Erin Murphy Literary Agency

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Alice Faye Duncan to Pen Picture Book to Honor and Elevate Opal Lee’s Juneteenth Holiday

May 12th, 2021

Juneteenth has been celebrated by Black people since June 19, 1865, the day a Union general showed up in Galveston, Texas and told everyone that the Civil War had ended and that the people who had been enslaved were free.This was two and a half years after the Emancipation Proclamation! As of 2021, more and more states across the country have been adding Juneteenth as official holiday. We’re long overdue, since it is the oldest nationally celebrated commemoration of the ending of slavery in the United States.

Enter Opal Lee. For over a decade, this Fort Worth, Texas resident has been working to make Juneteenth a national holiday, just like the fourth of July or Memorial Day. Opal Lee wants every child to understand the joy of Juneteenth as a celebration of food, community, freedom, and joy.

Adria Haley at HarperCollins Christian Publishing has acquired world rights to Opal Lee & What It Means to Be Free by Alice Faye Duncan (l.) (Memphis, Martin, and the Mountaintop), illustrated by Keturah A. Bobo. The picture book tells the true story of activist Opal Lee and her vision of Juneteenth as a holiday for everyone. Publication is planned for January 2022; Tricia Lawrence at Erin Murphy Literary represented the author, and the illustrator was unagented.

We’re so excited for this book, beautifully illustrated by Keturah A. Bobo, and know that it will help to make a beautiful celebration of Juneteenth an event for every neighborhood across America.

Congratulations, Alice Faye!

—Tricia

Miranda Paul’s Butterfly Book

May 12th, 2021

It was bound to happen. Miranda Paul and her kids have raised hundreds of butterflies over the last decade, and yet she hasn’t had a book about butterflies—until now, that is!

The inevitable has come into being with her latest deal, for A KALEIDOSCOPE OF HOPE: A BOOK OF BUTTERFLIES, which is illustrated by the incredible team of Hari Panischer and Deepti Nair, who work in cut paper. Hari and Deepti’s agent, Kirsten Hall of Catbird Productions, actually initiated the concept, inspired by learning that a group of butterflies is called a kaleidoscope.

The package of Miranda’s text and Hari and Deepti’s gorgeously realistic butterfly and cocoon samples caught a lot of eyes, and we were pleased to sell this at auction to Martha Mihalick of Greenwillow after sending it out on the very first business day of 2021. Greenwillow couldn’t be a more perfect home for it!

Sadly, you have to wait until summer 2023 to see the glory that will be this book. It’s more than pretty, though: the text encourages kids to understand the role of butterflies in the ecosystem and to be community scientists—much like Miranda and her kids.

Congratulations, Miranda!

—Erin

MILLER AND CHARLTON-TRUJLLO DO IT AGAIN

May 5th, 2021

Deborah Underwood Loves Animals…

Apr 21st, 2021

Thrills and Chills Coming Ahead from Adi Rule!

Apr 15th, 2021

Maria Gianferrari Illuminates the ICE CYCLE!

Apr 7th, 2021

Introducing . . . Debut Picture Book Illustrator, Jerry Jordan!

Apr 7th, 2021