Random House Children’s Books Acquires Picture Book by Actress & Playwright Amanda Peet, Co-Written by Andrea Troyer
New York, NY — Random House Children’s Books has acquired DEAR SANTA, LOVE RACHEL ROSENSTEIN, a new picture book from actress and playwright Amanda Peet, co-written by her longtime friend Andrea Troyer, to be published in Fall 2015. The deal for world rights in all languages was announced by Mallory Loehr, Vice President, Publishing Director of the Random House/Golden Books Young Readers Group. The book was acquired by Frances Gilbert, Associate Publishing Director, Random House Books for Young Readers, from Joseph Veltre and Allison Cohen of The Gersh Agency.
A warm and sidesplittingly funny slice of family holiday drama, DEAR SANTA, LOVE RACHEL ROSENSTEIN tells the story of a young Jewish girl who wonders why Santa Claus doesn’t visit her house. Wrestling with her culture and customs and love of sparkly Christmas ornaments, Rachel comes away with a brighter understanding of her own identity and of the gift of friends and family.
“At the heart of this funny and real story is the fact that all families do things differently—and yet everyone can coexist and can enjoy each other’s traditions,” says Loehr. “The laugh-out-loud writing only makes the story all the richer.”
Peet says, “When my two children, Frankie and Molly, started asking me why we don’t have a Christmas tree and colored lights on the roof and a plate of cookies for Santa, it was hard to come up with an appealing answer. The book came out of a desire to capture the feeling of being left out during the Christmas holidays and to explain how you can’t always get what you want—and how sorting that out, for Jews and Gentiles alike, is part of what the holiday spirit is all about.”
Actress and playwright Amanda Peet’s first play, The Commons of Pensacola, recently opened to critical acclaim at Manhattan Theatre Club, starring Blythe Danner and Sarah Jessica Parker. A native of New York, Peet graduated from Columbia University with a degree in American history. She has appeared in numerous films, including Please Give, Syriana, Something’s Gotta Give, and The Whole Nine Yards. Currently, Peet is filming a new comedy series, Togetherness, for HBO. Andrea Troyer, a longtime friend, is a graduate of UC-Irvine, where she received an MFA in creative writing.
Frances Gilbert, who acquired the picture book, will also edit.
Random House Children’s Books (www.randomhousekids.com) is the world’s largest English-language children’s trade book publisher. Creating books for toddlers through young adult readers, in all formats from board books to activity books to picture books, novels, ebooks, and apps, the imprints of Random House Children’s Books bring together award-winning authors and illustrators, world-famous franchise characters, and multimillion-copy series. Random House Children’s Books is a division of Random House LLC, whose parent company is Bertelsmann SE & Co. KGaA, a leading international media company.
