Archives de catégorie : Frankfurt 2023 Children’s Books

CHRONICALLY DOLORES de Maya van Wagenen

Striking the perfect balance between wry humour and heartache, this new teen novel tackles choppy friendships, family dramas, and life-changing diagnoses, with a little bit of telenovela flair woven in.

CHRONICALLY DOLORES
by Maya van Wagenen
Dutton, March 2024
(via Writers House)

Nothing has been the same for fourteen-year-old Dolores Mendoza since everything started changing at the end of middle school. Newly diagnosed with interstitial cystitis, Dolores had a humiliating accident in class that earned her the nickname “whiz kid.” Even worse, she’s losing her lifelong BFF, Shae, who’s suddenly ignoring Dolores to hang out with the cool girls. Dolores is alone, and confused. What did she do wrong?

Now her mom is forcing Dolores to go to a “communication workshop for girls.” There, Dolores makes a tentative connection with Terpsichore Berkenbosch-Jones. Terpsichore, who is home-schooled and neurodiverse, makes a deal with Dolores: Pretend to be her friend so Terpsichore can convince her overprotective mother to let her go to public school, and in return Terpsichore will help Dolores get Shae back. Eventually, their friendship of convenience will start to transform both Dolores and Terpsichore and redefine the ways both girls understand friendships old and new.

Dolores’s funny and bittersweet coming-of-age friendship story is punctuated by her wry reviews of every bathroom in town (which she comes to know very well thanks to her IC) and hilariously over-dramatized flashbacks as Dolores rewrites traumatic experiences as if she’s the star of a telenovela.

Maya van Wagenen is the author of the New York Times bestselling memoir Popular: Vintage Wisdom for a Modern Geek, which was published to huge acclaim when she was just fifteen (press and praise roundup below!). CHRONICALLY DOLORES is her fiction debut.

THAT’S NOT MY NAME de Megan Lally

A twisty, fast-paced dual-POV narrative about a teen with no memory who must unravel the truth of who she is, and the boyfriend who is determined to find his missing girlfriend and clear his name.

THAT’S NOT MY NAME
by Megan Lally
Sourcebooks Fire, December 2023

Shivering and bruised, a teen wakes up on the side of a dirt road with no memory of how she got there—or who she is. A passing officer takes her to the police station, and not long after, a frantic man arrives. He’s been searching for her for hours. He has her school ID, her birth certificate, and even family photos.

He is her father. Her name is Mary. Or so he says.

When Lola slammed the car door and stormed off into the night, Drew thought they just needed some time to cool off. Except Lola disappeared, and the sheriff, his friends, and the whole town are convinced Drew murdered his girlfriend. Forget proving his innocence, he needs to find her. The longer Lola is missing, the fewer leads there are to follow…and the more danger they both are in.

Megan Lally is a professional book coach who loves writing all things creepy and twisted. She lives in the Pacific Northwest with her family. THAT’S NOT MY NAME is her debut.

MOONSTORM de Yoon Ha Lee

A new YA SciFi trilogy by the New York Times bestselling author of Dragon Pearl.

MOONSTORM
Lancers Series, Book 1
by Yoon Ha Lee
Delacorte, June 2024
(via The Gernert Company)

Hwa Young was just ten years old when imperial forces destroyed her rebel moon home. Now, six years later, she is a citizen of the very empire that made her an orphan. Desperate to shake her rebel past, Hwa Young dreams of one day becoming a lancer pilot, an elite group of warriors who fly into battle using the empire’s most advanced tech—giant martial robots. Lancers are powerful, and Hwa Young would do anything to be the strong one for once in her life. When an attack on their boarding school leaves Hwa Young and her classmates stranded on an imperial space fleet, her dreams quickly become a reality. As it turns out, the fleet is in dire need of pilot candidates, and Hwa Young—along with her brainy best friend Geum, rival Bae, and class clown Seong Su—are quick to volunteer. But training is nothing like what they expected, and secrets—like the fate of the fleet’s previous lancer squad and hidden truths about the rebellion itself—are stacking up. And when Hwa Young uncovers a conspiracy that puts their entire world at risk, she’s forced to make a choice between her rebel past and an empire she’s no longer sure she can trust.

Yoon Ha Lee is a Korean-American who was born in Texas, went to high school in South Korea, and received a B.A. in mathematics from Cornell University. Yoon’s previous books include the Hugo Award nominated Machineries of Empire series and the New York Times bestseller Dragon Pearl.

BACKCHANNEL de Stan Lee, Tom Akel & Andie Tong

One of the final projects of the legendary Stan Lee and beautifully illustrated by Spider-Man veteran Andie Tong, about an ordinary high school student who is recruited by a mysterious hacktavist group and discovers a dark secret from his police detective father’s past that could change their relationship forever.

BACKCHANNEL Volume 1
by Stan Lee, Tom Akel & Andie Tong
Rocketship Entertainment, March 2023
(via JABberwocky Literary Agency)

While developing a highly sophisticated AI algorithm, a power awakens within Tom that grants him the ability to mentally hack into any device (technopathy). While initially using this newfound power for personal gain and petty revenge, he learns of a dark secret from his father’s past that will change him forever.
In need of a moment of escapism, Tom returns to his favorite digital comics. This time though, the comic is disturbingly on point with what Tom has been experiencing. As he continues to read, Tom realizes that there are encrypted messages in the comic from an unknown ally who clearly knows everything Tom has been up to.
When he discovers that the hacktivist group BACKCHANNEL has been tracking him and is aware of his new abilities and reaching out to him for help, Tom is set on a very dangerous path.

