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Penguin's international deals for Michelle Paver, HarperCollins' new collection of stories from Dr Seuss and Simon & Schuster paying six figures for a young adult trilogy were among the day two deals signed at Bologna.
Penguin penned deals for Paver's Gods and Warriors series with House of Books in Holland, Hachette in France, Semic in Sweden and Mondadori in Italy, with "plenty more to come over next weeks and months", according to rights director Chantal Noel.
Paver met international publishers at the fair to give details of the new series, set in the Mediterranean region during the Bronze Age. At a presentation this morning (29th March), Paver told publishers she chose the era because it was a "rich, spectacular, exciting world to inhabit, with chariots, ocean-going ships, slaves, warriors, myths and magic".
The new series will tell the story of Hylas, a lowly 12-year-old goatherd in the Greek mountains, whose adventures take him far afield to Crete and Egypt, and involve him, like Torak in the Chronicles of Ancient Darkness, with animals—in the new series, a lion, a falcon and a dolphin.
Paver moved to Puffin with her new series, after publishing the Chronicles of Ancient Darkness books with Orion. Elv Moody, editorial director of Classic Puffin, promised international publishers a "global sharepoint to share ideas and resources" for the launch campaign for the first book, as yet untitled, in the autumn of 2012.
Meanwhile, HarperCollins Children's Books will publish The Bippolo Seed and Other Stories by Dr Seuss on 29th September 2011. The stories were originally published in magazines in 1950 and 1951 and represented a change in Seuss' writing to the rhyming style he is now best known for.
Among the stories is "The Bear, The Rabbit and the Zinniga-Zanniga", about a rabbit who is saved from a bear with the help of a single eyelash, and "Steak for Supper", about a group of fantastical creatures who follow a boy home in anticipation of a steak dinner.
Neil Dunnicliffe, editorial director of HarperCollins Children's Books, said: "To publish such an amazing new collection of stories from Dr Seuss is a dream come true. I know that Seuss fans of all ages will share our joy on the publication of this book."
At Simon & Schuster, editorial director Venetia Gosling bought UK and Commonwealth rights to a young adult trilogy by Andy Fukuda. She paid a six-figure sum for the books from Catherine Clarke at Felicity Bryan, sub-agenting for Catherine Drayton at Inkwell.
The first book, The Hunt, will be published in spring 2012 and is about 17-year-old Gene struggling to survive in a world where humans have been eaten to near extinction by the general population. St Martin's Press will publish in the US.
Gosling said: "The Hunt is one of the most exciting submissions we've read this year and I'm over the moon to have acquired it for Simon and Schuster UK. It's terrifying and absolutely unputdownable. It had the whole team gripped and we were determined to publish it. Andy Fukuda is a huge new talent and we are delighted to welcome him to our list."