Archives de catégorie : Bologna 2022 Children’s & YA

LEAVE IT TO PLUM! de Matt Phelan

When a small mammal with an oversized ego tries to take over the zoo, just leave it to the big-hearted peacock Plum to save the day! Award-winning author Matt Phelan delivers a highly illustrated young middle-grade duology about a young peacock with a big heart, a small mammal with a big ego, and the busy zoo they both live in. A must-have for fans of The Princess in Black and Mercy Watson series!

LEAVE IT TO PLUM!
by Matt Phelan
Greenwillow/HarperCollins, June 2022
(via Writers House)

Young Plum is one of the peacock ambassadors for the Athensville Zoo. Every day the peacocks are allowed to wander freely among the zoo’s visitors, delighting and guiding kids and grown-ups alike. The peacocks are very proud of their responsibility; none so much as kind, curious Plum.
But Itch the ningbing—a type of very small marsupial—doesn’t understand why those birdbrains should get so much freedom while he’s all cooped up. So he plots and plots, sure that he will escape and become the zoo ambassador!

With short chapters and energetic black-and-white illustrations, award-winning author Matt Phelan’s LEAVE IT TO PLUM! is a highly illustrated young middle grade novel full of warmth and humor. The first hilarious story in a duology.

Matt Phelan is the creator of the graphic novels The Storm in the Barn (winner of a Scott O’Dell Award); Around the World; Bluffton; and the New York Times bestseller Snow White. He is also the author of Knights vs. Dinosaurs, Knights vs. Monsters, and Knights vs. the End (of Everything). Matt Phelan lives in Ardmore, Pennsylvania.

THE STARS DID WANDER DARKLING de Colin Meloy

A suspenseful and atmospheric horror set in 1980s Oregon, perfect for fans of Stranger Things, Neil Gaiman, and Margaret Peterson Haddix, from New York Times bestselling author and the Decemberists’ lead singer/songwriter Colin Meloy.

THE STARS DID WANDER DARKLING
by Colin Meloy
‎ Balzer + Bray/HarperCollins, September 2022
(via Writers House)

Maybe Archie Coomes has been watching too many horror movies. All of a sudden, the most ordinary things have taken on a sinister edge: a penny on a doormat. A man in a brown suit under a streetlamp. The persistent sound of an axe chopping in the middle of the night. He keeps telling himself that this is Seaham, a sleepy seaside town where nothing ever happens. Or at least nothing did, until his dad’s construction company opened up the cliff beneath the old—some say cursed—Langdon place.
Soon, though, he and his friends can’t deny it: more and more of the adults in town are acting strangely. An ancient, long-buried evil has been unleashed upon the community, and it’s up to the kids to stop it before it’s too late. . .

Colin Meloy is the author of The Whiz Mob and the Grenadine Kid and the New York Times bestselling Wildwood Chronicles, which is currently being adapted for film by the studio behind Coraline. He is also the singer and songwriter for the indie rock band the Decemberists. Colin lives in Oregon with his wife and frequent collaborator, illustrator Carson Ellis, and their sons.

QUEST KIDS AND THE DRAGON PANTS OF GOLD de Mark Leiknes

Comics artist Mark Leiknes delivers a laugh-out-loud story set in a fantastic world of dragons, rock creatures, and golden loungewear. This first book in a trilogy is A Series of Unfortunate Events meets Diary of a Wimpy Kid—introducing readers to a (mostly) fearless fellowship of adventurers, the Quest Kids!

QUEST KIDS AND THE DRAGON PANTS OF GOLD
by Mark Leiknes
Union Square Kids/Sterling, September 2022
(via Writers House)

