Dynamite Kids Acquires North American Rights To M. G. Leonard’s ‘The Ice Children’
by Erik Amaya
Dynamite’s children’s imprint, Dynamite Kids, continues to grow.
The company announced Tuesday that it has acquired the rights (including audio) to author M. G. Leonard’s The Ice Children in North America from Cathryn Gregory at Macmillan Publishers International Limited. The book, from the author of Adventures on Trains and Twitch, is a “modern fairytale adventure celebrating the magic and wonder of winter in all its forms.”
It also takes inspiration from Hans Christian Andersen’s The Ice Queen, as the story opens with five-year-old Finn Albedo being found frozen in the city park with his heart still beating. His older sister, Bianca, believes a book he checked out of the library may be connected, but the tome itself has vanished. Meanwhile, the stranger who first found Albedo at midnight on December 1st also seems likes they might be connected to all of these curious events even as more children are found frozen as the days roll by. Soon, Bianca’s investigation leads her into a “fantastical winter wonderland, full of beauty and danger.” Will she be able to unlock the puzzle of it all before it’s too late?
“The Ice Children makes for a compelling winter treat as it is full of mesmerizing danger and excitement, with a strong ecological message, too,” Dynamite Entertainment CEO and Publisher Nick Barrucci said in a statement. “We’re all thrilled at Dynamite to be bringing M. G. Leonard’s talent for writing exciting mystery stories to our North American readers.”
Beyond the tale itself, the hardcover edition of the novel includes black-and-white illustrations by Penny Neville-Lee. As you’ll see in the sample pages below, they are quite the accompaniment to the story aimed at readers aged 8-12.
The North American edition of The Ice Children is due out this month from Dynamite Kids.
