Archives de catégorie : Frankfurt 2021 Children’s Books

THE NOT-SO-UNIFORM LIFE OF HOLLY-MEI de Christina Matula

This charming and funny debut is the first in a middle-grade trilogy.

THE NOT-SO-UNIFORM LIFE OF HOLLY-MEI
by Christina Matula
Inkyard/HarperCollins, April 2022
(via Laura Dail Literary)

There’s a new girl in town. Holly-Mei Jones is excited about moving to Hong Kong for her mother’s job. Her new school is right on the beach and her family’s apartment is beyond beautiful. Everything is going to be perfect . . . right? Maybe not. It feels like everywhere she turns, there are new rules to follow and expectations to meet. On top of that, the most popular girl in her grade is quickly becoming a frenemy. And without the guidance of her loving Ah-ma, who stayed behind in Toronto, Holly-Mei just can’t seem to get it right. It will take all of Holly-Mei’s determination and sparkle (and maybe even a tiny bit of stubbornness) to get through seventh grade and turn her life in Hong Kong into a great adventure!

Christina Matula is a Canadian author living in Hong Kong with her family. A child of immigrant parents, she has always been curious about other cultures and far-off places. She loves sharing stories that will spark an interest in and passion for Chinese culture in young readers. This is her debut middle-grade novel.

FARRAH NOORZAD AND THE RING OF FATE de Deeba Zargarpur

The contemporary fantasy that author Deeba Zargarpur wishes existed when she was a young reader—one with a strong Afghan girl in the lead and rooted in her own family’s culture and tradition. Centering the rich mythology of the Seven Jinn Kings, Deeba Zargarpur’s middle grade debut will appeal to any kid who loves being immersed in big magical adventures

FARRAH NOORZAD AND THE RING OF FATE
by Deeba Zargarpur
Labyrinth Road/PRH, Summer 2023
(via Laura Dail Literary)

All her life, eleven-year-old Farrah Noorzad has been desperate to make her father proud. But she only gets one day a year—her birthday—to spend time with him, before he jets back across the world to his real family in Abu Dhabi. This year, when her father gives her a box containing a mysterious, whispering ring, and tells her she can make a wish on it, Farrah doesn’t think twice. She takes the ring and wishes with everything in her heart to find a place in his world. But her wish backfires and her father vanishes before her eyes. Guided by the whispering ring, she meets Idris, a half-jinn with milky white eyes and hair, who reveals her true heritage: she is also a half-jinn…and her father is one of the seven great jinn kings. As if that weren’t unbelievable enough, he explains that her wish has trapped her father inside the ring, and the other six jinn kings will follow if she can’t find a way to undo her mistake.
With the clock ticking, Farrah makes an unlikely alliance with Idris and Yaseen, the half-brother she’s never met. In order to free their father, the trio will have to face the most devious jinn king of all.

Deeba Zargarpur is an Afghan-Uzbek American. She credits her love of literature across various languages to her immigrant parents, whose eerie tales haunted her well into the night. She lives in New York with her cat and husband, and currently works as an editor in children’s publishing. She also has a debut YA novel coming from FSG in Fall 2022.

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SIMON B. RHYMIN’ du jeune rappeur Dwayne Reed bientôt adapté au cinéma

Le scénariste LaDarian Smith travaillera avec les studios 3000 Pictures à l’adaptation du livre middle-grade pour le grand écran, en partenariat avec la société de production Homegrown Pictures. La date de sortie du film n’est pas encore connue. (Lire l’article de Deadline)

SIMON B. RHYMIN’ raconte avec humour et poésie l’histoire touchante d’un jeune rappeur qui parvient à rassembler les membres de sa communauté autour de ses rêves et ses rimes. Le livre évoque des sujets qui parlent à tous les enfants, comme l’importance des amis et de la famille, la nécessité de surmonter ses peurs, de résister à l’intimidation, et d’apprendre à se défendre.

Dwayne Reed, auteur du livre et professeur des écoles à Chicago, s’est d’abord fait connaître sur internet auprès du jeune public grâce à sa vidéo virale « Welcome to the 4th Grade ». Le scénariste LaDarian Smith a lui aussi été enseignant en lycée.

Les droits de langue française de SIMON B’ RHYMIN’ (Little, Brown BYR, mars 2021) et SIMON B. RHYMIN’ TAKES A STAND (avril 2022) sont toujours disponibles.

LOVE TIMES INFINITY de Lane Clarke

A complicated—and often hilarious—love story about a Black high schooler’s experience with friends, family, and identity.

LOVE TIMES INFINITY
by Lane Clarke
Poppy/Little, Brown BFYR, July 2022
(via Park & Fine)

Navigating junior year, Michie is struggling to answer the question of who she is for her scholarship essays, the only chance she has at making it into Brown as a first-generation college student. Or maybe it’s not so much that Michie doesn’t know who she is as it is that she doesn’t like who she is: having been estranged from her mother from the age of five and surrendered to her grandmother, Michie has made an art of hiding, especially from herself. After all, if her own mother doesn’t think she’s worthy of love, who will?
Then a new student—basketball superstar Derek de la Rosa—enrolls in her school and enlists Michie as a tutor to catch up in Spanish class, turning Michie’s life upside down. Because, Derek? He is very cute, very talented, very popular, and very much has his eye on Michie, no matter how invisible she thinks she is.
When Michie’s mother reaches out to make amends, and with her scholarship essay deadline looming, Michie will have to decide if she wants to reopen old wounds or close the door on her past once and for all. And as she spends more time with Derek, she will have to figure out how close she can risk getting to him, and how much of her heart she is willing to share. Because while Michie may not know who she is, she’s starting to realize who she wants to become—if only she can take the chance: on Derek, on herself, and on her future.

Lane Clarke received her Bachelor’s Degree in English Literature from Virginia Tech, where she received an honorable mention in the 2015 Steger Poetry Prize, administered by Nikki Giovanni. She got her J.D. from Chicago University and now lives in Northern Virginia and practices law in Washington D.C. LOVE TIMES INFINITY is her debut novel.

BEFORE TAKEOFF d’Adi Alsaid

THE SUN IS ALSO A STAR meets JUMANJI when two teens meet and fall in love during a layover-gone-wrong at the Atlanta airport in this thrilling new novel from the author of LET’S GET LOST!

BEFORE TAKEOFF
by Adi Alsaid
Knopf BYR, June 2022
(via Park & Fine)

James and Michelle find themselves in the Atlanta airport on a layover. They couldn’t be more different, but seemingly interminable delays draw them both to a mysterious flashing green light—and each other.
Where James is passive, Michelle is anything but. And she quickly discovers that the flashing green light is actually… a button. Which she presses. Which may or may not unwittingly break the rules of the universe—at least as those rules apply to Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta.
Before they can figure up from down, strange, impossible things start happening: snowstorms form inside the B terminal; jungles sprout up in the C terminal; and earthquakes split the ground apart in between. And no matter how hard they try, it seems no one can find a way in or out of the airport. James and Michelle team up to find their families and either escape the airport, or put an end to its chaos—before it’s too late.

Adi Alsaid was born and raised in Mexico City, where he spilled hot sauce on things. Along with writing and traveling the world, Adi has coached high school and elementary school basketball. In addition to Mexico, he has lived in Tel Aviv, Las Vegas, Monterey and Chicago. His previous YA books include Let’s Get Lost, Never Always Sometimes, North of Happy, Brief Chronicle of Another Stupid Heartbreak, and We Didn’t Ask for This.