Archives de l’auteur : WebmasterBenisti

CHECKING YOU OUT de Jennifer Chen

XO, Kitty meets Dash & Lily in this rom com about two teens falling in love via letters left in their favorite library books – even if in real life they think they have nothing in common.

CHECKING YOU OUT
by Jennifer Chen
Wednesday Books/St. Martin’s Press, June 2026

Lizzie Wei is a huge book nerd, and proud of it. And when she realizes there is a mysterious reader who has been checking out all of her favorite books from the library, she can’t help but get a crush on someone she’s never even met. Her friends make it their mission to find Lizzie’s long lost book soulmate and convinces her to leave notes for her crush. But what if the person Lizzie is looking for, isn’t at all what she expects?

Dylan Lin loves reading, secretly anyway. Ever since a bullying incident at his last school, he’s hidden his love of fantasy novels, instead leaning into his jock persona. Now he’s the tennis team captain, runs every day, and actively avoids reading. So, when he decides to start volunteering at a kitten nursery, and his super cute co-volunteer Lizzie asks if he likes reading, he says no. He never expects the look of complete and utter disappointment on Lizzie’s face.

Lizzie is certain her secret crush isn’t Dylan. It can’t be! But when he accidentally makes an obscure reference to her favorite book during their volunteer shift, she’s not so sure anymore. Can Lizzie forgive Dylan for lying? And can Dylan be brave enough to be himself?

Jennifer Chen’s CHECKING YOU OUT is a contemporary romance about being true to yourself and celebrating what you love, because you just might find the perfect person to share it with.

Jennifer Chen is a freelance journalist and the author of two young adult novels, Artifacts of an Ex and Hangry Hearts. Jennifer is a proud mentor for WriteGirl, a creative writing organization and a loving foster kitten mom. She lives in Los Angeles with her TV writer husband, twins, two pugs, and two cats named Gremlin and Taro.

SPIRIT SERVICE de Sarena & Sasha Nanua

Ghostbusters meets The Baby-Sitters Club in this supremely sweet and spooky story about four seventh graders who start a small business helping their local neighborhood spirits pass on to the other side.

SPIRIT SERVICE
by Sarena & Sasha Nanua
Simon & Schuster, April 2025
(via Park, Fine & Brower)

All Raveena wants is to bring back her school’s beloved arts program. It’s been six months since her music-loving grandmother passed, and four since Hollows’ Peak Middle School cut its entire arts budget. Now Raveena has no way to practice music, and worse, no way to honor Grandmama’s memory.

But Raveena’s world turns on its head when she and her friends stumble upon an otherworldly discovery: an old-fashioned telephone with the ability to contact ghosts!

With her newfound possession, Raveena devises the perfect plan to raise funds for the arts program: Spirit Service, an agency that guides deceased townspeople to the afterlife by reconnecting them with their living loved ones. The best part? There are tons of spirits in need of assistance—and people willing to pay big bucks to communicate with them.

But not all spirits are interested in peacefully moving on…

To keep their neighborhood safe, Raveena and her friends must dive into the history of their town and the mysterious phone, and in the process, uncover secrets that are much closer to home.

“Canadian authors Sareena and Sasha Nanua have created an enjoyable story that thoughtfully explores the ways people process grief…This is an entertaining, tender-hearted read for middle graders who like their realistic fiction with a little zap of the paranormal.” —Bulletin of the Center of Children’s Books

“A perfect fit for fans of the Baby-Sitters Club series craving a haunted vibe.” —Booklist

Sarena and Sasha Nanua are twin sisters who love stories about friendship, ghosts, and all things magical. Born on Diwali ten minutes apart, they began writing books together at the age of nine. They are graduates of the English and professional writing programs at the University of Toronto and are the authors of Spirit Service, Sisters of the Snake, and Daughters of the Dawn.

GRIN de D. W. Gillespie

Full of chills and twists, a twelve-year-old boy is thrilled that he’ll get to play endless games at his family’s arcade, but soon realizes he’s in the fight of his life when he’s forced to save himself and his possessed Uncle from a sinister video game.

