Archives de catégorie : Children’s Books

THE TWELVE de Liz Hyder

From the award-winning author of Bearmouth, a haunting and captivating teen fantasy that explores the power of love and friendship in the face of ecological turmoil.

THE TWELVE
by Liz Hyder
Pushkin Children’s Books, October 2024

WINNER OF THE NERO PRIZE FOR CHILDREN’S FICTION

It’s supposed to be a treat for Kit, a winter holiday by the coast with her sister Libby and their mum. But when Libby vanishes into thin air, and no one else remembers her, Kit is faced with a new reality – one in which her sister never existed.

Then she meets Story, a local boy who remembers Libby perfectly. Together they embark on a journey beyond their wildest imagination into a world steeped in ancient folklore. Can Kit and Story uncover the secret of the Twelve and rescue Libby before Time runs out?

‘Channelling the dark menace of classic British fantasy writers such as Susan Cooper and Alan Garner, this is a beguiling tale of ancient magic, good and evil, deeply rooted in the Welsh landscape. Haunting illustrations by Tom de Freston add to the eerie atmosphere.’ — The Guardian

‘The ancient past is rendered vividly in this book that is ideal for tweens and teens who love beachcombing for fossils’ — The Times Children’s Book of the Week

Liz Hyder has been making up stories ever since she can remember. She has a BA in drama from the University of Bristol and, in early 2018, won the Bridge Award/Moniack Mhor’s Emerging Writer Award. Her first novel, Bearmouth, won the Waterstones Children’s Book Prize for Older Readers, the Branford Boase Award, and was The Times‘s Children’s Book of The Year.

Tom De Freston is an artist based in Oxford with his wife, Kiran Millwood Hargrave. His practice is dedicated to the construction of multimedia worlds, combining paintings, film and performance into immersive visceral narratives.

THE SUN AND THE STARMAKER de Rachel Griffin

There once was a village so far north that most considered it the top of the world… and in that village, the Sun fell in love with her Starmaker. From the New York Times bestselling author of The Nature of Witches comes a whimsical and sweeping romantic fantasy.

THE SUN AND THE STARMAKER
by Rachel Griffin
Sourcebooks Fire, February 2026
(via Park, Fine & Brower)

Nestled deep in the snowy mountains of the Lost Range, the village of Reverie is a small miracle. Beyond the reach of the Sun, Reverie is dependent upon the magic of the mysterious Starmaker: every morning, he trudges across a vast glacier and pulls in sunlight over the peaks, providing the village with the light it needs to survive.

Aurora Finch grew up on tales of the Starmaker’s magic, never imagining she’d one day meet him. But on the morning of her wedding, a fateful encounter in the frostbitten woods changes everything. The Starmaker senses a powerful magic within her and demands she come study under his guidance. With her newfound abilities tied to the survival of the village, Aurora is swept away to his ice-covered castle and far from everything she’s ever known.

The Starmaker is as cold and distant as the mountain itself, leaving Aurora to explore his enchanted castle alone. Yet the more she discovers about the sorcerer, the stronger their attraction grows, pulling her closer to the secrets he refuses to share. But a deadly frost approaches and Aurora must uncover what the Starmaker is hiding before she is left in an endless winter that even the Sun cannot touch.

Rachel Griffin is the New York Times bestselling author of The Nature of Witches, Wild is the Witch, and Bring Me Your Midnight. When she isn’t writing, you can find her wandering the Pacific Northwest, reading by the fire, or drinking copious amounts of coffee and tea. She lives in the Seattle area with her husband, dog, and growing collection of houseplants.

FABLE FOR THE END OF THE WORLD d’Ava Reid

The Last of Us meets The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes in this dystopian romance about survival, sacrifice, and love that risks everything.

FABLE FOR THE END OF THE WORLD
by Ava Reid
HarperTeen, March 2025
(via Sterling Lord Literistic)

By encouraging massive accumulations of debt from its underclass, a single corporation, Caerus, controls all aspects of society.

Inesa lives with her brother in a half-sunken town where they scrape by running a taxidermy shop. Unbeknownst to Inesa, their cruel and indolent mother has accrued an enormous debt—enough to qualify one of her children for Caerus’s livestreamed assassination spectacle: the Lamb’s Gauntlet.

