STAR CREATIVE TEAM: Zadie Smith is one of most beloved and lauded bestselling authors of our generation, and this book shows that she speaks to the hearts of audiences of all ages. Co-written with Nick Laird and introducing debut illustrator Magenta Fox, The Surprise hails a new chapter for a powerhouse team.

BE YOURSELF: After a bit of a bumpy ride, the Surprise learns that there’s nothing more important than being yourself and embracing what makes you different (and, ideally, odd!)

BULLYING AND EMPATHY: The other pets the Surprise encounters learn that making someone feel singled out for their differences is unkind—everyone wins from having a rich friend group, full of varied interests and personalities.

HUMOR: Smith, Laird and Fox use humor as a tool to open up a conversation about loving what makes you different.

ADORABLE ART: With charming characters, energetic depictions of apartment life and gentle colors, Fox’s illustrations have wide appeal and complement the warm, wry prose perfectly.

STRONG PUBLISHING PARTNERS: We’ll be co-publishing with Viking in the U.S., and Puffin published The Surprise as Weirdo in the U.K. in April 2021.

Zadie Smith is the author of the novels White Teeth, The Autograph Man, On Beauty, NW and Swing Time, as well as three collections of essays, Changing My Mind, Feel Free and Intimations, and a collection of short stories, Grand Union. Zadie was elected a fellow of the Royal Society of Literature in 2002, and was listed as one of Granta’s 20 Best Young British Novelists in 2003 and again in 2013. White Teeth won multiple literary awards including the James Tait Black Memorial Prize, the Whitbread First Novel Award and the Guardian First Book Award. On Beauty was shortlisted for the Man Booker Prize and won the Orange Prize for Fiction, and NW was shortlisted for the Baileys Women’s Prize for Fiction. Zadie Smith is currently a tenured professor of fiction at New York University and a member of the American Academy of Arts and Letters. Nick Laird is the recipient of many prizes for his poetry and fiction, including the Rooney Prize for Irish Literature, the Ireland Chair of Poetry Award, the Betty Trask Prize, a Somerset Maugham award, and the Geoffrey Faber Memorial Prize. He is on faculty at New York University and Professor of Creative Writing at the Seamus Heaney Centre at Queen’s University in Belfast. His latest collection Feel Free was shortlisted for the TS Eliot Award and the Derek Walcott Prize.

Author Residence: New York, New York

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.

Illustrator Residence: London, UK

". . . [A] tonally freewheeling picture book whose chatty narration and dialogue are anchored by precise, fine-lined art and vivid characterizations." —Publishers Weekly