Archives de catégorie : Bologna 2021 Children’s & YA

THE DARK WAY DOWN de Chelsea Ichaso

A gripping new YA psychological thriller from the author of Little Creeping Things―can a grieving girl discover the twisted truth behind her sister’s hiking accident?

THE DARK WAY DOWN
by Chelsea Ichaso
Sourcebooks Fire, August 2021

None of these people care about Piper. All they’re really doing is forcing me to replay everything I did—everything I didn’t do—to push my sister to her breaking point. Piper Sullivan never should have been at Suicide Point the day she fell. Her older sister, Savannah, knows this with all her heart—just as she knows that Piper’s “accident” was entirely her fault. Savannah did something awful, something she can barely stand to think about, and now Piper is in a coma. But just as Savannah’s guilt threatens to swallow her whole, she finds something strange in Piper’s locker: a note inviting Piper to a meeting of their school’s wilderness club…at the very place and on the very day she fell. Which means that there’s a chance Piper wasn’t alone. Maybe it isn’t Savannah’s fault, after all. Someone in the club might know what really happened. Someone might have done something. But why? If Savannah wants to find out the truth about that tragic day, she’ll have to join the club on their weekend long camping trip…on the very same mountain where her sister fell. And with everyone in the club a suspect, she’ll need to be careful or she might follow her sister into the dark.

Chelsea Ichaso writes twisty thrillers for young adults. A former high school English teacher, she currently resides in southern California with her husband and children. When she’s not reading or writing, Chelsea can be found on the soccer field.

PLAY THE GAME de Charlene Allen

A contemporary YA mystery that’s perfect for fans of Nic Stone, Angie Thomas, and Jason Reynolds.

PLAY THE GAME
by Charlene Allen
Katherine Tegen/HarperCollins, January 2022

Four months after his unarmed friend Ed was shot and killed by a white man in a Brooklyn parking lot, VZ doesn’t know what he wants to do or what he believes. He’s got some kind of feelings for Diamond, the cute girl at work, and he might want to finish the video game that Ed designed and enter it into a contest that Ed was determined to win. Go to protests about Ed’s murder? Nah, that’s his friend Jackson’s thing. But when Singer, the man who killed Ed, ends up dead—in the exact same spot that Ed was shot—VZ has to step up, because Jackson is the cops’ number one suspect.
Everywhere VZ turns, evidence points to Jackson as Singer’s killer. But Jackson didn’t do it, right? As the video game pulls VZ into Ed’s quirky private world, the murder investigation sends him through hostile Brooklyn neighborhoods and deep into a world of crime. Can VZ play both games and do right by his friends? And will he figure out what to believe?
A story about teenagers who have every reason to not trust the system, Charlene Allen’s powerful debut novel is both a compelling mystery and a celebration of Black male friendship.

Charlene Allen received her MFA from the New School Creative Writing Program in 2018, and she was named a top ten finalist in the Tennessee Williams Literary Fiction Contest judged by Michael Cunningham. An attorney in Brooklyn, Charlene is an activist for criminal justice reform and an advocate for restorative justice. The people she’s met through this work have profoundly influenced her writing.

MIGHTIER THAN THE SWORD de Rochelle Melander, illustré par Melina Ontiveros

Throughout history, people have picked up their pens and wielded their words–transforming their lives, their communities, and beyond. Now it’s your turn!

MIGHTIER THAN THE SWORD:
Rebels, Reformers, and Revolutionaries Who Changed the World Through Writing
by Rochelle Melander, illustrated by Melina Ontiveros
Beaming Books, July 2021

Throughout history, people have picked up their pens and wielded their words–transforming their lives, their communities, and beyond. Now it’s your turn! Representing a diverse range of backgrounds and experiences, MIGHTIER THAN THE SWORD connects over forty inspiring biographies with life-changing writing activities and tips, showing readers just how much their own words can make a difference. Readers will explore nature with Rachel Carson, experience the beginning of the Reformation with Martin Luther, champion women’s rights with Sojourner Truth, and many more. These richly illustrated stories of inspiring speechmakers, scientists, explorers, authors, poets, activists, and even other kids and young adults will engage and encourage young people to pay attention to their world, to honor their own ideas and dreams, and to embrace the transformative power of words to bring good to the world.

Rochelle Melander is a speaker, a professional certified coach, and the founder of Dream Keepers, a writing workshop that encourages young people to write about their lives and dreams for the future. Rochelle wrote her first book at seven and has published 11 books for adults. MIGHTIER THAN THE SWORD is her debut book for children. She lives in Milwaukee, Wisconsin.
Melina Ontiveros is a Mexican artist and illustrator. A proud self-taught artist, she enjoys experimenting with color and textures.

BETWEEN PERFECT AND REAL de Ray Stoeve

A moving YA debut about a trans boy finding his voice—and himself.

BETWEEN PERFECT AND REAL
by Ray Stoeve
Abrams, April 2021

Dean Foster knows he’s a trans guy. He’s watched enough YouTube videos and done enough questioning to be sure. But everyone at his high school thinks he’s a lesbian—including his girlfriend Zoe, and his theater director, who just cast him as a “nontraditional” Romeo. He wonders if maybe it would be easier to wait until college to come out. But as he plays Romeo every day in rehearsals, Dean realizes he wants everyone to see him as he really is now––not just on the stage, but everywhere in his life. Dean knows what he needs to do. Can playing a role help Dean be his true self?

Ray Stoeve is a writer. They received a 2016-2017 Made at Hugo House Fellowship for their young adult fiction and created the YA/MG Trans and Nonbinary Voices Masterlist, a database that tracks all books in those age categories written by trans authors about trans characters. They are a contributor to Take The Mic: Fictional Stories of Everyday Resistance. BETWEEN PERFECT AND REAL is their debut novel. When they’re not writing, they can be found gardening, making art in other mediums, or hiking their beloved Pacific Northwest.

TELL ME MY NAME de Amy Reed

We Were Liars meets Speak in this haunting, mesmerizing psychological thriller—a gender-flipped YA Great Gatsby—that will linger long after the final line.

TELL ME MY NAME
by Amy Reed
Dial Books for Young Readers, March 2021

On wealthy Commodore Island, Fern is watching and waiting—for summer, for college, for her childhood best friend to decide he loves her. Then Ivy Avila lands on the island like a falling star. When Ivy shines on her, Fern feels seen. When they’re together, Fern has purpose. She glimpses the secrets Ivy hides behind her fame, her fortune, the lavish parties she throws at her great glass house, and understands that Ivy hurts in ways Fern can’t fathom. And soon, it’s clear Ivy wants someone Fern can help her get. But as the two pull closer, Fern’s cozy life on Commodore unravels: drought descends, fires burn, and a reckless night spins out of control. Everything Fern thought she understood—about her home, herself, the boy she loved, about Ivy Avila—twists and bends into something new. And Fern won’t emerge the same person she was. An enthralling, mind-altering psychological thriller, TELL ME MY NAME is about the cost of being a girl in a world that takes so much, and the enormity of what is regained when we take it back.

Amy Reed is the award-winning author of several novels for young adults, including The Nowhere Girls, Beautiful, and Clean. She also edited Our Stories, Our Voices: 21 YA Authors Get Real About Injustice, Empowerment, and Growing Up Female in America. Amy is a feminist, mother, and Virgo who enjoys running, making lists, and wandering around the mountains of western North Carolina where she lives.