Archives de catégorie : Children’s Books

GRIMOIRE SERIES de Dimitri Balcaen

Featuring neurodivergent characters, this Norse-inspired middle-grade fantasy series follows Finn Zhao and his friends as they develop their magical gifts to protect the Nine Realms. Along the way, their friendship provides the key in their battles against their most fearsome foes. Perfect for fans of Rick Riordan’s Magnus Chase series and John Flanagan’s Brotherband Chronicles.

GRIMOIRE SERIES
by Dimitri Balcaen
Readmore Publishing, January 2022 –
(via JABberwocky Literary Agency)

Autism, anxiety disorders, depression, eating disorders… 1 in 5 young people struggle with a mental or psychological condition. That includes Finn and his friends. Yet that doesn’t stop them from being heroes. Follow them on their journey through Asgard and discover how they become the gods of tomorrow.

Dimitri Balcaen is a Belgian novelist and screenwriter, author of the Peter & Pan series, a captivating fusion of the beloved childhood narrative of Peter Pan with the enchanting tapestry of Greek mythology. He is also the founder of Publishing House ReadMore. In 2020, he released the first volume in a seven-part series called Grimoire. These stories were specifically aimed at young people struggling with psychosocial issues such as autism, eating disorders, anxiety disorders and depression.

THE NIGHTFALL BAZAAR DUOLOGY de Catelyn Wilson

Stephanie Garber’s Caraval series meets Mary E. Pearson’s Dance of Thieves series in this sweeping fantasy about a young woman caught in a game of cat-andmouse with the silver-tongued king of a magical island.

THE NIGHTFALL BAZAAR DUOLOGY
by Catelyn Wilson
(via JABberwocky Literary Agency)

#1 THESE WICKED STARS (October 2022)

Remember, if you know what you want, you’ll never find it.
Hazel Blackthorn is an outcast, the bastard daughter of a nameless sailor and a disgraced mother. She will do anything to marry her secret fiancé and escape her oppressive life. When her fiancé announces he must marry her cousin in order to save his family’s crumbling business, Hazel is heartbroken and her hope for the future crushed. But a kind old man offers her salvation: Travel to the mythical Bazaar that visits the island once every thirty years and return before the end of the festival with medicine he needs, and she will have all the riches in the world. Gripped by hope, Hazel accepts.
But in the Bazaar, a place where the gods themselves used to dwell, Hazel can trust nothing. In a world where you can buy time and purchase power, wicked merchants wield cruel magic. As she travels further into the Bazaar, searching for the medicine her benefactor desires, she becomes enmeshed in a game of cat and mouse with the all-powerful King of the Bazaar, a man with a silver-tongue and shadowy past.
As time runs out and the Bazaar threatens to trap Hazel forever, she begins to unravel the mystery of the Bazaar and why the King wants her for himself. But Hazel must decide if her desire for her freedom is worth the cost the Bazaar demands—and if the love she thought she needed is the one she truly deserves.

#2 THESE FALLEN GODS (December 2023)

« There is a darkness in me. A hunger. A lust for power. The appetite of a god. »
The Bazaar has fallen, Zaire is gone, and Adelaide is alive. But Hazel Blackthorn has never felt more alone.
With her sister sick from the lotus flower, and haunted by powers she doesn’t understand, Hazel struggles to come to terms with who she is. When she and Cassian learn of strange, cataclysmic events across the world, it is clear their time has run out. The gods are rising.
Hazel learns that the answers to defeating the gods and saving Adelaide may be hidden far away in ancient archives. She and Cassian leave Veara island and embark on a journey across the sea. But the gods have not been forgotten in these new lands, and their followers are eager to serve their masters and deliver Hazel back to Irra.
Fighting old enemies and traveling with new allies, Hazel must confront her identity and master her powers if she hopes to save the world from the wrath of hungry gods. And as Cassian battles his own past and his endless curse, the two risk losing their bond forever.

Catelyn Wilson writes YA Fantasy with a splash of romance. She loves incorporating mythology into her books and firmly believes morally grey is the way to any woman’s heart. She has an unhealthy obsession with Jane Austen, sunscreen, and animals. She lives in Texas with her husband and mini-Aussie, Churro.

THE SHADOWSPELL ACADEMY SERIES de Shannon Mayer & K.F. Breene

Hunger Games meets A Deadly Education in this collaboration between USA Today bestselling authors Shannon Mayer and K.F. Breene, in which a teen girl infiltrates a dangerous school for magic to search for her missing brother.

THE SHADOWSPELL ACADEMY SERIES (Books 1 to 6)
by Shannon Mayer & K.F. Breene
Skyhorse, 2019-2021
(via JABberwocky Literary Agency)

You Don’t Choose The Academy. The Academy Chooses You.
I had no idea how those words would change my life. Or how they’d changed my life already… Until the day the most dangerous man I’ve ever met waltzed onto my farm and left us a death sentence. In an invitation. My younger brother has been chosen for the prestigious, secret magical school hidden within the folds of our mundane world. A place so dangerous, they don’t guarantee you’ll make it out alive. If he doesn’t go our entire family will be killed. It’s the same invitation my older brother received three years ago—the same place he mysteriously died. The academy has already killed one sibling. I’ll be damned if they take another. I do the only thing an older sister can: chop off my hair, strap on two bras to flatten the girls, and take my brother’s place. Magic and monsters are real. Assassins are coming for me, and the dead are prone to rise. What’s a girl faking it as a boy supposed to do? That’s right—beat the academy at its own game. Or die trying.

Shadowspell Academy novels offer delicious cliffhangers that will keep you on the edge of your seat until the final book – SHADOWSPELL ACADEMY: YEAR OF THE CHAMELEON (Book 6).

