Atlantyca Entertainment, a multi-faceted media company based in Italy, has licensed English-language translation rights to four novels that comprise Edizioni Piemme's popular Century series, by leading Italian author Pierdomenico Baccalario, to Random House Children's Books in the United States. The deal was announced by Claudia Mazzucco, CEO, Atlantyca Entertainment. The books were acquired by Jim Thomas, Editorial Director, Random House Books for Young Readers, an imprint of Random House Children's Books.

The deal with Random House adds to Atlantyca's growing list of licensing agreements which will have the series of books translated for publishing in: Brazil, Thailand, Korea, Belgium, Holland, Poland, Hong Kong, Macao, Taiwan and Turkey. Random House will publish the first novel in North America in fall 2009

"These books are wonderfully fun tales of kids who are immersed in very unique and suspenseful treasure hunts" Claudia Mazzucco, CEO of Atlantyca explains. "We are thrilled to partner with Random House and look forward to sharing these adventures with a whole new audience of young readers who are certain to enjoy them."

The Century book series is among a number of titles from leading Italian publishing house, Edizioni Piemme, that are represented by Atlantyca Entertainment's foreign rights division. The agreement marks the newest initiative for the division since recently announcing a deal with MoonScoop Group's Taffy Entertainment to produce a series of novels loosely-based on the popular animated fantasy action adventure kids' TV series, Code Lyoko.

The Century books tell stories about the incredible challenges of four young children, who, according to old prophecies, every 100 years "chosen ones," are especially selected to complete a test, a mission which involves uncovering a number of hidden and mysterious objects to settle an important legendary and vital pact between man and nature.

Carmen Castillo, Atlantyca's, foreign rights manager, who brokered the deal, comments "These books are truly reflective of Pierdomenico's passion for writing unique and popular children's tales. Random House is the ideal partner to bring them to new audiences everywhere."

Pierdomenico Baccalario currently is editor-in chief at Atlantyca Entertainment overseeing the development of the Code Lyoko book series. His credits include Il Principe della Citta Di Sabbia (written with the Italian director Enzo D'Alò); La Strada del Guerriero, L'Ombra del Corvo His other famous series are Ulysses Moore (Scholastic Inc) and Candy Circle.