Debut
YA - Stephanie Oakes's debut MINNOW, pitched as loosely based on the Grimm tale "The Handless Maiden," in which a girl must rebuild her life after escaping from a religious commune and being imprisoned in a juvenile detention center, to Dial/Penguin, in a two-book deal, for publication in Summer 2014.
MG - Patrick Samphire's SECRETS OF THE DRAGON TOMB, set in a very proper Regency-era British colony on Mars, where a boy who has always dreamed of being a spy gets more than his share of adventure when a villainous archeologist kidnaps his parents, and he and his sisters must trek across an inhospitable planet to save them; in a two-book deal to Christy Ottaviano Books, Macmillan.
YA - Whitney Miller's debut THE TERROR, the daughter of a charismatic cult leader leads a sheltered life but has visions of a dizzying, blood-soaked alternate reality that just might be coming true, to Flux, in a two-book deal.
YA - R.C. Lewis's debut STITCHING SNOW, in which a royal teen runaway is scraping together a living in a mining settlement on the far side of the universe, until she is discovered and "rescued" against her will... a rescue operation that just might kill her, to Disney-Hyperion, in a six-figure deal, in a two-book deal, for publication in Summer 2014.
YA - Miriam Forster's debut CITY OF A THOUSAND DOLLS, about a servant who lives on a sprawling estate where orphaned girls are groomed to be anything from assassins to courtesans; when a rash of mysterious deaths occur, she must find the killer or else be sold as a slave, to Harper Children's.
Young Adult
Paula Stokes's THE ART OF LAINEY, in which a recently dumped girl
employs strategy and subterfuge cribbed from The Art of War to get her
ex-boyfriend back, with unanticipated results, to Harper Children's.
Stonewall Award honoree James Klise's OUTSIDER ARTISTS, the story of a crime and its aftermath told from ten points of view (all of them unreliable), to Algonquin.
BUTTER author Erin Lange's BILLY D. & THE BULLY, about two very different boys who reluctantly team up to find somebody who doesn't want to be found; their only clue is an atlas full of riddles, again to Bloomsbury Children's, for publication in Fall 2013.
Ilsa Bick's WHITE SPACE, pitched as The Matrix meets Inkheart, about a seventeen-year-old girl who jumps between the lines of books and into the white space where realities are created and destroyed - but who may herself be nothing more than a character written into being from an alternative universe, to Egmont, in a two-book deal.
Tiffany Trent's TINKER KING, continuing the adventure started in THE UNNATURALISTS, of the motley band of heroes in a fairy realm where science is religion, Darwin is a saint, and Nikola Tesla is a prisoner of war, again to Simon & Schuster Children's.
Jaclyn Dolamore's DARK METROPOLIS, about a city in which corruption and vice are rampant and disappearances warrant only a shrug from the authorities: when a girl vanishes, her best friend must search the city's underground, only to find that here, people who die don't necessarily stay dead, to Disney-Hyperion, at auction, in a six-figure deal, in a two-book deal.
Middle Grade
Cathy Camper's LOW RIDERS IN SPACE, a mg graphic novel with illustrations by fine artist Raul Gonzalez, about three unlikely friends (a mosquito, an octopus, and an impala) who work as mechanics but dream of having a flashy custom car of their own, in a two-book deal, to Chronicle Children's.
Nancy Castaldo's WORKING DOGS, documenting the bond between humans and
dogs over the ages, and then explaining the science of one of their most
fascinating receptors: the nose; profiling many different dogs, from
conservation dogs to those who work with military and law enforcement to
those who search and rescue to dogs that are medical sniffers -- dogs that can detect cancer with their noses; to Houghton Mifflin Harcourt.
Daniel Pinkwater's third installment in the MRS. NOODLEKUGEL series,
further adventures of two children, their magical babysitter and her
menagerie, to Candlewick.
Picture book
ME AND MOMMA AND BIG JOHN author Mara Rockliff's ANYTHING BUT ORDINARY
ADDIE, the true story of Adelaide Herrmann, who for 50-plus years was
the internationally famous "Queen of Magic" with a career that would
rival that of Houdini, but who today is largely forgotten; to Candlewick.
Mara Rockliff's THE GINGERBREAD SPY, the true story of the baker who helped save the American Revolution; in this remarkable picture book, the author shines a light on the little known German immigrant Christopher Lutwick, who worked alongside George Washington and the other great heroes we all know about; to Hougton Mifflin Harcourt.
Kate Messner's UP IN THE GARDEN AND DOWN IN THE DIRT, a follow-up to Over and Under the Snow that tells the story of a garden and its hidden secrets, again to be illustrated by Christopher Silas Neal, to Chronicle Children's.
