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Move over Harry Potter -
Summary:
Louisa Young, scribe of the hit children's book Lionboy, deflects any comparisons with her fellow British author
Article:
WHEN news broke of British author Louisa Young's landmark six-figure publishing deal for a trilogy of children's books in February, the British media turned into a circus.
AUTHOR, AUTHOR: Louisa Young and her 10-year-old daughter, Isabel Adomakoh Young, dreamed up Lionboy's lead character of Ashanti six years ago.
Newspapers clamoured to be the first to hail the pretty, blonde, single mother - who co-authored the novel Lionboy with her 10-year-old daughter, Isabel Adomakoh Young, under the pseudonym Zizou Corder - as the new J.K. Rowling.
Lionboy has sold almost 75,000 copies in hardback and paperback in Britain since its release in September. In Singapore, about 2,500 copies have been sold since October.
And in the publicity rush, her six-figure book advance was blown up into a not-so-private million-pound one.
'People like the phrase 'a million pounds'. They go 'Ooh, wonderful',' sniffs the 44-year-old in a telephone interview from London.
'And they also like the phrase,' she pauses dramatically for effect, 'the new J.K. Rowling. Once you can use the two in a headline, I think people get a little too excited.'
LIONBOY'S IMPACT
STILL, the fuss over Lionboy is not unwarranted.
Young's story of Charlie Ashanti, a half-English, half-African boy who can speak to cats and who travels around the world to find his missing parents, did hit the literary jackpot in more ways than one.
Young has inked a three-book deal with publishing giants Puffin while Steven Spielberg's Hollywood studio DreamWorks has snapped up the movie rights.
For the record, though, reports about the million-pound sum were gross exaggerations, says Young, who has published four adult novels since 1995 under her own name.
'All the publisher said was that it was a six-figure sum. As far as I'm concerned, any six-figure sum is substantial. But someone decided that a six-figure sum was nearly a seven-figure one,' she laments.
Incidentally, Young's six-figure sum dwarfs the £2,000 (S$5,800) advance reportedly paid to Harry Potter novelist Rowling for her first Potter book.
But, comparisons with Rowling are also dismissed as 'completely irrelevant'.
'Everyone is the new J.K. Rowling these days,' she says. 'For every children's book which becomes successful, someone will say the author is the new J.K. Rowling.'
The former freelance journalist even wrote a commentary in The Guardian about her newfound, and not-so-novel, status, as the 'new JKR'.
'Why would anyone want a new J.K. Rowling?' she asks in the piece. 'The old one works perfectly well. I'm not sure another one is practical. Are there enough trees?'
Lest you think she is scoffing at the venerable Ms Rowling, her point is this: 'The comparisons simply don't matter. I'm me. I'm a grown woman who has had a very successful, nice life. I'm not bothered.'
Asked what she would say to the next uninformed person who calls her the new JKR, she quips: 'I'd say no, I used to be the new JKR. There have been 17 more since me.'
INTERESTING HISTORY, INTERESTING FAMILY
YOU can't fault the media's fascination with Young, who comes from an aristocratic lineage.
Her father is Lord Kennet, a hereditary peer and a former Labour minister in British Prime Minister Harold Wilson's government in the 1960s and 1970s. He also wrote Eros Denied, a book advocating sexual freedom in 1964, under a pen name, Wayland Young.
Her mother, Elizabeth, reportedly delivered a public slap to a Tory minister for giving a party speech which was uncalled for at a party she was hosting.
Her parents befriended former US Secretary of State Henry Kissinger when the three attended a seminar at Harvard in 1952. Kissinger is Young's godfather.
No stranger to controversy, she rode a Harley-Davidson motorcycle till it was stolen 10 years ago and once posed 'quarter-nude' for an arty photo book titled Naked London.After Trinity College, Cambridge, Young began working for magazines and newspapers, once writing an expose on the appalling working conditions in McDonald's.
Ironically, a marketing company for McDonald's approached Young after her book was released, promising a lucrative promotional tie-up.
'Oh. We haven't replied yet,' she says wryly.
YOUNG'S YOUNG CO-AUTHOR
YOUNG's co-author and daughter Isabel is the offspring of a failed union with a Ghanaian charity worker, Louis Adomakoh, who now 'lives a few doors down and visits every day'.
Isabel dreamed up the character of Ashanti six years ago with Young.
She modelled Ashanti's mixed parentage after her own while Zizou, the pair's pen name, is the name of her pet lizard christened after French footballer Zinedine Zidane.
The mother-and-daughter team flesh out the stories together. Says Young: 'Sometimes we have quarrels. But not bad ones, no slamming doors. Mostly, it's just been a lot of fun.'
Royalties are split 50-50 between mum and daughter.
A trilogy is planned and the second book has been written. They are now working on the final instalment. The second book, which has not been named yet, is scheduled for release late next year.
But the burning question is: When will poor Ashanti find his parents?
'I can tell you that he finds them in the second book. But then,' she adds in a conspiratorial whisper. 'Something happens.'
Lionboy, priced at $15,50, is available in the bookstores.
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SOME OTHER 'NEW J.K. ROWLINGS'
EOIN COLFER, 38
WHO: Irish schoolteacher turned author of Artemis Fowl books, a series about a 12-year-old high-tech criminal mastermind
TITLES: Artemis Fowl; Artemis Fowl: The Arctic Incident; Artemis Fowl: The Eternity Code
ANTHONY HOROWITZ, 48
WHO: English writer and James Bond fan who created Alex Rider, a reluctant 14-year-old spy for the MI-6
TITLES: Point Blank; Stormbreaker; Skeleton Key; Eagle Strike
G.P.TAYLOR, 43
WHO: English vicar who created scary fictional character Obadiah Demurral, a two-faced 18th century vicar as well as an evil sorcerer in disguise
TITLE: Shadowmancer
JONATHAN STROUD, 33
WHO: The English mayor's son who landed a book and film deal reportedly worth more than £2 million (S$5.8 million) for a fantasy thriller set in a wizards' parliament in modern-day London.
TITLE: The Amulet of Samarkand, the first novel in a trilogy.
Thanks to
Striatstimes 
erm... I've never heard about this book. Was it released only in UK and Singapore?
MONKEY!!
noone can beat JK :sorcerer:
