MariNaomi and Trung Lê Capecchi-Nguyễn Ink Deal for MG Graphic Novel

Award-winning graphic novelists MariNaomi and Trung Lê Capecchi-Nguyễn team up for a Middle Grade graphic novel with Mari writing and Trung illustrating. They follows introverted, hafu, androgynous girl Yuko, long teased for being Japanese in her mostly white school until the J-Pop group They becomes the next hit sensation and everyone suddenly wants to be Japanese. Yuko resents They (and hates pop music, preferring her own electronic compositions) until she’s forced into a summer job helping her white, single mother teach private classes to rich people, including her two newest students, nonbinary, hafu twins Emi and Hiro from the recently disbanded They. For readers of The First Rule of Punk, New Kid, and Front Desk. World rights sold to Andrea Colvin at Little, Brown Books for Young Readers with Gordon Warnock at Fuse Literary representing the author and Kate McKean at Howard Morhaim Literary Agency representing the illustrator.