Archives de catégorie : Children’s Books

SÀNYÀ de Oyin Olugbile

A masterful debut tells the story of dangerous love—lost, found, and lost again—all against the backdrop of a fantastical, enthralling empire that holds even the Òrìsà themselves spellbound.

SÀNYÀ
by Oyin Olugbile
Masobe Books, December 2022
(via Randle Editorial & Literary)

Sànyà always felt different. And everyone that knew her—the people in the village she grew up in, her beloved brother, Dada, her Aunt Abike, and even her parents before she was born—knew that there was something special about her, too. After an unspeakable tragedy causes her to leave home and grow up too soon, she is devastated to find that her incredible powers are linked to a future which she must fight, even at the cost of her very soul. She begins life anew, hoping that the dark prophesy would somehow rewrite itself. Soon, however, her carefully crafted life and identity becomes the catalyst for a deadly war that will tear her family apart, and doom everything she holds dear.

Oyin Olugbile holds a B.A (Hons) in Creative Arts from the University of Lagos. She also holds a few Post-graduate Certificates from the Lagos Business School, Harvard Business School Online, the School of Politics, Policy and Governance (SPPG) and a MSc from King’s College London. She currently works as a Social Impact Management Consultant. Oyin Olugbile is also the Chief Curator of the Experience Factory, an education enterprise dedicated to curating out of classroom experiences for young people. EXF programs range from Arts & Crafts, STEM, Photography, Health & Nutrition to Financial Literacy. SÀNYÀ is her debut novel.

WHAT HAPPENED TO JANET UZOR de Miracle Emeka-Nkwor

Every year at Afobiri High School, a student dies. Ebere thinks there is a killer on the loose…

WHAT HAPPENED TO JANET UZOR
by Miracle Emeka-Nkwor
Masobe Books, February 2022
(via Randle Editorial & Literary)

A year after their best friend, Janet Uzor dies in a drowning incident, Pamela and Ebere are trying to cope and move on in their own unique ways. Pamela buries her emotions, while Ebere has been on a mission to find out what really happened to their friend, an excellent swimmer, whose death seems unfair and unconscionable. When Pamela begins to receive sinister letters threatening her life, she finally has to confront her fears, and with the help of Ebere, on/off boyfriend Eche, good friend Daniel Kalio, she sets out to find out who is after her life. In order to do this, they have to uncover the truth and the circumstances behind the death of Janet Uzor.

Miracle Emeka-Nkwor was born and raised in the Garden city, Port Harcourt, in Nigeria. She is a graduate of Biochemistry from the University of Nigeria, Nsukka and has always likened herself to an overflowing drum of creativity. When she isn’t sketching designs, drafting patterns and bent over a sewing machine, her nose is buried in the pages of a good book.

SUPER SLOTH EPISODE 1: THE SHAR-WOLF OF NEW YORK CITY d’Aleesah Darlison & Cheri Hughes

Crime-fighting and mutant animals in this super-fun new series from award-winning author, Aleesah Darlison.

SUPER SLOTH EPISODE 1:
THE SHAR-WOLF OF NEW YORK CITY
by
Aleesah Darlison
illustrated by Cheri Hughes
Big Sky Publishing, April 2023
(via Randle Editorial & Literary)

In this origin story, pygmy sloth, Romeo Fortez, is born on remote Escudo Island. At his naming ceremony, a once-in-a-millennium event imbibes him with powers of speed, intelligence, and irresistibly hypnotic good looks. When Romeo moves to New York he discovers that Professor Ian Weird-Warp, a geneticist obsessed with splicing animal genes together, has unleashed a gigantic mutant shar-wolf on the city. With the help of some new human and animal friends, Romeo forms a team of crime fighters to save the city from the evil Professor Weird-Warp and his mutant creation.

Aleesah Darlison is a multi-published, award-winning Australian children’s author. She has written over fifty books for children including picture books, chapter books, novels, and series. In January 2021, Aleesah received an Australia Day Award from the Sunshine Coast Council. Aleesah has also won numerous awards for her writing including the 2015 Environment Award for Children’s Literature (Our Class Tiger – Non-Fiction) and an Australian Society of Authors (ASA) Mentorship. Her picture book, Warambi, was a 2012 CBCA Notable Book and was shortlisted for the Eve Pownall Award and the Environment Award. Her picture book, Emerald: The Green Turtle’s Tale was shortlisted for the 2018 Speech Pathology Book of the Year Awards. Aleesah travels extensively, delivering talks and workshops to children and adults at preschools, schools, libraries, literary festivals, and writers’ centres. She also works as a writing mentor and tutor.

