Penny Thomas, publisher at award-winning children’s and YA publisher Firefly Press, has acquired World rights to This is Just to Say by Sarah Ziman.
This funny and hugely entertaining collection of poems explores communication in all its written forms, from Post-it notes, letters, texts and emails to reviews and classified ads. Featuring a mix of modern, historical and fairytale figures, this collection includes creative poems such as a letter from Hansel and Gretel’s dentist, a radio transcript between Neil Armstrong and NASA and a TripAdvisor review from The Princess and the Pea.
This is Just to Say will be illustrated by popular children’s author Becka Moor.
Sarah Ziman said: I realised I had the basis of this collection without actually trying – that time as a child spent writing thank-you letters and being a pen pal to a best friend who’d moved away obviously laid the foundations for a lot of my poetry! Expanding into other forms of communication only made it MORE fun – I hope people enjoy reading it as much as I enjoyed writing it.
Editor Lucy Mohan said: ‘Sarah has crafted something creative, fun and highly original, featuring multiple-choice style poems, to-do lists, secret codes and more! This is poetry as you’ve never seen it before, and we can’t wait to share it with the world.’
This is Just to Say is due to be delivered to bookshops in April 2027.