20.23 is an international literary festival which aims at creating an international platform for Serbian authors and professionals in the book industry. During the festival, international and Serbian professionals have had the chance to meet and discuss new ideas and potential new projects.

Novi Sad  Fellowship 20.23 has included participants from Turkey, Finland, Iran, Egypt, Poland, Great Britain, North Macedonia, France and United Arab Emirates.

Thank you to the fellowship for having us!

More fantastic news for our children’s list: Penelope and the Big Baby Tooth Ballyhoo, written by Saara Kekäläinen and illustrated by Reetta Niemensivu, has been sold to Korea and Latvia.

In Korea, Penelope and the Big Baby Tooth Ballyhoo will be published by Korean Studies Information while in Latvia this gorgeous title will be published by Latvijas Mediji.

Penelope and the Big Baby Tooth Ballyhoo follows little Penelope as she suddenly notices that one of her teeth is wiggling, and her imagination takes flight. Maybe she’ll be sent a new sheep instead of a new tooth? Or maybe she’ll receive a visit from the tooth fairy’s mischievous cousin, the tooth imp?

Penelope and the Big Baby Tooth Ballyhoo is the second work in a new series of picture books that began with Penelope and the Perilous Porridge, in which this intrepid heroine brought her breakfast to heel – meanwhile earning a nomination for the Finlandia Junior Prize. 

“Then Penelope remembered. She’d heard people were born without teeth, then got baby teeth, which were replaced by permanent teeth. And if you ate too much candy, you had a set of false teeth to look forward to.

Did the same thing also go for, say, feet?” Penelope is not one to shy away from questions, and she sure keeps us hooked while looking for answers. In Finland, the series is published by Tammi.

Warm congratulations to the author, and don’t miss out on this title!

More fantastic news for The Princess Who Did A Runner: after collecting raving reviews in Denmark, this adorable and humorous title celebrates two more foreign sales, namely to the Czech Republic and to Ukraine.

The Czech publisher for this title will be Portál, one of the top 20 largest Czech publishers with a strong sense for pedagogy, while the Ukrainian publisher will be Charitarium, a non-profit publisher with a broad and varied list.

The book follows Leona, a young princess who does a runner when she learns of the fate that awaits her: she must marry a prince in order to save her kingdom. 

Leona jumps from one princess fairytale to the next in order to save herself from the age-old burdens of princesses that lurk around every corner – marriage and household chores. The kind-hearted Leona helps everyone, but on her own terms!

The Princess Who Did A Runner by Saara Kekäläinen is a picture book full of sharp humour that will even offer big children and adults plenty of food for thought.

Warm congratulations to the author!