Zoe Persico’s Debut MG Graphic Novel, How To Talk To Your Succulent

Zoe Persico‘s debut middle-grade graphic novel is How to Talk to Your Succulent. She has sold it to Margot Blankier at Tundra Books for publication in the spring of 2025. “When Adara and her father move from California to Michigan after her mother’s death, Adara discovers she has an unusual magical power and can talk to plants—but she learns that talking and communicating are two different things, in this story about loneliness, empathy, and learning to speak up for yourself.”

Zoe tweeted “What a dream come true. After working on this story for years I am proud to say that I’m finally taking on my debut middle grade graphic novel. Thank you @TundraBooks and @SoCalledYALife for believing in me. I can’t wait for you all to meet Adara and Perle!” She p[rviously worked on books such as Greta Of The Giants, and Ada and the Number-Crunching Machine.

Zoe Persico’s agent Natascha Morris at the Tobias Literary Agency negotiated the deal for world rights.

Tundra, part of Penguin Random House, is Canada’s oldest children’s book publisher, celebrating its 50th anniversary in 2017. They publish primarily for young readers, in a wide range of categories: board books, picture books, chapter books, graphic novels, illustrated nonfiction and middle-grade fiction. Tundra is the home of many writers and illustrators from Canada, the United States and beyond, as well as Canadian classics The Hockey Sweater and Mordecai Richler‘s Jacob Two-Two. The expansion of children’s graphic novels is fuelling all manner of publishers extending into the comics medium. Right now it seems like an infinite market that is being tapped into, and creating longstanding comic book readers for decades to come. It is not for nothing that kids graphic novels in bookstores are being referred to as the newsstand of the twenty-first century, and the recent shutdowns have put a fire underneath it recently.