Archives de catégorie : Nos incontournables

ELENA RIDES et ELENA CAMPS de Juana Medina

Beginning readers—and beginning riders—will be drawn to this bright, buoyant story of a determined elephant and her loyal sidekick, from the award-winning creator of Juana & Lucas. The first in an early reader series.

ELENA RIDES et ELENA CAMPS
by Juana Medina
Candlewick, 2023 – 2025
(via Gillian MacKenzie Agency)

ELENA RIDES (March 2023)

Elena wants to ride her bike. She steadies, she readies. She wobbles, she bobbles . . . KA-BANG! Learning to ride a bike is hard. But Elena can do it. She just has to try, try again. With this reassuring story of childlike persistence, Juana Medina, creator of the acclaimed Juana & Lucas series, introduces Elena, a plucky elephant, and the little red bird who is Elena’s faithful cheerleader. Simple, energetic text and bold, brilliant artwork convey a relatable tale of the ups and downs of learning something new (not without protest or tears) and the final thrill of mastery that will have children rooting for Elena and ready for her next adventure.

ELENA CAMPS (Spring 2025)

The second in a series starring a plucky young elephant accompanied by her sidekick humorously learning a new skill and navigating emotions.

“She’s eager, she’s resilient, she has a two-wheeler and a red feathered friend—but Elena, the enthusiastic purple elephant star of this early reader, still has a ways to go to polish her cycling skills. . . . Medina captures substantial emotional highs and lows in this inspiring tale of persistence, one that’s just right for those taking on another learning curve: reading.” —Publishers Weekly (starred review)

“Spare but engaging prose that includes just a few words or simple sentences per page effectively captures the experience of learning to ride. . . Elena’s persistence offers an important message to anyone attempting to master a new skill, including those just learning to read. . . . This cheerful story with colorful illustrations will appeal to new readers and to parents looking for a read-aloud about perseverance.” —School Library Journal (starred review)

“Storytime listeners will be enthralled. . . . Sensational for reading aloud, with dramatic onomatopoeic opportunities aplenty.” —Kirkus Reviews

Juana Medina is the Pura Belpré Author Award–winning creator of the Juana & Lucas series and other books for children and the recipient of two International Latino Book Awards. She has also illustrated several books by other writers, including ’Twas the Night Before Pride by Joanna McClintick. Juana Medina was born and raised in Bogotá, Colombia, and currently lives in Northern Virginia with her family.

RIGHT HERE RIGHT NOW de Shannon Dunlap

Two teens process grief, loss, and life across multiple universes in this story of love, friendship, and possibility perfect for fans of You’ve Reached Sam.

RIGHT HERE RIGHT NOW
by Shannon Dunlap
Poppy/Little, Brown Books for Young Readers, April 2024
(via Levine Greenberg Rostan Literary)

Worlds turn. Particles spin. Love endures.

There are infinite universes in which Elise never dies. Her best friend, Anna, never has to mourn her or choose between the weight of her grief and the weight of her ambition. Her cousin, Liam, never has to lose another loved one or fight to find purpose in a life that already doesn’t feel like his own.

But Liam and Anna do not get to choose the universe in which they live. Across multiple worlds, their paths collide as they wrestle with what it takes to save someone else and how to face love and loss on a quantum scale.

This moving, lyrical novel introduces two teens on the cusp of finding out who they are while finding each other again and again.

Shannon Dunlap is a graduate of the MFA program at New York University. Previously, she was a weekly columnist for the Phnom Penh Post and her work appears in the anthology How Does One Dress to Buy Dragonfruit?: True Stories of Expat Women in Asia (Signal 8 Press). She is also the author of Izzy + Tristan. She currently lives in Brooklyn with her husband and children.

THE MIDNIGHT CLUB de Margot Harrison

Four friends solve the decades-old murder of their best friend with the help of a drug that can not only bring them back to the past, but change it.

THE MIDNIGHT CLUB
by Margot Harrison
Graydon House/HarperCollins, September 2024
(via Context Literary Agency)

“How could you leave the past undisturbed when it was hiding parts of you from yourself?”

It’s been twenty-five years since The Midnight Club last convened. A tight-knit group of college friends bonded by late nights at the campus literary magazine, they’re also bonded by something darker: the death of their brilliant friend Jennet junior year. But now, decades later, a mysterious invitation has pulled them back to the pine-shrouded Vermont town where it all began.