Stan Lee was a successful writer and editor, known to millions of fans world-wide as the co-creator of beloved superheroes like Spider-Man, Iron Man, X-Men, The Fantastic Four, and countless more that propelled Marvel to its preeminent position in the comic book industry. Most recently, Stan was the Chairman and Chief Creative Officer of Stan Lee’s POW! Entertainment, which he founded with Gill Champion. For nearly two decades, POW! has brought Stan’s original characters and stories to television, feature films, and publishing for audiences around the globe. POW! continues to perpetuate Stan’s legacy by sharing his new creations and celebrating the impact he has had on popular culture worldwide.
Tom Akel is the co-writer of Stan Lee’s BACKCHANNEL and the CEO & Publisher of Rocketship Entertainment – a publishing, consumer product, and entertainment company with multiple Eisner-nominated and Ringo Award-winning series. Prior to Rocketship, Tom led the U.S. expansion of Webtoon where he oversaw a portfolio of over 150 titles while developing key partnerships while, an an editor, winning back to back Ringo Awards for Best Webcomic for Dean Haspiel’s The Red Hook and Sanford Greene’s 1000, as well as an Eisner nomination for Ryan Benjamin’s Brothers Bond. He previously served as Executive Producer and Executive Editor of MTV Digital, responsible for 360 digital extensions of 175 seasons of MTV shows ranging from Teen Wolf to Jersey Shore, and while there founded MTV Geek and MTV Comics. Tom holds an MFA in Design + Technology from Parsons School of Design in New York and resides in Los Angeles, CA.
Andie Tong is a Malaysian comic artist who currently resides in Singapore. His past titles include Tekken, Green Lantern Legacy, Spectacular Spider-Man UK, Star Wars, The Batman Strikes!, and Tron: Betrayal. Since 2005, Andie has worked with companies including Disney, Lucasarts, Marvel, DC and Darkhorse. Outside of comics, he has done commercial work for DC, Nike, Mforma, Universal, CBS, Mattel, Hasbro and illustrations for Whitewolf’s fantasy gaming books. In 2013, Andie illustrated the New York Times bestselling Disney series The Zodiac Legacy created by the late Stan Lee and written by Stuart Moore.

THE GODS-TOUCHED DUOLOGY de Caitlin Sangster

In this atmospheric, “tightly-woven” (Brandon Sanderson, New York Times bestselling author) YA fantasy that is Wicked Saints meets There Will Come a Darkness, four teens are drawn into a high-stakes heist in the perilous tomb of an ancient shapeshifter king.

THE GODS-TOUCHED DUOLOGY
by Caitlin Sangster
Margaret K. McElderry
(via JABberwocky Literary Agency)

Book 1: SHE WHO RIDES THE STORM – September 2021

Long ago, shapeshifting monsters ruled the Commonwealth using blasphemous magic that fed on the souls of their subjects. Now, hundreds of years later, a new tomb has been uncovered, and despite the legends that disturbing a shapeshifter’s final resting place will wake them once again, the Warlord is determined to dig it up. But it isn’t just the Warlord who means to brave the traps and pitfalls guarding the crypt.

A healer obsessed with tracking down the man who murdered her twin brother.
A runaway member of the Warlord’s Devoted order, haunted by his sister’s ghost.
An elitist archaeologist bent on finding the cure to his magical wasting disease.
A girl desperate to escape the cloistered life she didn’t choose.

All four are out to steal the same cursed sword rumored to be at the very bottom of the tomb. But of course, some treasures should never see the light of day, and some secrets are best left buried…

Book 2: HE WHO BREAKS THE EARTH – April 2023

Mateo spent years believing he suffered from a strange wasting sickness, but he’s finally learned the much darker truth. Now he will do whatever it takes to save himself, even if it means betraying Lia, the one girl who’s ever made him care about something more than his research.
It doesn’t help that his father kidnapped the last living member of Lia’s family, and though it means Mateo will get to see her again, it’s only because Lia is already hunting them.
Anwei’s rage can’t be contained after the disaster at the tomb that ended with Knox almost dying. Worse, she learned that the brother she’d been desperate to avenge has been living a life of luxury, raised by the monster of her nightmares. With the power of an ancient, nameless god running in her veins, Anwei vows to end the shapeshifter once and for all.
But the members of her crew each have their own motivations—and their own gods whispering in their ears. Anwei has never put much stock in the divine, but as she gets closer to the shapeshifter she’s chased for so long, she realizes that the gods’ plan and her own might diverge. But Anwei has only one goal: revenge, and she’ll destroy anyone standing in her way.

Caitlin Sangster is the author of the Last Star Burning trilogy and the Gods-Touched duology. She is also the founder and cohost of the Lit Service podcast. She grew up in the backwoods of northern California, has lived in China, Taiwan, Utah, and Montana and can often be found dragging her poor husband and four children onto hikes that feature far too many bears.