This awesomely illustrated new middle-grade trilogy from the creators of Rickety Stitch is Dungeons & Dragons meets The Last Kids on Earth and Fablehaven!
DUNGEONEER ACADEMY
by James Parks & Ben Costa
Aladdin/Simon & Schuster, Summer 2022; 2023; 2024
Coop Cooperson is the only human kid at Dungeoneer Academy, a school for future explorers in the Land of Eem, a world of monsters, mazes, mayhem—and even magic! Coop is surrounded by great friends—Oggie (hulking, sensitive bugbear), Mindy (whiz kid imp), and Daz (would-be class superstar boggart, if she only applied herself). Together, they become literal lifesavers when a school-trip-gone-wrong flings the kids into an adventure that puts all their Dungeoneer skills to the test. As Coop and his misfit friends try to find their way home, they’ll face more than their own fears to overcome a menagerie of dangerous creatures, obstacles, and a mysterious enemy from the Academy’s past.
James Parks & Ben Costa have been friends since the 2nd grade, and always loved making stuff together. It all began in grade school, drawing superhero comics with crayons and construction paper. In high school, they spent hours making wacky homemade movies, and as college roommates, they wrote comics and short fiction, coming up with the idea that would become Rickety Stitch and the Gelatinous Goo, their first published graphic novel series. They love fantasy, and strive to craft tales that celebrate the adventures of unlikely heroes. They grew up playing tabletop roleplaying games like Dungeons and Dragons, creating countless characters and collaborative worlds. It’s a pastime that’s paved the way for their creative careers, and they still play with the same friends to this day.
What starts as a boring class project takes an intergalactic turn when Ben, Akemi, and Charlotte discover that the elderly woman they’ve been assigned to interview is a member of the super secret Gateway Society—and she’s in trouble. Agatha gives them a box to keep safe and then disappears! Of course they open the box—and learn about Sneaks: interdimensional malsprites that can slip through the seals between worlds and wreak havoc. The Gateway Society usually handles Sneak attacks, but Sneaks are converging on the town in alarming numbers, and they are after the notebook and strange statue the kids found in Agatha’s box. And they want something else too: to pull a more dangerous creature through the seal. Can three misfit kids work together to decode the notebook and stop an intergalactic takeover? Can they find Agatha? Can they get their class project done on time?
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.
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.
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.