Penguin Young Readers Acquires Two New Novels From Bestselling Author Kristin Cashore
New York, NY — Kathy Dawson Books, an imprint of Penguin Young Readers, has acquired two new novels from Kristin Cashore, award-winning author of the Graceling Realm series. The two-book deal includes Jane, Unlimited, a kaleidoscopic novel about newly-orphaned Jane who accepts an invitation to a mysterious mansion in the wake of her beloved aunt’s death, and an untitled young adult novel; it was negotiated by Kathy Dawson, Vice President and Publisher of Kathy Dawson Books, for North American rights with Faye Bender of The Book Group.
The publication of Jane, Unlimited will mark five years since the release of Bitterblue, the third of Cashore’s Graceling Realm novels, which The New York Times Book Review hailed as “thrillingly imagined and beautifully executed.” The Graceling Realm books have sold more than 1.5 million copies to date, and been translated into 33 languages. Their awards and citations include being named ALA Best Books for Young Adults, Publishers Weekly Best Books of the Year, Booklist Editors’ Choices, an Andre Norton Award Finalist (Graceling), and winner of the Amelia Elizabeth Walden Award (Fire). Jane, Unlimited will have a first print run of 150,000.
“I loved choose-your-own adventure books as a kid, because I could explore all the possibilities,” comments Kristin Cashore. “I always ended up building my own mental version of the story, made up of the parts I liked best. Jane, Unlimited isn’t a choose-your-own-adventure, but it is a book that lends itself to unique and individual understandings of Jane’s journey or at least, I hope that’s one of the ways it will function for readers! I wanted to create a sense of opening, of magic and possibility. Because life offers that sometimes, and it’s good to stop and notice it.”
Kathy Dawson said, “Working with Kristin on her latest novel has been one of the most intense, challenging, and rewarding experiences of my entire career. It’s quite unlike anything I’ve ever read before, and yet it’s unmistakably Kristin Cashore, with her trademark charismatic cast, perceptive humor, complex plotting, and gorgeous language. I can’t wait for everyone else to get to read it.”
Jane has led a small and mostly ordinary life, raised by her aunt Magnolia—an adjunct professor at a small college and a world-traveling deep sea photographer. But when Aunt Magnolia dies unexpectedly on one of her expeditions, Jane finds herself adrift, and when an invitation comes from an old acquaintance to accompany her to a gala at her family’s island mansion called Tu Reviens, Jane leaps at the chance. There, her story takes a turn, or rather, five turns. What Jane doesn’t know is that Tu Reviens will offer her choices that can ultimately determine the course of her untethered life. But at Tu Reviens, every choice comes with a reward, or a price.
Kristin Cashore grew up in the northeast Pennsylvania countryside as the second of four daughters. She received a Master’s in children’s literature from Simmons College, and she is the author of the bestselling, award-winning Graceling Realm series. She has lived in many places (including Sydney, New York City, Boston, London, Austin, and Jacksonville, Florida), and she currently resides in the Boston area.
Kathy Dawson Books was established in early 2014. The imprint focuses on the kinds of books Dawson has published throughout her career: middle-grade and young adult fiction across a variety of genres by Newbery-honor winning, Printz-honor winning, and bestselling authors such as Sheila Turnage, Franny Billingsley, Gennifer Choldenko, and Kristin Cashore.
Penguin Random House (http://global.penguinrandomhouse.com/) is the world’s most global trade book publisher. It was formed on July 1, 2013, upon the completion of an agreement between Bertelsmann and Pearson to merge their respective trade publishing companies, Random House and Penguin, with the parent companies owning 53% and 47%, respectively. Penguin Random House comprises the adult and children’s fiction and nonfiction print and digital trade book publishing businesses of Penguin and Random House in the U.S., U.K., Canada, Australia, New Zealand, India and South Africa, and Penguin’s trade publishing activity in Asia and Brazil; DK worldwide; and Penguin Random House Grupo Editorial’s Spanish-language companies in Spain, Mexico, Argentina, Uruguay, Colombia, and Chile. Penguin Random House employs more than 10,000 people globally across almost 250 editorially and creatively independent imprints and publishing houses that collectively publish more than 15,000 new titles annually. Its publishing lists include more than 70 Nobel Prize laureates and hundreds of the world’s most widely read authors.
