HarperCollins Children’s Books Australia has acquired world rights to two books by author Alice Pung and illustrator Sher Rill Ng. The sale went to auction and was overseen by Sher Rill’s agent Danielle Binks, and Alice’s agent Clare Forster at Curtis Brown Australia. HarperCollins describes Be Careful, Xiao Xin!, which Pung and Ng have been developing for a year, as ‘an extraordinarily powerful and moving story about the resilience of the human spirit, dealing with loss and grief, and the innate and primal need we all have to protect those we love’.

Be Careful, Xiao Xin! will be published in English and Mandarin in Australia, under Harper’s new Working Title Press imprint in 2022. The second collaborative title between Alice and Sher Rill is currently in-development.