LINCOLN PEIRCE, BESTSELLING AUTHOR OF THE BIG NATE SERIES, TO PUBLISH NEW ILLUSTRATED MIDDLE-GRADE NOVEL WITH CROWN BOOKS FOR YOUNG READERS
MAX AND THE MIDKNIGHTS to be published January 8, 2019
“Max is epic fun!” —Jeff Kinney, New York Times bestselling author of the Diary of a Wimpy Kid series
“Fantastic! I loved it!” —Dav Pilkey, New York Times bestselling author of the Captain Underpants series
New York, NY (April 10, 2018)—Crown Books for Young Readers, an imprint of Random House Children’s Books, has acquired a stand-alone illustrated middle-grade novel from acclaimed cartoonist and New York Times bestselling author Lincoln Peirce, it was announced today by Mallory Loehr, Senior Vice President & Publisher of the Random House/Golden Books, Doubleday, and Crown Books for Young Readers Group. Peirce is best known for his Big Nate novels, an eight-book series and compilations with over 16 million copies in print. MAX AND THE MIDKNIGHTS, his new illustrated novel, will release on January 8, 2019. Phoebe Yeh, VP & Publisher for Crown Books for Young Readers, was Peirce’s longtime editor while at HarperCollins, and will edit MAX AND THE MIDKNIGHTS. David Hendin at DH Literary, Inc. brokered the deal for World Rights.
MAX AND THE MIDKNIGHTS originated for Peirce as a possible TV series set in the Middle Ages. Returning to the idea years later, Lincoln focused the story around Max, a ten-year-old apprentice troubadour who dreams of becoming a knight. The result is a high-spirited medieval adventure, supported by hundreds of dynamic illustrations that employ the language of comics. Of the lively visual format that has become his trademark, Lincoln says, “I try to write the sort of books I would have loved reading when I was a kid.”
While traveling with Uncle Budrick as a wandering troubadour-in-training, Max reaches the once-friendly Kingdom of Byjovia and finds it downright hostile. When Uncle Budrick is kidnapped by the loathsome King Gastley, Max teams up with a bumbling sorcerer and a group of kid outcasts—dubbed the Midknights—to save the day. But it’ll take more than a daring rescue mission to discover what ails Byjovia. With only their wits to guide them, Max and the Midknights embark on a quest both thrilling and hilarious to restore the kingdom to its former high spirits.
Yeh said of the project, “I had the honor of editing the first illustrated Big Nate novels, and it gives me great pleasure to be reunited now with Lincoln and to welcome him and Max to the Crown family. Max’s action-packed quest will take young readers on a laugh-filled adventure charted by one of the industry’s finest creators, and we so look forward to putting this new work into children’s hands next year.”
Lincoln Peirce is a New York Times bestselling author and cartoonist. His comic strip Big Nate, featuring the adventures of an irrepressible sixth grader, appears in over 400 newspapers worldwide and online at gocomics.com/bignate. In 2010, he began a series of illustrated novels based on the strip, introducing Nate and his cast of classmates and teachers to a new generation of young readers. In the past seven years, 16 million Big Nate books have been sold. When he is not writing or drawing, Lincoln enjoys playing ice hockey, doing crossword puzzles, and hosting a weekly radio show devoted to vintage country music. He and his wife, Jessica, have two children and live in Portland, Maine.
Random House Children’s Books (rhcbooks.com) is the world’s largest English-language children’s trade book publisher. Creating books for toddlers through young adult readers, in all formats from board books to activity books to picture books, novels, and nonfiction, the imprints of Random House Children’s Books bring together award-winning authors and illustrators, world-famous franchise characters, and multimillion-copy series. Random House Children’s Books is a division of Penguin Random House LLC.
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