Archives de catégorie : Children’s Books

THE LIFE AND MEDIEVAL TIMES OF KIT SWEETLY de Jamie Pacton

A debut contemporary young-adult novel in which Kit Sweetly battles sexism, bad bosses, and bad luck to be named a restaurant knight and save her future.

THE LIFE AND MEDIEVAL TIMES OF KIT SWEETLY
by Jamie Pacton
Page Street Publishing, May 2020

Working as a wench—i.e. waitress—at a cheesy medieval-themed restaurant in the Chicago suburbs, Kit Sweetly dreams of being a knight like her brother. She has the moves, is capable on a horse, and desperately needs the raise that comes with knighthood, so she can help her mom pay the mortgage and hold a spot at her dream college. But company policy only allows guys to be knights. So when Kit takes her brother’s place and reveals her identity at the end of the show, she rockets to internet fame and a whole lot of trouble with the management. The Girl Knight won’t go down without a fight, though. As other wenches join her quest, a protest forms, and in a joust before Castle executives, they’ll have to prove that gender restrictions should stay medieval—if they don’t get fired first. Filled with witty historical and pop culture references, this book has a sweet, clean friends-to-lovers romance that will satisfy readers looking for a love story without overwhelming the main action.

Jamie Pacton grew up minutes away from the National Storytelling Center in the mountains of East Tennessee. She adores architecture, gardens, art museums, beaches, cake, and whiskey. She even kind-of likes getting stuck in airports if she has a good book. Currently, she lives in rural Wisconsin with her husband, their two kids, and a dog named Lego.

UNSEEN MAGIC de Emily Lloyd-Jones

The magic-infused town of Aldermere is the first place eleven-year-old Fin has ever felt safe—and she’ll do whatever it takes to save her home when she accidentally unleashes a shadow self who wreaks havoc everywhere she goes. Emily Lloyd-Jones’s middle grade debut is an enchanting exploration of self-discovery and finding the place you truly belong. For fans of A Wish in the Dark and A Tangle of Knots.

UNSEEN MAGIC
by Emily Lloyd-Jones
Greenwillow/HarperCollins, February 2022
(via Sterling Lord Literistic)

Aldermere is a town with its own set of rules: there’s a tea shop that vanishes if you try to force your way in, crows that must be fed or they’ll go through your trash, and a bridge that has a toll that no one knows the cost of. Some say that there may even be bigfoots wandering through the woods.
For Fin, Aldermere is her new home. But she’s worried that she’ll do something to mess it up—that she was the reason she and her mother have constantly moved from place to place for so long. When an upcoming presentation at her school’s science fair gives her increasing anxiety, Fin turns to magic to ease her fears. The cost is a memory, but there are things from her past Fin doesn’t mind forgetting. This will be the last time she relies on magic anyway, she’s sure.
Except things don’t go exactly as planned. And instead of easing her anxiety, Fin accidentally unleashes an evil doppelganger. Suddenly Aldermere is overrun with unusual occurrences—and Fin is the only one who knows why. She will have to face her fears—literally—to stop it.
Emily Lloyd-Jones crafts an atmospheric novel full of magic and mischief while exploring what it means to stand up to your fears and accept yourself. UNSEEN MAGIC will captivate readers of Anna Meriano’s Love, Sugar, Magic series and Natalie Lloyd’s A Snicker of Magic.

Emily Lloyd-Jones grew up on a vineyard in rural Oregon, where she played in evergreen forests and learned to fear sheep. She has a BA in English from Western Oregon University and a MA in publishing from Rosemont College. She is a former bookseller and the author of four young adult novels, including the Indie Next Pick The Bone Houses. Emily Lloyd-Jones lives in Northern California.

ITTY-BITTY KITTY-CORN de Shannon Hale, illustré par LeUyen Pham

Sold in a major deal following an 8-publisher auction, ITTY-BITTY KITTY-CORN is an irresistible new picture book about friendship of the deepest kind, and about the importance of being seen and understood by ourselves and others, from the author-illustrator duo behind the bestselling Real Friends!

ITTY-BITTY KITTY-CORN
by Shannon Hale, illustrated by LeUyen Pham
Abrams, March 2021

Kitty thinks she might be a unicorn. She feels so perfectly unicorn-y! “Neigh!” says Kitty. But when Unicorn clop clop clops over, sweeping his magnificent tail and neighing a mighty neigh, Kitty feels no bigger than a ball of lint. Can this unlikely pair embrace who they are, and truly see one another?

