We are happy to announce one of the loveliest foreign rights deals this summer: the picture book series about the adventures of a dog called Cat and her friends, written by Tomi Kontio and illustrated by Elina Warsta, will now reach the Swedish readers, as Swedish rights have been sold to Epix.
Epix is the oldest and largest publisher in Sweden of adult series and albums, which also has an exquisite list of picture books for children. They have previously published such authors as Tove Jansson, Isabelle Kreitz, Neil Gaiman, Marguerite Abouet, Joann Sfar, Luke Pearson, Pierre Bailly.
The publisher acquired the rights for the first two books in the stand-alone series, A Dog Called Cat (2015) and A Dog Called Cat Meets a Cat (2019), and optioned the third and fourth books. The first book in the series has now been sold to 7 territories altogether.
A friendship between a dog called Cat, a cat called Dog and a man called Weasel might just be the kindest and most beautiful one that has occurred in Finnish literature by far. The series of stand-alone books, nominated for several prestigious children’s literature prizes, including Finlandia Junior and Nordic Council Children and Young People’s Literature Prize, gives us philosophical, warm and humorous lessons about accepting difference, seeing people without prejudice and the importance of looking beyond the surface. Eventually, friendship is what remains, defying all the bad and scary in the world.
A Dog Called Cat (2015) was the first book in the series, followed by A Dog Called Cat Meets a Cat (2019), which was nominated for the most prestigious literary award in Finland, Finlandia Prize, and won the Public Vote as readers’ favourite among the nominees. The third book, A Dog Called Cat is Looking for Home was published last year. The fourth book will be Christmas-themed, and will feature our autumn catalogue.
Congratulations to the authors!