Melinoë is a Caerus assassin, trained to track and kill the sacrificial Lambs. The product of neural reconditioning and physiological alteration, she is a living weapon, known for her cold brutality and deadly beauty. She has never failed to assassinate one of her marks.

When Inesa learns that her mother has offered her as a sacrifice, at first she despairs—the Gauntlet is always a bloodbath for the impoverished debtors. But she’s had years of practice surviving in the apocalyptic wastes, and with the help of her hunter brother, she might stand a chance of staying alive.

For Melinoë, this is a game she can’t afford to lose. Despite her reputation for mercilessness, she is haunted by painful flashbacks. After her last Gauntlet, where she broke down on livestream, she desperately needs redemption.

As Mel pursues Inesa across the wasteland, both girls begin to question everything: Inesa wonders if there’s more to life than survival, while Mel wonders if she’s capable of more than killing.

And both wonder if, against all odds, they might be falling in love.

Ava Reid was born in Manhattan and raised right across the Hudson River in Hoboken but currently lives in Palo Alto. She has a degree in political science from Barnard College, focusing on religion and ethnonationalism.

Manon Steffan Ros lauréate de la première édition des prix de l’Entente Littéraire

Organisé par la Royal Society of Literature et l’Institut français du Royaume-Uni à Londres, en collaboration avec le ministère de la Culture en France et le Department for Culture, Media and Sport au Royaume-Uni, l’Ambassade de France au Royaume-Uni et l’Ambassade du Royaume-Uni en France, le prix de l’Entente Littéraire a été remis à Londres mercredi 4 décembre lors d’une cérémonie à la Résidence de France à laquelle ont assisté la reine Camilla et Brigitte Macron.

Ce prix a pour but de « célébrer les plaisirs de la lecture et le partage d’expériences littéraires entre la France et le Royaume-Uni. Créé lors du sommet franco-britannique en mars 2023 par le Président Emmanuel Macron et le Premier Ministre britannique Rishi Sunak, il est organisé par l’Institut français du Royaume-Uni et la Royal Society of Literature dans le cadre du 120e anniversaire de l’Entente Cordiale. »

Parmi les six titres en lice, deux récompenses de 8 000 € ont été décernées pour distinguer la meilleure publication traduite d’un ouvrage de littérature jeunesse dans chacun des deux pays. Manon Steffan Ros et la traductrice Lise Garond ont été récompensées pour LE LIVRE BLEU DE NEBO, aux côtés de Lucie Bryon pour Thieves.

Pour cette première édition, le jury se composait de Marie-Aude Murail, Thimothée de Fombelle, Patrice Lawrence et Joseph Coelho.

LE LIVRE BLEU DE NEBO (Actes Sud Jeunesse) de Manon Steffan Ros, traduit par Lise Garond, est un « journal intime bouleversant où se mêlent les voix d’une mère et de son fils ayant fait l’expérience d’une étrange fin du monde. » L’adolescent cherche dans les livres des traces du passé. Manon Steffan Ros a travaillé en tant qu’actrice avant de devenir écrivaine jeunesse et adulte. Elle a remporté le prix du livre du Pays de Galles de l’année pour ses romans de fiction pour adultes en plus d’être quatre fois lauréate du prix gallois de littérature jeunesse Tir na N’Og. Avec LE LIVRE BLEU DE NEBO, Manon a remporté la médaille Yoto Carnegie de l’écriture.

HERE IS A BOOK d’Elisha Cooper

A love letter to books, showing how many elements and people contribute to making something beautiful, from Caldecott honoree Elisha Cooper.

HERE IS A BOOK
by Elisha Cooper
Abrams Books for Young Readers, April 2025

In this poetic and beautifully illustrated ode to creativity and the process of making books, Caldecott honoree Elisha Cooper takes readers on a journey showing how words and art move from one person to another.

From writer to reader, and everyone who contributes in between: Here is a book, made with love. An artist’s studio overflows with sketches, drafts, a wastebasket, and wonder. A publisher’s office hums with computers, layouts, coffee, and teamwork. A printer makes a layout into a book using presses, ink, paper, and time. And that book travels to a school, to a library, to a student, to a home.

Elisha Cooper is the award-winning author of many books for young readers including Train, Farm, Beach, 8: An Animal Alphabet, and Dance!, a New York Times Best Illustrated Book. He lives with his family and two cats in New York City.