Kelly Sonnack started with the Andrea Brown Literary Agency in early 2009, after agenting at the Sandra Dijkstra Literary Agency for nearly three years. Prior to that, Kelly worked for the publishing giant Reed Elsevier, where she served as an Acquisitions Editor under the Academic Press imprint.

As an agent, Kelly specializes in all types of children's literature (picture books, middle grade, young adult, and graphic novels). In picture books and middle grade fiction, Kelly looks for a good sense of humor, stories that stretch a young reader's imagination, and an authentic voice. In young adult, she appreciates literary voices and and character-driven stories with heart but is also drawn to dystopian, light science-fiction, and other well-crafted fantasy. In non-fiction for children, she enjoys projects that inspire and stimulate the minds of our younger generations. Kelly no longer accepts submissions of adult non-fiction or fiction.

Steve Watkins' SCBWI Golden Kite winner DOWN SAND MOUNTAIN (Candlewick); Neil Johnson & Joel Chin's THE FALLING RAINDROP (Tricycle Press); Jin Pyn Lee's THE ELEPHANT AND THE TREE (Running Press); Candace Ryan's ANIMAL HOUSE (Walker); and James Burks' graphic novel GABBY AND GATOR (Yen Press).

Bridget Heos's non-fiction picture book series starting with WHAT TO EXPECT WHEN YOU'RE EXPECTING LARVAE (Lerner/Millbrook); Diane Adams' next picture book TWO HANDS TO HOLD YOU (Chronicle); Carolyn Marsden's next two MG novels: THE WHITE ZONE (Lerner/Carolrhoda) and THE PARTY LINE (Candlewick); Anna Sheehan's debut dystopian YA: A LONG, LONG SLEEP (Candlewick)

Taryn Fagerness Agency: taryn.fagerness@gmail.com

The Andrea Brown Literary Agency ONLY accept queries via email.

To submit to Kelly, send a short email query letter to kelly@andreabrownlit.com with QUERY and the title of your work in the email's subject line. We do not open attachments, so the query must be in the body of your email, and it should include publisher submission history and previous publishing credits, if applicable.

Please let us know, up front, that yours is a multiple submission. We will contact you if we want to see additional material. Please enclose a contact phone number as well as your email address.

What to include in your query (Please no attachments - paste the text into the body of your email):
Picture books—query letter and full manuscript text
Fiction—query letter and first 10 pages
Non-fiction—query letter, proposal, and sample chapter
Illustrations—query letter and 2-3 jpegs with pictures of children and animals

Response Time
Due to the large volume of submissions we receive, we are sometimes not able to respond to every query personally. Therefore, if you have not heard from me within 8 weeks, please assume that I am not interested in your work.

Visit www.andreabrownlit.com for more information about our submission guidelines.