THE CULLING TRIALS PART 1 (#1) – April 2019
THE CULLING TRIALS PART 2 (#2) – May 2019
THE CULLING TRIALS PART 3 (#3) – June 2019
THE YEAR OF THE CHAMELEON, PART 1 (#4) – February 2021
THE YEAR OF THE CHAMELEON PART 2 (#5) – March 2021
THE YEAR OF THE CHAMELEON PART 3 (#6) – May 2021

K.F. Breene is a Wall Street Journal, USA Today, Washington Post, and Amazon Charts bestselling author of paranormal romance, urban fantasy, and fantasy novels. With nearly three million books sold, when she’s not penning stories about magic and what goes bump in the night, she’s sipping wine and planning shenanigans. She lives in Northern California with her husband, two children, and out of work treadmill.

Shannon Mayer is the USA Today, Wall Street Journal and Washington Post bestselling author of urban fantasy, epic fantasy, and paranormal romance novels and series. She has sold more copies of her books than she can count on one hand—close to three million. She lives in the southwestern tip of Canada with her husband, son, and a menagerie of animals, many of which show up in her books as sassy side characters.

PETWIZARDS de Kirk Scroggs

Perfect for animal lovers and fans of Lumberjanes, here is a hilarious middle-grade graphic novel about a glam rock-loving boy named Finch with the not-so-secret ability to control animals, and his mission to save the school musical and win the heart of his crush.

PETWIZARDS
by Kirk Scroggs
Union Square Kids, August 2024
(via JABberwocky Literary Agency)

Finch Eaglehawk may seem like an average oddball with a taste for the dramatic and glam-rock musical numbers, but he has a secret. Finch is a PetWizard, with the ability to control the animal kingdom—well, the « et cetera » category of the animal kingdom. Though he loves his naked mole rats, bearded dragons, and boa constrictors, Finch yearns for more. With the help of his best friend, Aberdeen, a mysterious new kid named Erica, and an ancient PetMaster manual, Finch tries to learn how to own his powers and use them to help those in need, protect the vulnerable, and, most important, impress his crush, Ken Chu, the star of the upcoming school musical.

Kirk Scroggs is the author and illustrator of The Secret Spiral of Swamp Kid and We Found a Monster. He has been publishing illustrated middle-grade novels for over fifteen years. Kirk lives in Los Angeles with his husband, Steve, and an ungrateful cat.

THE PRINCESS PROTECTION PROGRAM d’Alex London

A new middle-grade series about a boarding school where a fairy godmother hides fairytale princesses (and one prince) who don’t like the endings to their timeless tales.

THE PRINCESS PROTECTION PROGRAM
by Alex London
HarperCollins / Greenwillow, 2024 – 2025
(via Sterling Lord Literistic)

Book 1: THE PRINCESS PROTECTION PROGRAM (February 2024)

The valiant prince quested long and hard to reach the castle where the sleeping princess lies. The last thing he must do is awaken her with a kiss. He has played his role in the story perfectly. But Princess Rosamund does NOT think a kiss from a stranger is a very pleasant way to be woken up! At all!

When Rosamund flees her prince, a Door of Opportunity opens, and she steps through to the HEA. In this new world, HEA stands for Home Educational Academy, not Happily Ever After. Rosamund has found the Princess Protection Program, where fugitive fairy tale princesses escape unwanted affections, untimely ends, and all the other perils of their stories. Verna, the kindly fairy godmother who runs the academy, keeps them all safe. Safe from their stories, and safe from the monstrous Uponatimes who lurk outside the school’s gates, eager to swallow the girls whole and return them to their tales.

As Rosamund adjusts to life in the real world and makes her first real friends, she has more and more questions.

THE PRINCESS PROTECTION PROGRAM is for fans of the Never Afters and the Descendants series, The School for Good and Evil, and the Fairly True Tales series.

Book 2: AFTER EVER AFTER (February 2025)

The second book in Alex London’s delightful middle-grade fantasy duology that plays with the traditional fairy tale story.

Rana loves her friends, loves her school, and loves punk rock. One she thing she does not love is frogs…especially demanding frog princes who follow her home. She left her story because of one and has no plans ever to go back. When her frog prince shows up at the Academy for wayward fairy tale royalty, she’s not happy about it, and when dozens of duplicate frog princes follow him to her world, she’s downright alarmed. Worse still, a shadowy monster is in hot pursuit and to save everyone she cares about, Rana will have to do the one thing she vowed she’d never to do. She has to return to her Once Upon Time and face more than just the frogs she left behind. All her fears are waiting for her, right where she left them.

Alex London is the author of over 25 books for children, teens, and adults, with over 2 million copies sold. He’s the author of the middle grade Dog Tags, Tides of War, Wild Ones, and Accidental Adventures series, as well as two titles in the 39 Clues. His latest middle grade series, Battle Dragons, a cyberpunk romp pitched as The Fast and the Furious meets How to Train Your Dragon, is out from Scholastic. For young adults, he’s the author of the cyberpunk duology Proxy, an ALA Top Ten Quick Pick for Reluctant Young Readers, Best Fiction For Young Adults, and Rainbow List selection and the epic fantasy trilogy, Black Wings Beating, an NBC Today Show Pick, a Kirkus Best Young Adult Fantasy selection, a Seventeen Magazine best of 2018 pick, and a We Need Diverse Books 2018 Must Read, and a 2020 Rainbow List selection. He’s been a journalist and human rights researcher reporting from conflict zones and refugee camps, a young adult librarian with New York Public Library, an assistant to a film agent, and a snorkel salesman. He lives with his husband, daughter, and hound dog in Philadelphia, PA.