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Natasha Brown has been made project editor/editor at Faber Children's, as Ama Badu steps up to become assistant editor.
Badu (pictured top) will continue to edit the FAB website, which hosts a prize dedicated to discovering new children's writers and illustrators. She will also be focusing on commissioning fiction across the age groups, alongside editorial director Alice Swan.
She said: "I am so proud to be part of the Faber Children's team at this exciting time of growth and acquisitions. Our new titles are bold, brave and fearless. It is an honour to champion books that reflect the world we so desperately need to see and share the stories that have gone unheard for far too long."
Brown will be leading on new YA and non-fiction. Commenting on her new role, Brown (pictured right) said: "I have loved being a part of the growth of the Faber Children's list for the past five years and am so excited to be stepping into this expanded role. Acquiring Felix Ever After last year was a career highlight for me, and I can't wait to take on more brilliant books across the list."
The promotions come as Faber Children's reported a 29% uplift on the last financial year, although figures were not broken out. Significant winners for the list included Emma Carroll's Letters to the Lighthouse and While We Can't Hug, by Eoin McLoughlin and Polly Dunbar, Faber said.
Natasha Farrant also achieved strong sales for her Costa Children's Book Award-winning novel The Voyage of the Sparrowhawk. On Midnight Beach by Marie-Louise Fitzpatrick was also shortlisted for the CILIP Carnegie Medal. The While We Can't Hug publicity campaign was a winner at the PPC awards and was shortlisted for the British Book Award Publicity Campaign of the Year.
"I am so proud of this brilliant team who have achieved extraordinary exponential growth," publisher Leah Paxton said. "We know that our authors and illustrators are the stars of our show, but behind the scenes the department has put in a herculean effort to ensure the success we see today.
"It has been a great year for book sales, but so too prize success, and we have enjoyed a supremely strong period of acquisition for the list, including Kacen Callender's Felix Ever After, Jeffrey Boakye's Musical Truth and Marissa Meyer's Gilded. I am delighted to see the editorial team expand to match and look forward to a tremendously fruitful period to come."