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The Surprise

Author Zadie Smith, Nick Laird
Illustrated by Magenta Fox
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Hardcover
$17.99 US
Penguin Young Readers | Viking Books for Young Readers
On sale Jun 28, 2022 | 32 Pages | 9780593525975
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This back-to-school season, individuality is in! Nothing makes a splash like being uniquely yourself—and celebrating what makes you different.

From acclaimed authors Zadie Smith and Nick Laird, with art from exciting newcomer Magenta Fox, comes a powerful picture book debut!

"[A] delightful tale for little oddballs everywhere."—Entertainment Weekly

Meet Maud: a guinea pig who inexplicably wears a judo suit—and not everyone understands or approves. When Maud is thrown into a new and confusing situation, it takes brave decisions and serendipitous encounters for her to find her place and embrace her individuality.

The Surprise is an endearing story about the quiet power of being different by New York Times bestselling author Zadie Smith and award-winning writer Nick Laird, and introduces an exciting debut illustrator, Magenta Fox. Together they have created a picture book that adults and children alike will treasure.
© Ben Bailey-Smith
Zadie Smith is the author of the novels White Teeth, The Autograph Man, On Beauty, NW, Swing Time, and The Fraud; as well as a novella, The Embassy of Cambodia; four collections of essays, Changing My Mind, Feel Free, Intimations, and Dead and Alive; a collection of short stories, Grand Union; and a play, The Wife of Willesden, adapted from Chaucer. She is also the editor of The Book of Other People. Zadie Smith was born in north-west London, where she still lives. View titles by Zadie Smith
Nick Laird was born in Northern Ireland and studied at Cambridge University. He has published two novels, Utterly Monkey and Glover’s Mistake, and three collections of poetry, To a Fault, On Purpose, and Go Giants. He is the recipient of many awards for his fiction and poetry, including the Betty Trask Prize, the Rooney Prize for Irish Literature, the Geoffrey Faber Memorial Prize, and the Somerset Maugham Award. A Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature and a 2016 Guggenheim Fellow, he teaches at Columbia University in New York. View titles by Nick Laird
Magenta Fox was born in southwest London in 1994. She studied English at the University of Exeter and since moving back to London in 2015, has been working as a children's book designer. These days she works freelance—illustrating, writing, and designing children's books from her flat in south London. View titles by Magenta Fox

About

This back-to-school season, individuality is in! Nothing makes a splash like being uniquely yourself—and celebrating what makes you different.

From acclaimed authors Zadie Smith and Nick Laird, with art from exciting newcomer Magenta Fox, comes a powerful picture book debut!

"[A] delightful tale for little oddballs everywhere."—Entertainment Weekly

Meet Maud: a guinea pig who inexplicably wears a judo suit—and not everyone understands or approves. When Maud is thrown into a new and confusing situation, it takes brave decisions and serendipitous encounters for her to find her place and embrace her individuality.

The Surprise is an endearing story about the quiet power of being different by New York Times bestselling author Zadie Smith and award-winning writer Nick Laird, and introduces an exciting debut illustrator, Magenta Fox. Together they have created a picture book that adults and children alike will treasure.

Author

© Ben Bailey-Smith
Zadie Smith is the author of the novels White Teeth, The Autograph Man, On Beauty, NW, Swing Time, and The Fraud; as well as a novella, The Embassy of Cambodia; four collections of essays, Changing My Mind, Feel Free, Intimations, and Dead and Alive; a collection of short stories, Grand Union; and a play, The Wife of Willesden, adapted from Chaucer. She is also the editor of The Book of Other People. Zadie Smith was born in north-west London, where she still lives. View titles by Zadie Smith
Nick Laird was born in Northern Ireland and studied at Cambridge University. He has published two novels, Utterly Monkey and Glover’s Mistake, and three collections of poetry, To a Fault, On Purpose, and Go Giants. He is the recipient of many awards for his fiction and poetry, including the Betty Trask Prize, the Rooney Prize for Irish Literature, the Geoffrey Faber Memorial Prize, and the Somerset Maugham Award. A Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature and a 2016 Guggenheim Fellow, he teaches at Columbia University in New York. View titles by Nick Laird
Magenta Fox was born in southwest London in 1994. She studied English at the University of Exeter and since moving back to London in 2015, has been working as a children's book designer. These days she works freelance—illustrating, writing, and designing children's books from her flat in south London. View titles by Magenta Fox

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