Deals

Jill Santopolo of Philomel Books has acquired Felicia Bond's new picture book, Big Hug, Little Hugs, about animals who hug one another all over the world. Bond is the illustrator of the If You Give a Mouse a Cookie series, which is written by Laura Numeroff. Publication is scheduled for spring 2012. Stephen Roxburgh of namelos LLC brokered the deal.

Molly O'Neill at Katherine Tegen Books, a HarperCollins imprint, bought world rights in a pre-empt to a three-book YA series by debut author Veronica Roth; the first book is titled Divergent. The dystopian thrillers were pitched as The Hunger Games meets The Matrix; Joanna Stampfel-Volpe of Nancy Coffey Literary was the agent.

Alvina Ling at Little, Brown Books for Young Readers has acquired North American rights to Sorta Like a Rockstar author Matthew Quick's new novel, Boy 21, billed as a Basketball Diaries-meets-Stargirl story, set in a racially charged urban neighborhood. Publication is scheduled for fall 2011; Doug Stewart at Sterling Lord Literistic did the deal.

According to Variety, lab giant Technicolor has announced plans to develop and produce original broadcast animation, and has made its first acquisition: Pete and Pickles, a picture book by Bloom County cartoonist Berkeley Breathed. The story, about the friendship between a pig and an escaped circus elephant, will be turned into a half-hour cartoon series.