GRIN
by D. W. Gillespie
Delacorte Press, August 2025
(via Park, Fine & Brower)

Danny is spending a week with his Uncle Bill who runs a massive retro arcade called PixelWorks. His only plan is to play as many games as possible from open to close, but he wasn’t expecting to find the Holy Grail of arcade collectors, a gruesome looking game titled Grin.

Anyone who plays the game becomes surprisingly violent, and soon with the help of his friend Jodi and a knowledgeable videogame streamer, Danny realizes that Grin holds the soul of a dead serial killer.

Soon, the killer makes the jump into Bill’s body, and it’s up to Danny to figure out a way to stop him for good.

Born and raised in Middle Tennessee, D.W. Gillespie wrote his first short story in second grade. It involved (unsurprisingly) monsters wreaking havoc on some unsuspecting victim. Some things never change. He began writing seriously after taking a creative writing class in college, and he’s written steadily ever since. He lives in Tennessee with his wife and two kids, and on dark nights, you might find them huddled around a campfire sharing spooky tales.

I’LL PRETEND YOU’RE MINE de Tashie Bhuiyan

I’LL PRETEND YOU’RE MINE
by Tashie Bhuiyan
HarperCollins, June 2025
(via Park, Fine & Brower)

Summer Ali has been making a name for herself in the music industry for years, slowly but surely climbing the charts—but the world doesn’t know her stage parents are the ones who molded her entire public persona. Finally eighteen, Summer breaks free of their control and focuses on creating her own path.

Upon running into writer’s block, Summer grows eager to take any opportunity to shake things up—even if it means agreeing to a PR stunt with child-actor-turned-playboy, Jules Moradi, famous for his tabloid escapades.

At first, Jules keeps his distance, maintaining professional boundaries. But as time passes, his walls come down, and Summer uncovers who he is beyond his reputation, and it’s someone more like her than she ever realized. As the lines blur between fake and real, Summer begins questioning who she is and what she wants—and if her dreams are worth sacrificing her heart.

Tashie Bhuiyan is the author of Counting Down with You, A Show for Two, and Stay with My Heart. She’s a New Yorker through and through, and hopes to change the world, one book at a time. She loves writing stories about girls with wild hearts, boys who wear rings, and gaining agency through growth. When she’s not doing that, she can be found in a Chipotle or bookstore, insisting 2010 is the best year in cinematic history (read: Tangled and Inception).

GOOD MORNING, SALWA de Shazleen Khan

Cartoonist Shazleen Khan brings their Ignatz Award–winning young adult web series, BUUZA!! to print in GOOD MORNING, SALWA, the first of three volumes collecting the original webtoon.

GOOD MORNING, SALWA
by Shazleen Khan
Abrams Fanfare, May 2026

On New Year’s Eve 1997, in the bustling city of Salwa, Zach, a down-on-his-luck phone operator, receives a misdialed call from a distressed man named Zhen which sparks an undeniable connection. Zach is thrown into a search for his mystery man that stretches across multiple cities and a tangled web of exes, missed connections, and frenemies.

Set in the vibrant, low-fantasy realm of Dawlat Al-Harir—an eclectic melting pot inspired by Silk Road history and rich Asian and African Islamic cultures—BUUZA!! is a queer YA romance that features a uniquely dynamic blend of magical realism and political drama, with a richly diverse cast and an intricate plot that explores themes of identity, family, and transformation. This story will take readers on a captivating journey through a world where the divine and mundane collide in the most unexpected ways.

Shazleen Khan is an award-winning illustrator and author based in London, specializing in narrative illustration. Khan began self-publishing their comics as a teenager and now works full time as an illustrator; some of their notable clients include Simon & Schuster, Bloomsbury, and Dishoom. Khan’s works include their Eisner and Harvey Award–nominated illustrator debut graphic novel, Saving Sunshine (written by Saadia Faruqi), the upcoming My First Monster (written by Cecil Castellucci), and Darius the Great is Not Okay (written by Adib Khorram), and of course, their self-authored LGBTQ webcomic BUUZA!!, which recently won the 2024 Ignatz Award for Best Web Comic.