YA novel Hope to feature in #stagetopage UK tour
It's the summer before sixth-form college. When Hope doesn't get into drama college, and her friends do, all her plans fall apart. She's also struggling with grief for her father and the sense that her own body is against her. A chance meeting on a ferry with an attractive Irish boy and a summer job with the Singing Medicine group at Birmingham Children’s Hospital force her to rethink her future plans, but it won't be easy. When things seem to be all over, it might be just the beginning…
Half Price Late Summer Sale
For the second half of the summer holidays we are selling our books half price when bought through the Firefly Press website, including free P&P until 4 September 2017.
Thimble is a very clever and very naughty monkey, and just the best friend Jams has been looking for. Already on the Summer Reading Challenge, Thimble Monkey Superstar is also shortlisted for the Lollies Laugh Out Loud Book Awards 2017. You can join our #votethimble campaign by voting for the madcap monkey at shop.scholastic.co.uk/lollies
YA novel on teenage homelessness and power of friendship for 2018
Firefly has acquired UK and Commonwealth rights to YA novel Behind Closed Doors by Miriam Halahmy, from the Anne Clark Literary Agency. Publishing in June 2018 this is a moving and heartfelt novel about the precarious nature of home life for teens teetering on the edge of homelessness, and the relationships that can bring them back from the brink.Fifteen-year-olds, Tasha and Josie, are near-neighbours but not friends. Neither knows the stresses of the other’s life. But when their families let them down they find themselves unlikely allies in a battle against homelessness. Behind Closed Doors examines what it means to be loved and how to find meaning in life when there is no love at home.
Miriam Halahmy has published novels, short stories and poetry for adults and young people. Hidden (2011) was nominated for the CILIP Carnegie Medal and was chosen as Sunday Times Children’s Book of the Week. Other books include Illegal, Stuffed and The Emergency Zoo.
Miriam said: 'I'm enormously excited to be publishing with Firefly. My books are realistic stories and my characters are ordinary people faced with dilemmas who have to dig deep to find the hero inside themselves. I like writing about secrets that cannot be revealed until the problem is solved. Ultimately, I write because I have something to say.'
Firefly Publisher, Penny Thomas, said: ‘We're delighted to sign such a talented and accomplished author as Miriam Halahmy. Behind Closed Doors is a sensitive and involving novel with characters readers can love and identify with. We're proud to be publishing this title in 2018 on our growing YA list.’
Firefly publishes quality fiction for five to 19 year olds and is publishing a second YA title from Rhian Ivory, Hope, in September 2017, alongside MG adventure The Jewelled Jaguar from Sharon Tregenza and Thimble Holiday Havoc, a sequel to the Lollies nominated Thimble Monkey Superstar, by Jon Blake and Martin Chatterton in November.
Firefly Press acquires two Golden Egg Academy writers
We are delighted to have acquired world rights to two new middle-grade stories by Golden Egg Academy alumna Jennifer Killick, from Kirsty McLachan at David Godwin Associates following the launch of her May 2017 debut Alex Sparrow and the Really Big Stink which was a selected title for the Summer Reading Challenge 2017. The second in the series, Alex Sparrow and the Furry Fury will publish in spring 2018 and a third title, Mo, Lottie and the Junkers, in 2019.
We have also acquired world rights to a middle-grade historical novel, Flight based on the story of the Lipizzaner horses in World War 2, from Vanessa Harbour a Senior Lecturer in Creative Writing at the University of Winchester and Academic & Business Consultant and Editor at Golden Egg Academy. Flight will be published in summer 2018. Create an animal character to appear in Jennifer Killick's new book
