Sarwat Chadda

Fifteen-year-old Billi hates that her father, the Grandmaster, forced her into the modern-day remnant of the Knights Templar – the first-ever girl to join the Order.  Billi would much rather be a regular high-school student than a secret warrior out to defeat the Unholy.  When she meets thrilling, seductive Mike, Billi is dazzled.  But Michael is not just a heart-breaker, he’s an archangel with a terrifying agenda…

To follow:  THE DARK GODDESS will take Billi to Russia to rescue Vasalisa, a young girl Billi’s promised to protect.  To save her, Billi must defeat the werewolves that serve the witch Baba Yaga – and the Dark Goddess herself.  Betrayed and alone, Billi faces a final mighty battle in the abandoned ruins of Chernobyl.

Sarwat Chadda was brought up as a Muslim and is married to a church minister’s daughter. He was raised on stories of Saladin, Richard the Lion-Heart and the Crusades, viewed from both sides, and started out writing role-playing game scenarios. He is a senior engineer and lives in London with his family.

Rights: Greenhouse c/o Rights People

USA/Canada: Hyperion (Fall 2009)

UK/Commonwealth: Puffin Books (Spring 2009)

Germany: Random House

France: Pocket Jeunesse

Italy: Mondadori

Greece: Livanis

Brazil: Editora Rocco

Indonesia: Serambi

Holland: Mynx

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Harriet Goodwin

A quirky debut middle-grade novel that is adventurous, charming and poignant by turns, but which also focuses on the biggest issues of life and death.

Finn Oliver will never accept his father’s death, but he finds a few minutes of forgetting as he joy-rides over the moors in the beat-up family car.  Then the accident happens – and Finn hurtles through the wafer-thin divide between the living and the dead.  The Underworld is threatened by storms on the Other Side, and the ghosts who live there know their only hope is an ancient prophecy: that a mortal child and a child of the Underworld will together unlock the Firepearl from its elemental enchantments and save the dead from disaster. Now that moment has come, and Finn is about to embark on an extraordinary journey to the centre of the Earth!

Harriet Goodwin read Medieval English at Oxford University before training as a singer. She sang and toured with various internationally renowned ensembles before having her four children, but now focuses on oratorio and recitals.  She lives in a remote village in Staffordshire, England.

Rights:Greenhouse c/o Rights People

UK/Commonwealth: Stripes Publishing (an imprint of Magi; Fall 2009)

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Lindsey Leavitt

A joyously funny, sharp and insightful debut novel for tween girls.

After a humiliating encounter with her long-term crush, ex-best friend, and a groundhog costume, 14-year-old Desi Bascomb finds herself in the back room of the pet shop where she works, staring into a fish tank. Her boss claims the tank is magical and Desi sure could use a little magic in her life right now.

That night as Desi soaks in the bath, Meredith Poofinski - a no-nonsense agent scouting substitutes for vacationing princesses - pops out of a bubble. Now Desi is about to learn first hand what it feels like to be royalty as she subs for princesses desperate to go AWOL. Soon Desi is dancing in an Amazonian tribal festival and dodging a prince with just a little too much ‘Eastern promise’.  But nothing can prepare her for the magic of falling for a real prince - a prince who has no idea that back in Hicktown, Idaho, Desi is just a girl in a groundhog suit.

To follow: Two more stories about Desi as she returns to life as a princess sub.  Boyfriends, beauty pageants and high school - easy.  An ex-best friend, an evil agent, and a kingdom in chaos - not so much!

Lindsey Leavitt is a former elementary school teacher. She grew up in Las Vegas, married her high-school lab partner, and now lives in Birmingham, Alabama, with her husband and two small daughters.  She is a keen - and very popular - blogger.

Rights:  Greenhouse c/o Rights People

USA/Canada: Hyperion (Winter 2010)

UK/Commonwealth:  Egmont UK (Winter 2010)

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Valerie Patterson

An exquisitely written debut novel from an evocative new voice. Han Nolan, National Book Award winner, says:  ‘Valerie Patterson is a born writer.  Her language feels so fresh, clean and spare.’

Fifteen-year-old Cyan was named after the colour blue by her artist mother.  And blue, in all its shades, is how it feels for Cyan to be back in the Caribbean one year after the loss of her father, drowned in an inexplicable sailing accident. Expected to play host to a potential new stepsister, Cyan’s past and future feel coloured by mystery. Did her mother drive her father away?  If he killed himself why didn’t he leave Cyan a note to help her understand? And most bafflingly, why did he sail to the horizon with an ice bucket and two champagne glasses on board?

Local rich-boy Mayur lures Cyan with promises that only he knows the truth. And now, with the anniversary of her father’s death approaching, and with a gulf as wide as the Caribbean between her mother and herself, Cyan must explore the depths of the colour blue - the blue of sadness, the ocean, the horizon, and ultimately herself - in this exquisitely told story of love, betrayal, and ultimately hope.

Valerie Patterson was raised in the Florida panhandle where the Gulf of Mexico inspired a love of blue and a fascination with the horizon and what lies beyond. An attorney in her day job, Valerie graduated in May 2008 with an MFA in Children’s Literature from Hollins University, where she twice received the Shirley Henn Award for Creative Scholarship. She has also won a Work-in-Progress Award from SCBWI.  Valerie lives with her husband in Leesburg, Virginia.

Rights:  Greenhouse c/o Rights People

USA/Canada:  Clarion Books (Fall 2009)

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