As the estranged friends gather for a weeklong campus reunion, they soon learn that their host has an ulterior motive: she wants them to uncover the truth about the night Jennet died, and she’s provided them with an extraordinary method—a secret substance that helps them not only remember but relive the past.

But each one of the friends has something to hide. And the more they question each other, the deeper they dive into their own memories, the more they understand that nothing they thought they knew about their college years, and that fateful night, is true.

The Midnight Club explores that innate desire to revisit our first loves, our biggest mistakes, and the gulf between who we are and who we hoped we’d be.

“A strange, riveting, brilliant fable. Like a fever-dream of Donna Tartt’s The Secret History.” —Lev Grossman, New York Times bestselling author of The Magicians

“I devoured THE MIDNIGHT CLUB. It’s a smart, surprising, and gripping mystery about the reality that we can’t change who we were back in college, but we’d all be a lot better off if we could. And, for the characters in this fine novel, one of them might even still be alive.” —Chris Bohjalian, #1 New York Times bestselling author of The Flight Attendant

Margot Harrison is the author of four young adult novels, including an Indies Introduce Pick, Junior Library Guild Selections, and Vermont Book Award Finalists. She grew up in New York and now lives in Vermont. THE MIDNIGHT CLUB is her debut adult novel.

THE GUARDIANS OF THE NORTH d’Antonia Maxwell

Book 1 in an action-packed dystopian adventure series set in the near- future post-melt Arctic.

THE GUARDIANS OF THE NORTH
(Terra Electrica, Book 1)
by Antonia Maxwell
Neem Tree Press, July 2024
(via Randle Editorial & Literary Consultancy)

The last ice cap has melted, and the world is on the brink of collapse. A deadly alien force—the Terra Electrica—has been unleashed. It feeds on electricity. It is infecting humanity.

In this chaotic, rapidly changing reality, 12-year-old Mani has lost her family and community to the Terra Electrica. Armed only with some ancestral wisdom and a powerful, ancient wooden mask she was never meant to inherit so soon, she suddenly finds herself responsible for the fate of the world.

Can Mani piece everything together and harness her newfound powers in time to save humanity?

Antonia Maxwell is a writer and editor based in North Essex and Cambridge, UK. With a degree in Modern Languages and a longstanding career as a book editor, she has a lifelong curiosity for language and words, and a growing fascination in the power of story – the way it shapes our lives and frames our experience.

DREAMSLINGER de Graci Kim

Amari and the Night Brothers meets Pokémon in this thrilling start to Graci Kim’s brand-new fantasy series where dragons and phoenixes roam the skies of Seoul; meals magically appear based on your mood; and dreams literally come to life.

DREAMSLINGER (Book 1)
by Graci Kim
Disney Hyperion, April 2025
(via Writers House)

Fourteen-year-old Aria Loveridge lives at the Resthaven Home for Dreamslingers, a safe haven for children born with a genetic mutation that transports them to a powerfully magical realm while they sleep. But this magic can be unpredictable—even deadly. After all, it was only ten years ago when members of the Royal League of Dreamslingers caused the Great Outburst—a tragedy that killed hundreds of people, including Aria’s mom.

Since then, Aria’s dad has become leading expert on Dreamslinger Welfare, which means Aria knows better than most what it takes to keep society safe from her, and others like her: separation, identification, and most importantly, power suppression.

So when the Kingdom of Royal Hanguk—home of the Dreamslinger League—announces the first Dreamslinger trials where teenage slingers from around the world are invited to compete for a chance to join the League and learn how to use their powers, Aria knows what she must do: join the trials and take down the League from the inside.

But the Trials introduce Aria to a world of wonderous magic and friendship, a world where she finally feels like she belongs. And as dark secrets from the past are revealed—ones that make Aria question her very identity—she becomes even more determined to discover the truth for herself. She just has to survive the trials first.

Graci Kim is the New York Times best-selling author of The Last Fallen Star and The Last Fallen Moon, the first two books in the Gifted Clans trilogy. A Korean Kiwi diplomat turned author, Graci writes about the magic she wants to see in the world. In a previous life she used to be a cooking show host, and she once ran a business that turned children’s drawings into cuddly toys. When she’s not lost in her imagination, you’ll find Graci drinking flat whites, eating ramyeon, and most likely hugging a dog (or ideally, many). She lives in New Zealand with her husband and daughter. Follow her on Instagram @GraciKimWrites and find her at GraciKim.com.