Shannon Hale is the bestselling author of many books, including Real Friends, the Ever After High series, and Newbery Honor-winner Princess Academy. With her husband Dean Hale she co-wrote Rapunzel’s Revenge, Calamity Jack, the Unbeatable Squirrel Girl series, and The Princess in Black series. They live with their four children near Salt Lake City, Utah.

LeUyen Pham is the bestselling illustrator of Real Friends and The Princess in Black series. She wrote and illustrated Big Sister, Little Sister and The Bear Who Wasn’t There. She has illustrated many other picture books, including The Boy Who Loved Math. She lives and works in Los Angeles with her husband and her two adorable sons.

EMIL AND KARL de Yankev Glatshteyn

A unique work that was one of the first books for young readers describing the early days of what came to be known as the Holocaust.

EMIL AND KARL
by Yankev Glatshteyn
Square Fish/Macmillan, March 2008

Originally published before the war in 1938 and the full revelations of the Third Reich’s persecution of Jews and other civilians, the book offers a fascinating look at life during this period and the moral challenges people faced under Nazism. It is also a taut, gripping, page-turner of the first order. Written in the form of a suspense novel, Emil and Karl draws readers into the dilemma faced by two young boys in Vienna—one Jewish, the other not—when they suddenly find themselves without homes or families on the eve of World War II.

Originally written in Yiddish, Emil and Karl is one of the most accomplished works of children’s literature in this language, and the only book for young readers by Yankev Glatshteyn, a major American Yiddish poet, novelist, and essayist.

“It’s a clear, powerful novel that will bring today’s readers very close to what it was like to be a child under Nazi occupation. . . The fast-moving prose is stark and immediate. . . The translation, sixty-five years after the novel’s original publication, is nothing short of haunting.” ―Booklist, Starred Review

Born in Lublin, Poland, Yankev Glatshteyn (1896-1971) was one of the major figures in the burgeoning Yiddish literary scene in New York City during the first half of the last century.
Jeffrey Shandler (translator) is an associate professor in the Department of Jewish Studies at Rutgers University. He is the author of While America Watches: Televising the Holocaust and editor of Awakening Lives: Autobiographies of Jewish Youth in Poland before the Holocaust, among other books. He lives in New York City.

THE LOVE CURSE OF MELODY MCINTYRE de Robin Talley

A sweet, queer rom-com about the head of the high school stage crew and the show’s lead actress, perfect for fans of Becky Albertalli and Nina LaCour.

THE LOVE CURSE OF MELODY MCINTYRE
by Robin Talley
HarperCollins Teen, December 2020

Credit: Courtney Rae Rawls

Melody McIntyre, stage manager extraordinaire, has a plan for everything. Lead actor need a breath mint? She’s on it. Understudy bust a seam? Mel’s sewing kit is at the ready. Not only is her Plan A foolproof, she’s got a Plan B, and a Plan C, because actors can be total fools. What she doesn’t have? Success with love. Every time she falls for someone during a school performance, both the romance and the show end in catastrophe. So, Mel swears off love until their upcoming production of Les Mis is over. Of course, Mel didn’t count on Odile Rose, rising star in the acting world, auditioning for the spring performance. And she definitely didn’t expect Odile to be sweet, and funny, and care as much about the play’s success as Mel. Which means that Melody McIntyre’s only plan now is trying desperately not to fall in love.

Robin Talley is a queer author who grew up in southwest Virginia and now lives in Washington, D.C., with her wife and their daughter. She worked in digital communications for LGBTQ rights, women’s rights, educational equity, and other progressive causes for fifteen years before she turned to writing full-time, and is now the New York Times-bestselling author of five novels for teen readers: Pulp, Our Own Private Universe, As I Descended, What We Left Behind, and Lies We Tell Ourselves.

Also Available: Robin Talley’s upcoming novel, MUSIC FROM ANOTHER WORLD, will be published by Inkyard Press on March 31st, 2020. Set in the 1970s to a soundtrack of Bowie, Blondie and a whole lot of Patti Smith, two teenage girls’ worlds converge in ways they could never have imagined. With a fierce sense of rebellion and a feminist attitude to boot, they soon discover what it means to be their true selves, and one thing’s for sure: they’re both sick of blending in.