Scholastic snaps up Steve Blackman's 'electrifying' debut aimed at getting boys hooked on reading
Scholastic has snapped up Steve Blackman’s "electrifying" tech debut aimed at getting boys hooked on reading. Julia Sanderson, fiction senior commissioning editor, acquired world rights to Zero Override in a two-book deal from Callen Martin at Bell Lomax Moreton. The first instalment is set to publish on 2nd July 2026.
The publisher described the book as "a high-stakes, upper-middle-grade debut adventure series" featuring a group of young underground hackers who steal from the rich in a world populated with bots and AI and "explores what it means to be human in an age of intelligent machines".
The book is set in a near-future London where humans and humanoid bots live side by side, a sophisticated virus is infiltrating the national system. If it uploads fully, every machine in the country – from home assistants to hospital bots to android enforcers – will shut down. The story follows Zero, a 13-year-old hacker, who has a serious distrust of bots and no real interest in saving the world. The synopsis continues: "But the virus he’s discovered threatens the life of Grace, his younger sister, who – as a result of the car crash that killed their parents 10 years ago – now has a machine heart. No one will work harder than Zero to stop the upload – except perhaps Andi, a mysterious humanoid bot with secrets of his own. Zero doesn’t trust him. He doesn’t even like him. But with only hours on the clock and the virus evolving fast, the only way to protect Grace might be to partner up with the one thing he distrusts most… and along the way he must come up against MI6 – who may know more about his parents than they let on."
Blackman has more than 25 years’ experience working in digital technology and is now a copywriter and editor with a specialism in that sector. In 2020, Blackman graduated Curtis Brown Creative’s YA and Children’s Fiction course, and has been listed in multiple writing competitions since, including the Society of Children’s Book Writers and Illustrators’ Undiscovered Voices, the WriteMentor Novel Award and Searchlight.
Blackman said: "When I was young, Scholastic played a huge role in my reading life, and in recent years it’s been the same for my daughters. To now share my writing life with Scholastic’s talented, curious and passionate team is an immense privilege. From our first meeting, I was blown away by Julia’s love for Zero Override, and her complete grasp of Zero, Andi, their fellow characters and their world. With her and Callen in my corner, I’m confident we can encourage young readers – especially boys – to think about technology’s capacity for both good and bad, while giving them a good laugh. And a racing pulse. And maybe make them want to ‘borrow’ a powerboat."
Sanderson said: "I am delighted to be working with Steve Blackman on this exciting new series, which is brilliantly pitched for an underserved demographic. Boys at the top end of primary school and the early years of secondary school deserve to find books with relatable, complex heroes, gripping adventure and relevant, thought-provoking themes. Zero Override embraces the topical subject of the growth of AI with nuance, while delivering an action-packed story full of heart (human and digital alike). I am incredibly excited to be publishing it at Scholastic."