Okay, QUEST KIDS, you’re hired, but if I don’t have my super-soft zip-up golden track jacket in one year’s time, this town is toast. DRAGON OUT!
The Quest Kids are ready for their first real quest. This time, they won’t oversleep, they won’t be put off by a little rain, and they won’t accidentally burn down the village that hired them. All they have to do is find the Golden-Fleeced Rage Beast, shave it, and make a really nice golden track suit to appease a furious dragon. Simple, right? I mean, check out their crew: Gil, a wizard (well, wizard in training. . . the beard isn’t his); Terra, a 700-year old elf kid; Boulder, a rock troll who, okay, is more of a cook than a fighter; Ace, a flatulent pig-dog-maybe-lizard hybrid; and Ned—their intrepid and overly optimistic leader with his own personal quest: to solve the mystery of his missing parents.
With humor, magic, mystery, and at least one acid swamp filled with skeletal alligators, QUEST KIDS AND THE DRAGON PANTS OF GOLD is a richly illustrated saga of fantasy friendship that’s sure to thrill and crack up readers from all kingdoms! Mark already has the next titles lined up, too –
Quest Kids and the Dark Prophecy of Doug (2023), and Quest Kids and the Mystery of the Goblin Gazebo (2024).

Mark Leiknes lives in St. Paul, Minnesota, with his wife and three kids. He produced a nationally syndicated comic strip (Cow & Boy) for eight years and now he writes and illustrates books for kids. Mark studied graphic design in college and honed his comedic chops studying improv and sketch comedy at the acclaimed Groundlings School. Visit him online at markleiknes.com.

STORIES TO KEEP YOU ALIVE DESPITE VAMPIRES de Ben Acker

This fourth wall–breaking middle-grade collection of spooky, scary, and spoopy stories for fans of Lemony Snicket and Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark might just help you survive the night in a house full of vampires.

STORIES TO KEEP YOU ALIVE DESPITE VAMPIRES
by Ben Acker
‎ Simon & Schuster BYR, August 2022
(via Writers House)

If you are reading this book, then you must be trapped in that spooky house with those vampires. Sorry about that. But! You might just make it out if you manage to tell them one scary story each night in accordance with standard vampire rules. Don’t know any scary stories? Good thing you found this book! Every tale in this tome is true…more or less (more more than less).
You get a little bit of everything in this monster mash: from hitchhiking phantoms to women in white, a carnivore beast that loves a good vacation to a haunted mannequin with a bug problem, killer phones, concerned werewolves, you name it. Everything you need to keep those vampires on the edge of their seats—and well away from your neck.
But beware…don’t get too comfortable. Names have power, and if you whisper about too many things in the dark, they might just hear you.

Ben Acker is best known as the cocreator and writer of The Thrilling Adventure Hour, a monthly comedic variety stage show and podcast in the style of old-timey radio. That would have been enough. Acker has written for television, comic books, and actual radio. STORIES TO KEEP YOU ALIVE DESPITE VAMPIRES is his first book about defeating vampires with the power of storytelling.

THAT SELF-SAME METAL de Brittany N. Williams

A stunning YA fantasy debut, perfect for fans of Holly Black and Justina Ireland, about a Black girl (and sword expert) fighting a Fae uprising in Shakespearean London.

THAT SELF-SAME METAL
by Brittany N. Williams
Amulet/ Abrams, April2023
(via Writers House)

Sixteen-year-old Joan Sands is a gifted craftswoman who creates and upkeeps the stage blades for William Shakespeare’s acting company, The King’s Men. Joan’s skill with her blades comes from a magical ability to control metal—an ability gifted by her Head Orisha, Ogun. Because her whole family is Orisha-blessed, the Sands family have always kept tabs on the Fae presence in London. Usually that doesn’t involve much except noting the faint glow around a Fae’s body as they try to blend in with London society, but lately, there has been an uptick in brutal Fae attacks. After Joan wounds a powerful Fae and saves the son of a cruel Lord, she is drawn into political intrigue in the human and Fae worlds.
Swashbuckling, romantic, and full of the sights and sounds of Shakespeare’s London, this series starter delivers an unforgettable story—and a heroine unlike any other.

Brittany N. Williams is an actress, writer, Co-Artistic Director of The NOLA Project, and nerd of many fandoms. She’s performed across three continents—including a year spent as a principal vocalist at Hong Kong Disneyland—and her writing has been featured on BlackNerdProblems.com, Tor.com, in The Indypendent, The Gambit, Fireside Magazine, and in the Star Wars anthology From a Certain Point of View: The Empire Strikes Back.