Random House Books for Young Readers announced Thursday that Siegel had agreed to a three-book deal for "5 Worlds," a sci-fi-fantasy series featuring "a defiant young girl and the five worlds facing extinction."

The first installment, "The Sand Warrior," is scheduled for next May, with the others due in 2018 and 2019. Siegel is collaborating with his brother, Alexis Siegel, and with illustrators Xanthe Bouma, Matt Rockefeller and Boya Sun.

Siegel is known for the novel "Sailor Twain: Or: The Mermaid in the Hudson" and for publishing graphic works through his imprint First Second Books. In 2006, Siegel published Gene Luen Yang's "American Born Chinese," the first graphic novel nominated for a National Book Award.