Ready Player One Author Ernest Cline Reveals Debut Kids Novel The Hollywood Reporter

Ernest Cline, the best-selling novelist who saw his popular first published book, Ready Player One, adapted by Steven Spielberg into a tentpole movie, has unveiled his debut kids novel, Bridge to Bat City.

The kids book is described as a “mostly true tall tale” about a recently orphaned young girl named Opal B Flats who forms an unexpected friendship with a music-loving colony of bats and helps them find a new home against all odds.  

Bridge to Bat City will publish in April 2024, released by Little, Brown Books. “In Bridge to Bat City, inspired by stories he would tell his kids at bedtime, Ernie Cline has crafted an enchanting tale that weaves together fact and fiction set against the incredible backdrop of 1980s Austin, filled with a vibrant cast of characters, rich music history, activism and environmentalism, and bats!” Alvina Ling of Little, Brown Books said in a statement.

Cline’s Ready Player One is a dystopian, sci-fi novel about Wade Watts, a teenager in the year 2044. He also co-wrote the screenplay for the CGI effects-heavy adaptation by Spielberg for Warner Bros. and Village Roadshow, which hit theaters in 2018.

Cline also wrote Ready Player Two and Armada. His book deal was brokered by manager and producing partner Dan Farah and literary agent Yfat Reiss Gendell.  

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