THE NIGHT ENDS WITH FIRE de K. X. Song

The first in a gripping fantasy duology inspired by Mulan and Romance of the Three Kingdoms, perfect for fans of R. F. Kuang and Rin Chupeco.

THE NIGHT ENDS WITH FIRE (Book 1)
by K. X. Song
Ace/Penguin Random House, 2024
(via Park & Fine Literary)

The Three Kingdoms are at war, but Meilin’s father refuses to answer the imperial draft. Instead, facing mounting gambling debts, he plans to sell Meilin for her dowry to fund his opium addiction. But when Meilin discovers her husband-to-be is another violent, ill-tempered man, she realizes that nothing will change for her unless she takes matters into her own hands.
The very next day, she disguises herself as a boy and enlists in her father’s place.
With the help of Sky, the prince who leads their platoon, Meilin’s relentless hard work brings her recognition and even friendship—and with Sky, a closeness that starts to border on something more. But has she simply exchanged one prison for another? As her army barrels towards a deadly war, Meilin begins to have visions of a fickle sea dragon spirit that warns her of sinister forces at work behind the war, cornering her into another impossible decision: remain a loyal soldier for a kingdom that would turn on her in an instant if her true identity were discovered, or wield the tantalizing outlawed magic that the sea dragon offers and claim the power long denied to her and every other woman in the kingdom.
As the very future of the Three Kingdoms hangs in the balance, Meilin will need to decide whom to trust—Sky, who inspires her loyalty and love; the sea dragon spirit, which has its own murky agenda; or an infuriating enemy prince who makes her question everything she once knew—about her kingdom and about her own heart.
From a major new voice in fantasy, K. X. Song offers a powerful meditation on the forces that shape our destiny and the grit required to overcome them … and on the double-edged sword of ambition, which can both free and corrupt.

K. X. Song is a Highlights Foundation fellow and a HG Wells Turnill Prize honoree. She currently resides in the San Francisco Bay Area, where she can often be found feeding the pampered ducks of Golden Gate Park. Her debut YA novel, An Echo In The City, is slated for publication in summer 2023 by Little, Brown Books for Young Readers and is about two teenagers falling in love and coming of age amid the Hong Kong protests.

BITTERSWEET IN THE HOLLOW de Kate Pearsall

In this beautifully dark and enthralling YA, four sisters with unusual talents investigate a mysterious disappearance in their secluded Appalachian town. For fans of House of Hollow and Wilder Girls!

BITTERSWEET IN THE HOLLOW
by Kate Pearsall
G.P. Putnam’s Sons, October 2023
(via Park & Fine Literary)

In rural Caball Hollow, surrounded by the vast National Forest, the James women serve up more than fried green tomatoes at the Harvest Moon diner, where the family recipes are not the only secrets.
Like her sisters, Linden was born with an unusual ability. She can taste what others are feeling, but this so-called gift soured her relationship with the vexingly attractive Cole Spencer one fateful night a year ago . . . A night when Linden vanished into the depths of the Forest and returned with no memories of what happened, just a litany of questions—and a haze of nightmares that suggest there’s more to her story than simply getting lost.
Now, during the hottest summer on record, another girl in town is gone, and the similarities to last year’s events are striking. Except, this time the missing girl doesn’t make it home, and when her body is discovered, the scene unmistakably spells murder.
As tempers boil over, Linden enlists the help of her sisters to find what’s hiding in the forest . . . before it finds her. But as she starts digging for truth—about the Moth-Winged Man rumored to haunt the Hollow, about her bitter rift with Cole, and even about her family—she must question if some secrets are best left buried.

Kate Pearsall is a creative thinker, an award-winning copywriter, and a storyteller. She has a degree in business and public relations and has written for magazines and newspapers. Her debut novel, BITTERSWEET IN THE HOLLOW, was inspired in part by a childhood listening to her mom’s stories about growing up in the Appalachian Mountains and visiting family in West Virginia.