*Fox 2000 has acquired Nigerian author Tomi Adeyemi’s debut West African fantasy novel “Children of Blood and Bone,” which is the first in what will be a trilogy.
The 23-year-old writer scored one of the biggest YA (Young Adult) debut novel publishing deals ever with Macmillan Children’s Publishing Group, says Deadline Hollywood, who broke the news about how her unpublished book impressed both Fox and Macmillan Publishing immensely. The deal with Fox is said to be in the seven-figures.
Per Deadline:
The novel is unusual in that the fantasy trilogies studios usually buy for big bucks are built around white characters. This one weaves in African culture and characters and mixes it with magic to create an intriguing mythology that is otherworldly but somehow familiar.
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Described as “‘Avatar: The Last Airbender’ meets Black Lives Matter,” Shadow and Act explains the plot as: With magic, Zélie’s family could stand against the royal guard. Her people wouldn’t live in fear. Her mom wouldn’t have hanged from that tree. Years after the king wiped magic out of Orïsha, Zélie has one chance to bring it back. To do so, she’ll have to outwit/outrun the crown prince, who’s hell-bent on erasing magic for good.
In the author’s bio on her website, Adeyemi says she writes because: “I want a little black girl to pick up my book one day and see herself as the star. I want her to know that she’s beautiful and she matters and she can have a crazy, magical adventure even if an ignorant part of the world tells her she can never be Hermione Granger. I want to give something to the world that I feel I missed out on as a child, and I want to help people of all races, ethnicities, and orientations understand that no matter what differences we may think we have, everyone is a human and everyone deserves to be respected and valued. I also write because I refuse to believe I will never have any magical powers and if I keep writing YA Fantasy I can keep that delusion up.”
No word on when the first book in the trilogy will hit book stores.
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