Jesse Wente has signed a two-book deal with Penguin Random House Canada (photo: Red Works Photography)

Penguin Random House Canada has signed a two-book deal with CBC Radio’s Jesse Wente. PRHC vice-president Scott Sellers and Penguin Canada vice-president and publisher Nicole Winstanley have acquired a yet-to-be-titled memoir, which will frame Wente’s love of baseball, movies, and radio against the discrimination, cultural appropriation, and problematic representations experienced by Indigenous communities in Canada. The memoir, which is slated for publication in fall 2019, will be edited by Penguin publishing director Diane Turbide.

Tara Walker, vice-president and publisher of PRHC Young Readers, has acquired a children’s picture book to appear under the Tundra Books imprint in fall 2020. Both deals were arranged by Ron Eckel at the CookeMcDermid Agency.

HarperCollins children’s editor Suzanne Sutherland has acquired world rights to three new books by acclaimed children’s author and illustrator Paul Covello. The first two books will launch Covello’s new series, with each title focusing on a single animal to tell the story of its life. The books will be simultaneously published in winter 2020. A third title, Everyday 123 – a companion to the bestselling Everyday ABC – will be published in 2020. The deals were arranged without an agent.