UWA Publishing has acquired ANZ rights to Cassy Polimeni’s junior fiction series Ella and the Frogs.
UWA Publishing is proud to announce that we have acquired Australian and New Zealand rights to Cassy Polimeni’s new four-book junior fiction series Ella and the Frogs.
Cassy Polimeni is a freelance editor and children’s/YA author. The former editor of Destinations Australia magazine, she has also worked as a TV book reviewer and an airport chauffeur. Her debut picture book, The Garden at the End of the World (illus. Briony Stewart, published by UQP) was released in April 2023. She won Just Write for Kids Pitch It! Competition in 2020, and in 2022 was awarded an ASA/Copyright Australia Mentorship to develop a middle grade novel. Cassy has presented story times and workshops at kindergartens, libraries and festivals. She volunteers with the Author Pen Pals program and is a Literacy Ambassador for education charity Ardoch. Cassy is represented by Danielle Binks of Jacinta di Mase Management and lives in Melbourne, on Bunurong Country.
Ella and the Amazing Frog Orchestra is the first book in the Ella and the Frogs series and will be published by UWA Publishing mid-2024. Polimeni’s junior fiction series is for early readers (5 to 8 years old) exploring themes of friendship and animal protection/conservation. Each story begins with a frog-related fact that mirrors a theme in Ella’s life and features back matter that ties in with the Australian primary school curriculum. In the first book, Ella and the Amazing Frog Orchestra, Ella has moved house and is missing her old life, until she discovers a frog pond in her backyard and bonds with her new classmate, Mai, over the school frog bog. New friends and frog expeditions help Ella feel more at home, but when a development project threatens the pond, Ella and Mai must come up with a plan to save the frogs before it's too late. The remaining books in the series will explore themes of friendship, working together, bullying, kindness and finding your own voice. Ella and the Frogs will appeal to readers who love Violet Mackerel, Ivy and Bean, Lemonade Jones, and What Zola Did.
The series will feature cover and internal illustrations by Hykie Breeze, a Hong Kong born graphic designer and illustrator living in Sydney on Dharawal Country.
Polimeni’s junior fiction series was acquired during UWA Publishing’s 2023 general submissions.
UWA Publishing is proud to be publishing the first book in the series, Ella and the Amazing Frog Orchestra, in July 2024. Subsequent books will be published over 2024 to 2026.
For media enquiries please contact UWA Publishing’s Marketing Department.
EMAIL: marketing-uwap@uwa.edu.au
PHONE: (+ 61 8) 6488 3670
Download the media release here.