Archives de catégorie : Children’s Books

LIVE YOUR BEST LIE de Jessie Weaver

Sometimes the prettiest Instagram feeds mask the darkest, and bloodiest, secrets…. Told in multiple POVs interspersed with social media posts and flashbacks, LIVE YOUR BEST LIE has twists and turns that will keep readers turning the page and no one will be able to guess the ending.

LIVE YOUR BEST LIE
by Jessie Weaver
Melissa de la Cruz Studio/Disney-Hyperion, January 2023
(via Kaplan/DeFiore Rights)

Social media influencer Summer Cartwright leads a very charmed life: millions of followers, the hottest designer and vintage clothes at her fingertips, a newly minted book deal, the coolest friends, and, until recently, the hottest boyfriend at her über-elite prep school. Every moment of her life has been carefully planned and cultivated to complement her “imperfectly perfect” social media persona. She is truly #LivingHerBestLife.
But when Summer goes missing during her annual Halloween party and then an unscheduled post appears on her feed stating that she’ll be dead within the next five minutes, those closest to Summer know something isn’t quite right―or on-brand. Grace, Summer’s camera-shy best friend; Adam, Summer’s gamer ex-boyfriend; Laney, Summer’s moody camp roommate; and Cora, an influencer wannabe, all decide to investigate. And when they come upon Summer’s lifeless body, they soon realize that no filter is strong enough to mask the lies we tell ourselves.

Before writing about flawed, funny teens with big hearts, Jessie Weaver spent ten years teaching them English. She completed the Stanford University online novel writing program in 2019. Though she’s an East Coast girl at heart, originally from Baltimore, MD, she currently lives just outside Denver, Colorado with her husband and two daughters. LIVE YOUR BEST LIE is her first novel.

PRINCESS PRIVATE EYE d’Evelyn Skye

The Princess Diaries meets Nancy Drew in this middle-grade novel about a New York foster kid who discovers she’s actually a long-lost princess―and must solve the mystery behind a threat to the crown.

PRINCESS PRIVATE EYE
by Evelyn Skye
Disney-Hyperion, May 2023
(via Kaplan/DeFiore Rights)

Twelve-year-old Gen Sun has bounced around New York’s foster care system ever since her parents died in a car crash ten years ago. No one seems to know anything about her birth family, and the only link she has to them is a baby blanket embroidered with her name.
But that’s all right. Gen is savvy and self-reliant, using her keen sense of justice and her ability to go unnoticed to solve mysteries in her neighborhood. She’s in the middle of solving one such mystery when her life changes forever: suited strangers reveal that Gen is actually the long-lost princess of a small, obscure country overseas.
In no time, Gen is whisked away to the kingdom of Raldonia. But becoming a princess overnight isn’t easy, and Gen’s American ways and no-nonsense demeanor don’t exactly endear her to the royal court. Before long, there are whispers that a legendary curse has been awoken by Gen’s sudden appearance.
And when plague-like events start befall the small country, Gen realizes she’ll have to crack her biggest case yet: catching the culprit out to dethrone her. And who knows? She just might find her place in the kingdom along the way.
Evelyn Skye brings a blend of wit and adventure to this middle grade series that asks: what truly makes a princess? And what makes a home?

Evelyn Skye is a New York Times bestselling author of novels for adults and young adults, including the forthcoming The Hundred Loves of Juliet and Three Kisses, One midnight. Her book The Crown’s Game was an Amazon Editor’s Pick, as well as an Amazon Best Book of 2016. Evelyn is a graduate of Stanford University and Harvard Law School, and she lives in the San Francisco Bay Area with her husband and daughter. PRINCESS PRIVATE EYE is her middle grade debut.

I HEAR YOU, OCEAN de Kallie George & Carmen Mok

This joyful and soothing picture book about ocean sounds will transport readers to the seaside.

