"T for Tessa" by Frauke Scheunemann (Middle Grade, 11+)

Children‘s, 8+

Concept:

Inconspicuous and crazy - chaos queen Tessa dreams of becoming a member of the popular girl band “GIMME FOUR” to show everyone what she and her guitar are made of! Tessa is amazed when she actually makes it into the band and becomes a secret agent by mistake?! From now on, she takes up the fight against evil - top secret, of course.

Tessa becomes a clumsy secret agent "by accident". But together with her talking sidekick, the Mongolian gerbil Hector, she soon becomes a real powerhouse. Of course, not without still retaining her chaotic nature, which provides a lot of situational comedy and dicey moments.

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Rights sold: Russian

Chick-lit with a trendy agent plot International settings Highly relevant topics: drug and animal smuggling Plus funny stories from school!

THREE ANGELS FOR CHARLIE meets AUSTIN POWERS

Loewe Verlag GmbH, Bühlstraße 4, 95463 Bindlach, Germany, www.loewe-verlag.de/rights

Children‘s, 8+

WHAT HAPPENS IN VOLUME 1: Shy, a little dreamy and always amid chaos - 13-year-old Tessa Neumann really doesn't have it easy. Everything goes wrong all the time. For instance, the day when getting off the train becomes her undoing and she falls into the track bed - in front of Timo Erhardt, the super cute boy from tenth grade. Typical Tessa! But her fall into the track bed also has something good: Tessa rescues Hector the Mongolian gerbil, who accompanies its rescuer wherever she goes. After all, Tessa could really use some support in her everyday life. And who would be better suited than a nimble, outspoken mouse?

Moreover, Tessa’s big dream of becoming a member of the mega-famous school band “GIMME FOUR” finally seems to be within reach. She sees her chance when the girl group is looking for a new guitarist. A real stroke of luck because after all these years spent alone practicing, Tessa also happens to be a genius on the guitar. And so, she goes to the audition and the girls accept her into the band. Tessa is overjoyed. She puts her all into the rehearsals. So much so that at first, she doesn't even notice that something isn't quite right with the band. It seems like the three members have a secret! When the band is invited to a gig in Berlin a mysterious incident occurs: the girls are being followed by unknown people and her three fellow members defend themselves with astonishing skill. On top of that, they are determined not to involve the police.

Frauke Scheunemann/ Inka Vigh T FOR TESSA 01 – Suddenly A Secret Agent b/w chapter vignettes no. 0392, 240 pages, 10+ June 2021

On the way back, Tessa discovers that a revolver and a small bag of glittering stones – which look like diamonds – are hidden in the instrument cases. It turns out that these glittering stones are real blood diamonds! Diamonds, whose forbidden sales finance weapons in crisis areas. It dawns on Tessa that GIMME FOUR are probably not just playing music together. And because evil doesn't expect to be pursued by schoolgirls, GIMME FOUR is the perfect cover for a secret service called RING! With a klutz like Tessa Neumann, it might be even a little more perfect. Because one thing is clear now: Tessa must join in.

This is the only way to ensure that she doesn’t accidentally reveal their agency.

Loewe Verlag GmbH, Bühlstraße 4, 95463 Bindlach, Germany, www.loewe-verlag.de/rights

Children‘s, 8+

WHAT HAPPENS IN VOLUME 2: Shooting training, karate, heart palpitations and band rehearsals - Tessa Neumann's comfortable life has finally come to an end since she "accidentally" became an agent of the internationally operating secret service R I N G. Now she's out to put a stop to the masterminds of organized crime. And now she faces her first mission where she is involved from the very beginning!

Life as an agent is quite stressful but usually absolutely okay. But now of all times, Timo Erhardt, the crush of her sleepless nights, suddenly begins to show interest in her. How can fate throw such lousy timing at her? And another old acquaintance is back on the scene: Hector, the little mouse – sorry! Mongolian gerbil – who technically was on his way back home to Mongolia...

But since Tessa has a heart of gold, she naturally takes him back in.

Frankly, Tessa would really like to take a break, but evil never sleeps. The scene of the crime in this mission is the port of Hamburg.

Here, the customs investigation has uncovered 16 tons of cocaine in the container of a cargo ship. A remarkable catch! But one thing soon becomes clear to the agents and Hector: the real culprits are not in Hamburg, but in Rotterdam. There a cat-and-mouse game begins, in which the girls must show what they are made of. With their combined forces, they manage to lure the criminals into a trap so that the Dutch police can arrest them.

But mousy Hector discovers that drugs are not the only commodity being smuggled across Europe via Rotterdam: In fact, one of the smugglers is also dealing in exotic animals. These animals are listed as Endangered Species, so normally they can't be imported.

But be assured, Hector wouldn't be Hector if he didn't do everything he could to save the animals!

Frauke Scheunemann/ Inja Vigh T FOR TESSA 02 – Codeword Lotos Flower b/w chapter vignettes no. 0393, 224 pages, 10+ March 2022

Loewe Verlag GmbH, Bühlstraße 4, 95463 Bindlach, Germany, www.loewe-verlag.de/rights

Children‘s, 8+

WHAT HAPPENS IN VOLUME 3:

Tessa joins the school newspaper because she wants to prove to her crush Timo, who is the editor-in-chief there, that she is a damn cool eighth grader. It would be a laugh if Tessa didn't make a top investigative journalist with her newly acquired agent skills! She wants to research how well the old clothes recycling works, which is advertised in many stores. Is it really a good step towards environmental protection and sustainability?

In the store of the large fashion chain Fashionista! customers can return their used clothing. A poster at the checkout advertises that Fashionista! refurbishes the clothes and donates them to neighborhood projects. The rest is recycled to make yarns that are used in the sustainable production of new clothing. It's the perfect cycle, no one has to feel guilty about constantly buying new clothes that they only wear for a short time and then dispose of.

Timo and Tessa monitor the store together and Beyza constructs a GPS transmitter as flat as a laundry label. Tessa sews Beyza's gadget into a used sweater, which travels from the branch to Bottrop - to a warehouse that serves as the headquarters of the Africa Trading Company. The signal is lost for the time being, but that's when Hector returns from his business trip and has a request: he finally wants to live with Tessa officially and promises to find out what's happening with Fashionista!'s used clothing collection. That's when another signal arrives from Tessa's sweater, which is in the Suez Canal! That does not fit with the advertising promises of Fashionista! at all, but the name Africa Trading Company does.

The problem of old clothes imports seems to be even bigger than Tessa suspects. Because what can't be recycled in the end in the second-hand business is apparently simply disposed of in illegal dumps or burned in many African countries, thus polluting the entire local environment with chemicals and heavy metals. Whole swaths of land now resemble a littered clothing desert.

Frauke Scheuneman/ Inka Vigh T FOR TESSA 03 – Secret Business b/w chapter vignettes no. 0394, 240 pages, 10+ October 2022

And then Tessa and the Girl Group receive a tip that the second-hand trade in Kenya is partly in the hands of militias who use the business to finance their arms purchases. If this is confirmed, RING’s intervention would be more than justified ...

Loewe Verlag GmbH, Bühlstraße 4, 95463 Bindlach, Germany, www.loewe-verlag.de/rights