Posted in: Comics | Tagged: Agent, graphic novel, Mirka Hokkanen, mossy and tweed
Mirka Hokkanen Graphic Novel Debut Mossy & Tweed: Crazy for Coconuts
Mossy and Tweed: Crazy for Coconuts is Mirka Hokkanen's graphic novel debut, about stubborn gnomes' whose friendship is put to the test as they try to crack a coconut. Sally Morgridge at Holiday House acquired this graphic novel and its unnamed sequel. Mossy and Tweed: Crazy for Coconuts will be published in the summer of 2023, as part of the I Like to Read Comics line. Mirka Hokkanen is a Finnish-American author, illustrator and printmaker, who creates nature-centric art and household goods, inspired by retro and Scandinavian patterns and colours. Her first illustrated book, Four Otters Toboggan: An Animal Counting Book, came out in March 2019, and her second book, Harmony Humbolt: The Perfect Pets Queen was published in August, 2021. Mirka has four more books scheduled to release in 2023-2024 with Candlewick and Holiday House. Mirka moved to the U.S. in 1998 to attend Rockford College in Illinois (BFA 2002). She received both Master of Arts (2004) and Master of Fine Arts (2006) degrees in printmaking from University of Dallas.
Since its beginnings in 1935 as the first American publishing house founded with the purpose of publishing only children's books, Holiday House, based in New York, has aimed to gather together talented authors and illustrators and to publish quality books that entertain, enlighten, and educate children. Known for having a deep list of timeless and award-winning books for children and young adult readers, Holiday House publishes the award-winning I Like to Read series of picture books for emergent readers and launched its first eponymous imprints, Margaret Ferguson Books and Neal Porter Books, in 2018. The logo of the Holiday House little boy is by Ernest H. Shepard, the illustrator of The Wind in the Willows and the Winnie the Pooh books, and comes from Holiday House's original edition of The Reluctant Dragon by Kenneth Grahame.
Laurel Symonds at the Bent Agency negotiated the two-book deal for world rights.