Audible has announced the commission of family listening title, The Ice Children, by award-winning author M.G. Leonard, which will be its first Original Publishing family title.

The Ice Children, inspired by Hans Christian Andersen’s classic tale The Snow Queen, will be released in audio only on 17th November 2022. The Ice Children is a modern fairytale for the festive season which explores young people’s response to the current climate challenge.

We are thrilled by this acquisition. Macmillan Children’s Books, who publish Leonard’s popular and award-winning Adventures on Trains series with Sam Sedgman, will publish The Ice Children in November 2023.

The 2022 James Cropper Wainwright Prize longlist has been revealed and M.G. Leonard’s Twitch (published by Walker Books) is on the first longlist for children’s books. Named after much-loved nature writer Alfred Wainwright, the aim of the Prize is to inspire everyone to connect with nature and embrace the outdoors.

The prize shortlists will be announced on 28th July and the winners’ announcement will be made live on 7th September at The London Wetland Centre.

Sarah Levison, editorial director at Farshore has snapped up two more books in the Dread Wood comedy horror series from "Queen of Horror for kids" Jennifer Killick.

The first book in the series Dread Wood, launched in April, was picked as a Book of the Month in the Week Junior and a best book for Easter in the i and Irish Independent. The publisher has since accelerated the series publishing schedule to meet demand, launching a new book every six months and bringing forward the publication date of Killick’s next book, Dread Wood: Fear Ground.

"Endlessly illuminating, challenging and compelling. Bi is a vivid and vital read" - Musa Okwonga, author and co-host of the Stadio Podcast

Published today by Canongate, Bi: The Hidden Culture, History and Science of Bisexuality, Shaw explores all that we know about the world's largest sexual minority. From the hunt for a bi gene, to the relationship between bisexuality and consensual non-monogamy, to asylum seekers who need to prove their bisexuality in a court of law, there is more to explore than most have ever realised.

Congratulations, Julia!

We are delighted that Twitch by M.G. Leonard won the 2022 Crimefest Award for Best Crime Novel for Children at the conference over the weekend. Crimefest is a convention for people who like to read an occasional crime novel as well as for die-hard fanatics. Drawing top crime novelists, readers, editors, publishers and reviewers from around the world, it gives all delegates the opportunity to celebrate the genre so this is a wonderful accolade.

Congratulations, Maya!

Secrets and illusions abound as a group of young magicians competes for the prize of a lifetime in this gripping adventure, the first in an enthralling new series from debut author Justyn Edwards, published by Walker Books today.

“Magic is about dreaming what is impossible and making it possible. It's the innocent young mind in all of us that loves it. We want to be filled with wonder. We want to believe. I want the winner of this competition and the recipient of my legacy to dare to dream big. So, let The Great Fox Hunt begin."

We are thrilled that Fault Lines has been longlisted for this Prize. Derek Owusu, chair of the judges and winner of the 2020 Desmond Elliott Prize, will be joined by journalist and author Symeon Brown and Cheltenham Literature Festival’s Lyndsey Fineran to choose the shortlist, which will be announced on 7th June, and a final winner, to be revealed on 1st July.

Fault Lines was the first title for Francesca Main’s Phoenix imprint, a story of rediscovering freedom after a monotonous marriage.

Congratulations to Jennifer, whose book, Dread Wood, is published today. The brand new must-read middle-grade novel from the author of super-spooky Crater Lake. Perfect for 9+ fans of R.L.Stine’s Goosebumps.

“Deliciously scary and hilarious comedy-horror” The Guardian

It's basically the worst school detention ever. When classmates (but not mate-mates) Hallie, Angelo, Gustav and Naira are forced to come to school on a SATURDAY, they think things can’t get much worse. But they’re wrong. Things are about to get seriously scary.

Congratulations to Jennifer Killick with her book, Crater Lake: Evolution, and Maya Gabrielle, for her book, Twitch, both shortlisted for the CrimeFest Award for best crime book for children.