I HEAR YOU, OCEAN
by Kallie George
illustrated by Carmen Mok
Greystone Kids, September 2022

When a child visits the ocean with his little brother, he whispers to him, “The ocean has lots to say, if you listen.” Together, they hear wondrous things, like the rumble of pebbles tumbling and filling the beach with shiny gems, the bark of a seal playing peekaboo, and the whooshing of a shell murmuring messages.
The second book in the Sounds of Nature Series for young children, I HEAR YOU, OCEAN is an excellent resource for outdoor education and social-emotional learning, helping to teach: 

• How to engage with nature in fun and respectful ways 
• Mindfulness and empathy with the world around us
• Positive and gentle play with younger siblings
• The ocean makes magical sounds—you just have to listen!

Kallie George is an author and picture book editor who has written numerous acclaimed books for children. She grew up on the Sunshine Coast in BC, where she spent her days roaming the forests and listening to all the sounds within. Now, she and her husband have made a home in the woods so that her son can do the same.
Carmen Mok has received several illustration awards, including the SCBWI Canada East People’s Choice Portfolio Award for Illustration and the Storyteller Award. Mok is the illustrator of I Hear You, Forest, Grandmother’s Visit, Violet Shrink, and A Stopwatch from Grampa. She lives in St. Catharines, Ontario.

RED AS BLOOD de Sorboni Banerjee & Dominique Richardson

Riverdale meets fairytale in this edgy, seductive twist on the age-old stories you think you know.

RED AS BLOOD
by Sorboni Banerjee & Dominique Richardson
Wise Wolf Press, February 2023
(via Context Literary)

When Penny Zale vanishes from the psychiatric hospital where she’s being held against her will, only her chopped-off braid and cryptic letters remain. If her friends Raven, Aarya, Dawn, and Elle have any chance of finding Penny, they must enter a world where money and power mean everything, and life is expendable.
The lies that built their town of Everbeach run deep, and someone is willing to do anything to keep them hidden. The girls believe Penny’s letters point to her ex, big sugar heir Logan Steele. When Raven tries to get close to Logan to gather information, she finds herself fighting a dangerous attraction to the magnetic billionaire.
Everything begins to unravel when Aarya discovers Raven has been keeping secrets. Raven’s painful past of anxiety and addiction causes her to spiral, and everyone, including Raven herself, starts to question her version of reality. As threats and attacks ramp up against the friends, they must decipher what happened to Penny before they’re the next to disappear.
Scandalous secrets, deadly twists, and forbidden love make this series perfect for fans of Inheritance Games, Thousandth Floor, and Pretty Little Liars.

Sorboni Banerjee is a Bengali-American author and Emmy Award winning television news reporter and anchor. Sorboni is also the host of The Lead, an online talk show featuring authors, aimed at inspiring positive change and achieving big dreams.
Dominique Richardson is a Lebanese-Jamaican former CPA who spends her free time writing and passing on her love of unicorns to her twin boys. Dominique presents #DomsDownload on The Lead, breaking down books that help people live their best lives.

WOLFWOOD de Marianna Baer

A teenage girl begins secretly forging paintings, plunging her into a dark and dangerous imaginary world.

WOLFWOOD
by Marianna Baer
Amulet Books/Abrams, March 2023

Indigo and her mother, once-famous artist Zoe Serra, have barely been scraping by since her mom’s breakdown. When a gallery offers Zoe a revival show for her unfinished blockbuster series, Wolfwood, Indigo knows it’s a crucial chance to finally regain stability. Zoe, however, mysteriously refuses. Desperate not to lose the opportunity, Indigo secretly takes up the brush herself.
It turns out, there might be a very good reason her mother wants nothing to do with Wolfwood.
Painting submerges Indigo into Wolfwood itself—a dangerous jungle where an army of grotesque, monstrous flora are in a violent battle with a band of girls. As Indigo enters Wolfwood again and again, the line between fantasy and reality blurs. It’s a tenuous balancing act: keeping her forgery secret and her mind lucid, all while fighting her attraction to Kai, the son of the gallery owner.
And by the time Indigo realizes the true nature of the monsters she’s up against, it might be too late—and the monsters might just win

Marianna Baer is the author of The Inconceivable Life of Quinn, which Publishers Weekly called « a delicate, complicated, and engrossing exploration of the collision between real life and the inexplicable » in a starred review. She’s a graduate of Vermont College of Fine Arts with an MFA in Writing for Children and Young Adults. She lives in Brooklyn, New York.