Ranran Zhou Auctions Rights To Her Witchy Graphic Novel, Momo

Sydney storyboard artist Ranran Zhou is making her graphic novel debut with a middle-grade graphic novel tentatively titled Momo, and a planned sequel. Both graphic novels star a precocious “young witch Momo Lim, who lives in a retirement home for magical creatures and yearns to become a detective like her late father; in book one, Momo bites off more than she can chew by trying to solve a poisoning that takes place at a garden party.” And they auctioned the rights to the graphic novel, resulting in bids from five publishers. Feather Flores at Atheneum won the auction and publication of the first Momo book is to be scheduled for 2026.

Ranran Zhou’s agent, Britt Siess at Britt Siess Creative Management did the two-book deal for North American rights. Founded in 2020, Britt Siess Creative Management is a Seattle-based full-service literary agency with an emphasis on graphic novels and illustration.

Founded in 1961 by Jean Karl, Atheneum Books for Young Readers is now part of Simon & Schuster and is known for publishing enduring literary middle-grade, teen, picture book, and graphic novel titles. The imprint has garnered more than forty Newbery and Caldecott Medals and Honors throughout its history.

Simon & Schuster is a subsidiary publisher of Paramount Global (still) and was founded in 1924 by Richard L. Simon and M. Lincoln Schuster. As of 2016, Simon & Schuster was the third-largest publisher in the United States, publishing over 2000 titles annually under 35 different imprints. In 2020, German media group Bertelsmann and owner of Penguin Random House announced purchase plans for Simon & Schuster and Paramount Global announced it would sell Simon & Schuster to Bertelsmann subsidiary Penguin Random House for $2.175 billion. However, the United States Department of Justice filed a civil antitrust lawsuit to block the sale, which then did so. The planned merger was then scrapped.

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