Seven-Figure Deal for Mystery Set in Charter School
Henry Holt Books for Young Readers, an imprint of Macmillan Children’s Publishing Group, has acquired World English rights to Promise Boys, by award-winning filmmaker Nick Brooks, for seven figures in a highly competitive pre-empt from Cake Creative. Promise Boys, a debut YA thriller in which three boys at an urban charter school investigate their principal’s murder during a high-stakes 24-hour day, is a page-turning, murder mystery thriller that shines a light on themes of social justice and educational inequities, shaping this novel to be both a commercial and literary blockbuster.
Promise Boys is set at Urban Promise Preparatory School, which promises to turn boys into men, plucking inner city youth from their homes for around the clock academics, sports, and extracurriculars. But when the principal ends up dead and the cops come sniffing around, a trio of friends comes face-to-face with a slew of rotten secrets about the school, the community, their teachers, and especially themselves.
Prior to becoming a filmmaker, Brooks worked as an educator with at-risk youth, and Promise Boys is a reflection of his firsthand experience at how the system can condemn these boys to failure before they’ve even had a chance at success, despite the media fanfare often awarded to urban academies.
“Promise Boys is a classic whodunit that mystery fans will love. But even more than that it’s a social thriller, told through the perspective of Black and Brown boys, that highlights the inequity in our education system. This is a story that needs to be told, to speak for our kids who far too often are unable to advocate for themselves and to inspire them to tell their own story,” says Nick Brooks.
“Cake Creative is thrilled to launch Nick Brooks and Promise Boys, welcoming readers to an authentic and bold new young adult thriller set in a world not often seen and masterfully told by a rising star.”
“This is the most important, most groundbreaking submission I’ve read in my entire career,” said Brian Geffen, Senior Editor at Henry Holt Books for Young Readers. “It’s a book that is essential for today’s reader, but also has the potential to be an influential part of the literary canon for decades to come.”
Henry Holt Books for Young Readers and Macmillan UK jointly acquired World English rights for Promise Boys on behalf of Cake Creative, an entertainment company and book packager owned by Dhonielle Clayton that has created the preeminent pipeline of diverse talent to the publishing world. Joanna Volpe of New Leaf Literary & Media brokered the deal.