Little Island announce sequel to Meg Grehan’s The Deepest Breath
Little Island Books announce the acquisition of The Brightest Star by Meg Grehan, a sequel to the award-winning LGBTQIA+ verse novel The Deepest Breath. World rights in all languages were acquired by publisher Matthew Parkinson-Bennett directly from the author.
The Deepest Breath was shortlisted for the Waterstones Children’s Book Prize 2020 and won the Judges’ Special Prize at the KPMG—Children’s Books Ireland Book of the Year Awards 2020. Little Island sold North American rights to Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, and translation rights in French, Polish, and Danish. A favourite among librarians and booksellers, The Deepest Breath has become a contemporary classic queer middle-grade novel and The Brightest Star will be eagerly anticipated.
About The Brightest Star
Stevie, Chloe and Andrew, the three best friends from The Deepest Breath, are starting secondary school. Stevie and Chloe are delighted to discover a warm and welcoming environment in the LGBTQIA+ society. But Andrew feels isolated and confused. He wishes he could find his tribe like his friends have — but he’s unsure where he belongs.
Stevie has anxieties of her own. She has always excelled academically, but now she is struggling with in maths class. Who is she supposed to be, if not the clever one in her friend group?
A gentle and reassuring exploration of friendship, identity, community and self-understanding, The Brightest Star will resonate with young readers feeling challenged by questions of sexual identity, growing up, and fitting in.
About Meg Grehan
Meg is an Irish writer living in County Donegal. She won the 2018 Children’s Books Ireland Éilís Dillon Award for debut fiction for The Space Between. Following the success of The Deepest Breath, her YA vampire novel Baby Teeth earned starred reviews in Kirkus and Publishers Weekly, and was shortlisted for the Irish Book Awards and nominated for the Carnegie Medal 2023. The Lonely Book was nominated for the Carnegie Medal 2024. The Brightest Star is her fifth book.
Little Island’s Parkinson-Bennett says:
“Watching The Deepest Breath finding its readers has been one of the privileges of my career. Meg has a beautiful gift for exploring anxiety, self-doubt and isolation in a gentle, kind, and reassuring way. I look forward to seeing The Brightest Star step out from the shadow of its sister book and shine its own light into the world.”
Meg Grehan adds:
“I love these characters and have carried them with me since writing their first story, so I truly adored getting to see what they’ve been up to. I will forever be grateful to everyone who connected with The Deepest Breath, they changed my life and made me a better, braver writer. I hope readers are excited to see Stevie again, I know she’s excited to see them!”
The Brightest Star will be published by Little Island in May 2025.
For rights enquiries, please contact: rights@littleisland.ie