Crater Lake: Evolution, is the second book in Jennifer’s Crater Lake series published by Firefly Books and Twitch is the first in Maya’s new series, published by Walker Books.

The 2022 CrimeFest Awards will be presented at the convention Gala Awards Dinner on 14 May, 2022.

We are delighted to that Tsunami Girl has been shortlisted for the 2022 Yoto Carnegie prize.

Illustrated by Chie Kutsuwada, with words by Julian Sedgwick, the 2011 Japanese earthquake and tsunami is at the heart of Tsunami Girl, a part-prose, part-manga coming-of-age story.

The winners will be announced and celebrated on Thursday 16th June at a lunchtime ceremony at The British Library.

Simon Thorogood at Canongate has acquired Cacophony of Bone, the second book from nature writer Kerri ní Dochartaigh, to be published in April 2023.

"Cacophony of Bone maps the circle of a year – a journey from one place to another, field notes of a life – from one winter, to the next," the synopsis explains. "This is a time like no other, but it is also exactly like any other, too. The longest day came, as always it does – and the shortest came, too – in turn.”

Ní Dochartaigh is the author of Thin Places which was highly commended by the Wainwright Prize for Nature Writing 2021. She has written for the Guardian, Irish Times, the BBC, Winter Papers and others.

A thrilling and hugely entertaining adventure story' – David Walliams on The Highland Falcon Thief

Ride into danger with Hal and Uncle Nat on the fifth breathtaking Adventures on Trains Mystery, Sabotage on the Solar Express, from bestselling award-winners M. G. Leonard and Sam Sedgman. Published by Macmillan.

Happy publication day to Maya and Sam!

Climb onboard and travel across six continents, 34 countries and numerous cities via twelve of the world's most amazing train journeys. Sam delights with his descriptive and illuminative text about train journeys including the Eurostar , Orient Express , the first Transcontinental Railroad and the Rejuvenation Express . Each locomotive adventure reveals some of the rich history, culture, landscape and wildlife of the countries travelled.

Detailed, colourful illustrations by Sam Brewster brings the facts and journeys to life. Epic Adventures will appeal to culture-, travel-, locomotive-fans of all ages.

Published by Macmillan. Happy Publication Day, Sam!

Pitched as for readers of Nomadland and The Undocumented Americans, journalist Alice Driver's The Life and Death of the American Worker, chronicling the lives and deaths of immigrant essential workers at America's largest meat and poultry processing company Tyson Foods, exposing how immigration law and labor exploitation put growth and profit over human life sold at auction to Alessandra Bastagli at Astra House, by Rebecca Wearmouth at PFD (North American) on behalf of Kirsty McLachlan at Morgan Green Creatives.

Alice Driver is a writer from Oark, Arkansas, in the Ozark Mountains. She works with National Geographic, The New York Review of Books, and Oxford American, and has work forthcoming in The New Yorker.

Gillian Fitzgerald-Kelly at Picador has triumphed in a four-way auction for The Archaeology of Loss: Life, Love and the Art of Dying, the debut memoir by Sarah Tarlow.

Sarah Tarlow is an archaeologist and was awarded the chair in archaeology at the University of Leicester. However, in the years following her appointment, Tarlow’s husband Mark began to suffer from a progressive but undiagnosed illness. Though Tarlow has devoted her study to how we anticipate and experience grief, she was unprepared for the realities of losing someone she loved.

Her book is a “fiercely honest and unique memoir” which describes a collective experience with an “unflinching and singular gaze” that will resonate with readers of The Salt Path (Penguin) and H is for Hawk (Vintage), Picador said.

Congratulations to Nina Mingya Powles - her book, Small Bodies of Water has been shortlisted for the Stanford Dolman Travel Book of the Year. The award, which is open to authors from all across the world, celebrates excellence in literary travel writing.

This lyrical collection of interconnected essays explores the bodies of water that separate and connect us, as well as everything from migration, food, family, earthquakes and the ancient lunisolar calendar to butterflies.

"A distinctive new voice: attentive and tender" Amy Liptrot