HBG Big News This Week: February 18-22, 2019

Following is a recap of major news at Hachette Book Group for the week of February 18-22, 2019:

Bestseller news: HBG has 15 books on the New York Times list, and our distribution clients have two books on the list.

Acquisition news: LBYR announced that they will publish The Legends of Greemulax by Kimmy Schmidt with Sarah Mlynowski on April 2, 2019, making available the original middle grade fantasy adventure novel featured in Netflix’s Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt. News of the acquisition was picked up by Entertainment Weekly, Variety, and Bustle, among other outlets. Tina Fey, one of the creators of the popular Netflix series, will be interviewed about the book on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon on Monday, February 25 (air date subject to change). For more information, read LBYR’s press release.

Ezra Jack Keats Award: Oge Mora has won the 2019 Ezra Jack Keats Book Award for New Illustrator for her work on Thank You, Omu (LBYR) – fresh on the heels of winning a Caldecott Honor for the book! You can learn more about the Ezra Jack Keats Award here.

LA Times Book Prizes: The Los Angeles Times Book Prize Finalists have been announced, including the following Little, Brown titles: Megan Abbott’s Give Me Your Hand and Kent Anderson’s Green Sun (Mystery/Thriller category), and Beth Macy’s Dopesick (Science & Technology category). LBYR also landed a nominee: Emily X.R. Pan’s The Astonishing Color of After (Young Adult Literature category). The winners will be announced on April 12.

Movie news: Amblin Partners acquired film rights to award-winning writer and journalist Simon Parkin’s A Game of Birds and Wolves: The Young Women Who Played to Win World War II (LB, to be published January 2020). Vicky Jones (Killing Eve) will write the adaptation, and the film will be produced by Mark Platt Productions (last produced Mary Poppins Returns, nominated for Oscars for La La Land) and DreamWorks.