Jenny Lee
Jenny Lee is a writer and producer on the new ABC Family sitcom Young & Hungry. She was also a writer and producer of the TBS sitcom Ground Floor and the Disney Channel's number-one-rated kids' show Shake It Up for all three seasons. The author of four humor essay books, Jenny is also the author of Elvis and the Underdogs. She lives in Los Angeles with her 110-pound Newfoundland, Doozy (and yes, it's a toss-up on who's walking whom every day).
ANNA K (2020)
Welcome to the dizzying heights of New York’s Upper East Side: where privilege, partying and scandal rules. And Anna K. knows the rules by heart. Beautiful, rich and popular, she takes care to maintain her status as the perfect girlfriend, daughter and student. Then a chance encounter at Grand Central Station with notorious playboy Alexi ‘Count’ Vronsky changes everything. Anna knows she needs to avoid Alexi, but sometimes fate has other plans…
Soon Anna finds it impossible to resist him, and finds herself willing to risk everything to be with him — no matter the consequences.
“Lee skillfully weaves beats of the classic Russian novel into the contemporary plot of her first YA novel, but readers will need no previous knowledge of Tolstoy to appreciate the social stakes, heartbreak, humor and moral complexity of Anna K. Wonderfully observed details of characters’ clothing, music, technology and slang add to the immersive, effortless flow of these teens’ glittering world, and secondary characters shine as they deal with their own family issues. “ - Starred Review, BookPage
“Yes! It's a retelling of Anna Karenina for young adults. Yes! It's about a Korean American socialite-slash-horse-girl… Yes! We can’t wait to read it.” - Glamour’s “Best Books of 2020”
“One of my favorite reads this year.” - The Amazon Book Review:Best Young Adult Books of March
Rights: Flatiron, North American (two book deal); Moon, Dutch; Planeta, World Spanish.
ELVIS AND THE UNDERDOGS (2013)
From Jenny Lee, writer on the Disney Channel show Shake It Up!, the number-one-rated kids' show in the country, this feel-good middle-grade novel is about a sickly boy whose life is turned upside down when he gets a therapy dog . . . who can talk!
Benji Wendell Barnsworth is a small ten-year-old boy with a big personality. Born premature, Benji is sickly, accident-prone, and at the hospital so often he even has his own punch card. So when Benji wakes up one day from a particularly bad spell, his doctors take the radical step of suggesting he get a therapy dog. But when a massive crate arrives at Benji's house, out walks a two-hundred-pound Newfoundland who can talk! And boy, is he bossy.
In this hilarious and heartwarming friendship story in the tradition of bestselling authors Gordon Korman and Carl Hiaasen, Elvis brings out the dog lover in the most surprising people and shows Benji that making new friends may not be as scary as he once thought.
Elvis and the Underdogs was selected by IndieBound to be one of the 10 New Voices, which highlights books by first-time authors for both kids 8-12 and teens.
Rights: Balzer + Bray, World
WARHOL (IN DEVELOPMENT, MIDDLE GRADE)
Eleven year old Warhol’s Mom is a semi-famous tattoo artist. She wakes him up in the middle of the night and they board a train leaving New York City to move to small town in Texas that literally isn’t even on the map. There Warhol must uncover the mystery of why they are there, who is the old man in a coma in the hospital, why the parents of the town are so opposed to the temporary tattoos he wears, and help the other kids in the town figure out a way to win the national contest that would help put their town of Valentine on the map (literally). It’s a story about finding out who you are, where you belong, and that your best friend is still your best friend even if he is far away.
Rights: HarperCollins, North America