Our Agents
Our Agents
Lara represents bestselling and award-winning authors and illustrators of board books, picture books, early readers, chapter books, middle grade, and YA fiction and nonfiction.
Lara is currently closed to queries, except by referral.
In all categories, Lara relates to outsiders, and her most treasured reads are grounded stories with sparks of magic, humor, or fascinating facts. She loves characters who are hilariously, heartwarmingly, tragically human in their dreams, failures, and triumphs. Most of all, she appreciates intersectionality, anti-colonial narratives, and stories that take a wide view of the world and history in all of its interconnectedness.
Lara has a BA in English and Fine Arts from Amherst College and an MA in English Literature from Columbia University, where she studied feminist and postcolonial theory. Prior to joining ABLA in 2010, she studied architecture at the Southern California Institute of Architecture (SCI-Arc) then began her career in publishing as an assistant at the B.J. Robbins Literary Agency. She lives in her hometown of Los Angeles, on unceded Gabrieleno/Tongva land, with her family, including two kids who love children's books almost as much as she does.
RECENT DEALS
Author of the SEAFIRE series Natalie C. Parker's THE ASSASSIN'S GUIDE TO BABYSITTING, a queer adventure in which a teenager and her superpowered friends match wits against an underground league of assassins to find out why they're targeting the child she's babysitting, what it has to do with her parents' murder, and which side her crush (who happens to be her best friend's sister) is actually on. Sold to Candlewick.
Author of CROWNCHASERS Rebecca Coffindaffer's THE BLOODY AND THE DAMNED, a YA fantasy that follows a deadly assassin with a suppressed heart of gold who will do anything to get their sisters back from a notorious gang of outlaws, even teaming up with the ex-best friend who broke their heart. Sold to Roaring Brook Press/Macmillan.
Pasha Westbrook's debut BRAIDED ROOTS, a semi-autobiographical picture book, in which a young girl's single father braids her hair while telling her stories about her Choctaw and Chickasaw Freedmen ancestors and weaving their family history together into a strong whole—within her braid and herself. Sold to Scholastic at auction.
Debut author and educator Ashley Iman's picture book RUBY RENE HAD SO MUCH TO SAY, following a curious Black girl who finds herself in trouble for talking too much in school, even though she's just excited to share what she knows—until she finds the perfect outlet. Sold to Kokila/PRH in a pre-empt.
Author of WHAT ARE YOUR WORDS: A BOOK ABOUT PRONOUNS, Katherine Locke's GENDER REBELS, an illustrated middle grade nonfiction history of important trans/nonbinary/gender nonconforming trailblazers. Sold to Running Press Kids in an exclusive submission.
Author/illustrator of LOVE IN THE WILD Katy Tanis's next two board books in the series, LOVE UNDER THE STARS and LOVE UNDER THE SEA. Sold to Mudpuppy in an exclusive submission, in a two-book deal.
NYT-bestselling author Tami Charles's WE ARE HERE and UNITED TOGETHER, companion picture books to ALL BECAUSE YOU MATTER, with all three books fitting together as an affirmation, a celebration, and finally a proclamation of unity. Sold to Scholastic, in a good deal, in an exclusive submission, in a two-book deal.
Author of THE FIRE OF STARS, Kirsten W. Larson's picture book THIS IS HOW YOU KNOW, a love letter to science in all of its beauty, adventure, and humanity. Sold to Little, Brown at auction.
Author-illustrator Ross Burach’s picture books THE LITTLE BUTTERFLY THAT COULD and GOODNIGHT, BUTTERFLY, in the four-book THE VERY IMPATIENT CATERPILLAR series. Sold to Scholastic, in a good deal, in an exclusive submission.
THINGS I LOVE:
Little-known facts
Belly laughs
Creative ambition
Mysteries and puzzles
The smell of snow
Lanterns and fireflies
A common thread in the books I represent is that they aim to make readers feel seen as their whole, complicated, significant selves.
REPRESENTATIVE TITLES
“Literature allows us—no, demands of us—to experience ourselves as multidimensional persons. And in doing so is far more necessary than it has ever been.” -Toni Morrison, “Literature and Public Life"
AWARD WINNERS
& BESTSELLERS
