From Jennifer Donnelly, author of the acclaimed New York Times bestseller Stepsister, comes a fairytale retelling that’ll forever change the way you think about strength, power, and the real meaning of « happily ever after. »
POISONED
by Jennifer Donnelly
Scholastic Press, October 2020
(chez Writers House)
Once upon a time, a girl named Sophie rode into the forest with the queen’s huntsman. Her lips were the color of ripe cherries, her skin as soft as new-fallen snow, her hair as dark as midnight. When they stopped to rest, the huntsman took out his knife . . . and took Sophie’s heart. It shouldn’t have come as a surprise. Sophie had heard the rumors, the whispers. They said she was too kind and foolish to rule — a waste of a princess. A disaster of a future queen. And Sophie believed them. She believed everything she’d heard about herself, the poisonous words people use to keep girls like Sophie from becoming too powerful, too strong . . . With the help of seven mysterious strangers, Sophie manages to survive. But when she realizes that the jealous queen might not be to blame, Sophie must find the courage to face an even more terrifying enemy, proving that even the darkest magic can’t extinguish the fire burning inside every girl, and that kindness is the ultimate form of strength.
Jennifer Donnelly is the author of A Northern Light, which was awarded a Printz Honor and a Carnegie Medal, Revolution (named a Best Book by Amazon, Kirkus Reviews, School Library Journal, and the Chicago Public Library, and was nominated for a Carnegie Medal), the Deep Blue series, and many other books for young readers, including Lost in a Book, which spent more than 20 weeks on the New York Times bestseller list. She lives in New York’s Hudson Valley.
Seventeen-year-old Phoenix has spent much of her life drifting from town to town with her mom Nina, using their charms to swindle and steal to get by. Now they’ve made it to their ultimate destination, Nina’s hometown of Jasper Hollow. The plan: bring down Ellis Bowman, the man who ruined Nina’s life. When Phoenix gets caught spying on Ellis, she spins a convincing story that inadvertently gives her full access to the Bowman family. As she digs deeper into their secrets (and begins to fall for daughter Melody), she finds herself entrenched in the tale of a death and a disappearance that doesn’t entirely line up with what Mom has told her. But there’s even more to this story Phoenix doesn’t know. Who, if anyone, is telling the whole truth about what happened? Debut author Brooke Lauren Davis explores the murkiness of right and wrong, of choices and consequences, of heroes and villains, in an eerily compelling and thought-provoking small-town saga.
Oddonis and his misfit friends don’t exactly love competition and they aren’t exactly athletes. So they’re definitely NOT excited when their middle school gets challenged to a sports competition by the Roman middle school on the other side of Mount Olympus. It’s bad enough that the Greek Odds have to compete against their Roman twins, but when Zeus and his Roman counterpart, Jupiter, get a little too involved, the Greek and Roman kids end up in a competition over who gets to run the WHOLE mountain. Will the Greek Gods and Odds find a way to work together to defeat the Romans, or will they have to leave their hilltop home…forever? Get ready to overcome the odds in the third hilarious book about the Odd Gods from author David Slavin, filled with dozens of black-and-white illustrations by award-winning artist Adam Lane.
Sometimes it feels like Oddonis can’t do anything right. Especially compared to his literally perfect twin brother, Adonis. But this time, Oddonis has really messed up by accidentally turning his father, the all-powerful king of the gods, Zeus, into a giant baby. Now it’s up to Oddonis to assemble a team of his odd friends—Mathena, Gaseous, and Puneous—and journey to the underworld to get the curse reversed. Along the way, Oddonis will have to overcome a series of dangerous obstacles, his obnoxious brother, his own self-doubt, and the horrible scents of his best friend Gaseous. Can Gods as unlikely, unusual, and unheroic as Oddonis and his friends really save the day? Get ready to overcome the odds in the second hilarious book about the Odd Gods from author David Slavin, filled with dozens of black-and-white illustrations by award-winning artist Adam Lane.
It’s the summer before high school, and thirteen-year-old Jorge Fuerte wants nothing more than to spend his days hanging out with his fellow comic-book-obsessed friends. But then everything changes. His parents announce they’re divorcing for a reason Jorge and his twin brother, Cesar, never saw coming–their larger-than-life dad comes out as transgender. Jorge struggles to understand the father he’s always admired, but Cesar refuses to have anything to do with him. As Jorge tries to find a way to stay true to the father he loves, a new girl moves into the neighborhood: cool, confident, quirky Zoey. She tames Jorge’s unruly terrier and enlists the terrier and Jorge in a dance routine for the back-to-school talent show. As the date of the show draws near, Jorge must face his fears and choose between being loyal to his brother or truthful about his family’s secret. Although he’s no superhero, Jorge already has the world’s greatest superpower–if he decides to use it.