Liz Kemp at Orca Book Publishers has acquired world rights to Dublin Literary Award longlisted author Heather Smith’s picture book WAKING BEN DOLDRUMS, to be illustrated by Byron Eggenschwiler. Frida lives in a big house that’s divided into four apartments. Frida’s family, and the other inhabitants of the house, are a little community of neighbours who support each other. All goes smoothly until one day their upstairs neighbour, Ben, isn’t himself, so the residents of the Big House come together to help him. The book will publish in winter 2023. Amy Tompkins at Transatlantic Agency represented the author, and the illustrator represented himself.