Amelia Rules! Acquired by Simon & Schuster

I was tempted to headline this “No New Amelia Rules! Books for Two More Years”, but that’s because I’m selfish. Congratulations to Jimmy Gownley in getting picked up and republished to a bigger audience! From the press release:

Ginee Seo Books, an imprint of Atheneum/Simon & Schuster Children’s Publishing, today announced it has acquired the world rights to Jimmy Gownley’s popular comic and graphic novel series Amelia Rules! …

Centered around the happenings of ten-year-old spitfire Amelia Louise McBride, the Amelia Rules! series captures the true essence of being an adolescent girl in America today, as Amelia adjusts to life in “small town America” after her parent’s divorce as she is forced to leave NYC. “Jimmy is a true creative genius, and Amelia Rules! has that rare combination of mass appeal and literary substance that every publisher dreams about. We are thrilled for Jimmy to be joining the S&S list, as we work to expand our list with some of the top comic and graphic novel talent publishing today, and we look forward to making his name and his characters known to even wider audience beyond his already substantial following,” said Ginee Seo, VP, Editorial Director of Ginee Seo Books.

Over the next two years, the four existing collections will be republished. The fifth book, The Tweenage Guide to Not Being Unpopular, will be published in both hardcover and paperback in Fall 2010. No word on whether there will be continue to be comic issues in the meantime — I hope so!