Latest acquisitions: Children’s and YA

See what Australian publishers have been signing recently in children’s and YA.

Animals

Penguin Random House (PRH) Australia has acquired rights to Bindi Irwin’s debut picture book, titled You Are a Wildlife Warrior! Saving Animals & the Planet, illustrated by Ramona Kaulitzki, for publication in February 2025. The picture book, which the publisher said is ‘written in a playful rhyming structure’, ‘encourages readers to walk on the wild side and uncover their inner conservationists’, featuring scenes from the Irwins’ wildlife park, Australia Zoo, including animals such as rhinos, kangaroos and crocodiles, as well as these animals’ habitats, and ‘all the ways we can protect them’.

Allen & Unwin (A&U) has acquired world rights to Corey Tutt’s children’s titles Caution! This Book Contains Deadly Reptiles (illustrated by Ben Williams) and Before It Was Called Science, the follow-up to The First Scientists (Hardie Grant Explore). Caution! is ‘bursting with vibrant illustrations by Ben Williams and cool facts about more than 60 reptiles,’ said A&U. ‘Tutt celebrates First Nations knowledge and Languages for reptiles found on Country, from lizards and snakes to turtles and crocodiles.’

Younger readers

The University of Queensland Press has acquired world rights to debut author Sandy Bigna’s middle-grade verse novel Little Bones, in a two-book deal via Danielle Binks of Jacinta di Mase Management, for publication in 2025. Little Bones is a gothic magic-realist story that follows 12-year-old Bones, who copes with her younger brother’s recent death by collecting animal skeletons. When she inadvertently makes the skeletons of a bird and a snake come to life, Bones must work out how to reverse the curse—and how to say goodbye to her two new friends. (more…)

Originally published by Books and Publishing (Read More)