SUPER SLOTH EPISODE 1: THE SHAR-WOLF OF NEW YORK CITY d’Aleesah Darlison & Cheri Hughes

Crime-fighting and mutant animals in this super-fun new series from award-winning author, Aleesah Darlison.

SUPER SLOTH EPISODE 1:
THE SHAR-WOLF OF NEW YORK CITY
by Aleesah Darlison
illustrated by Cheri Hughes
Big Sky Publishing, April 2023
(via Randle Editorial & Literary)

In this origin story, pygmy sloth, Romeo Fortez, is born on remote Escudo Island. At his naming ceremony, a once-in-a-millennium event imbibes him with powers of speed, intelligence, and irresistibly hypnotic good looks. When Romeo moves to New York he discovers that Professor Ian Weird-Warp, a geneticist obsessed with splicing animal genes together, has unleashed a gigantic mutant shar-wolf on the city. With the help of some new human and animal friends, Romeo forms a team of crime fighters to save the city from the evil Professor Weird-Warp and his mutant creation.

Aleesah Darlison is a multi-published, award-winning Australian children’s author. She has written over fifty books for children including picture books, chapter books, novels, and series. In January 2021, Aleesah received an Australia Day Award from the Sunshine Coast Council. Aleesah has also won numerous awards for her writing including the 2015 Environment Award for Children’s Literature (Our Class Tiger – Non-Fiction) and an Australian Society of Authors (ASA) Mentorship. Her picture book, Warambi, was a 2012 CBCA Notable Book and was shortlisted for the Eve Pownall Award and the Environment Award. Her picture book, Emerald: The Green Turtle’s Tale was shortlisted for the 2018 Speech Pathology Book of the Year Awards. Aleesah travels extensively, delivering talks and workshops to children and adults at preschools, schools, libraries, literary festivals, and writers’ centres. She also works as a writing mentor and tutor.

THE NIGHT ENDS WITH FIRE de K. X. Song

The first in a gripping fantasy duology inspired by Mulan and Romance of the Three Kingdoms, perfect for fans of R. F. Kuang and Rin Chupeco.

THE NIGHT ENDS WITH FIRE (Book 1)
by K. X. Song
Ace/Penguin Random House, 2024
(via Park & Fine Literary)

The Three Kingdoms are at war, but Meilin’s father refuses to answer the imperial draft. Instead, facing mounting gambling debts, he plans to sell Meilin for her dowry to fund his opium addiction. But when Meilin discovers her husband-to-be is another violent, ill-tempered man, she realizes that nothing will change for her unless she takes matters into her own hands.
The very next day, she disguises herself as a boy and enlists in her father’s place.
With the help of Sky, the prince who leads their platoon, Meilin’s relentless hard work brings her recognition and even friendship—and with Sky, a closeness that starts to border on something more. But has she simply exchanged one prison for another? As her army barrels towards a deadly war, Meilin begins to have visions of a fickle sea dragon spirit that warns her of sinister forces at work behind the war, cornering her into another impossible decision: remain a loyal soldier for a kingdom that would turn on her in an instant if her true identity were discovered, or wield the tantalizing outlawed magic that the sea dragon offers and claim the power long denied to her and every other woman in the kingdom.
As the very future of the Three Kingdoms hangs in the balance, Meilin will need to decide whom to trust—Sky, who inspires her loyalty and love; the sea dragon spirit, which has its own murky agenda; or an infuriating enemy prince who makes her question everything she once knew—about her kingdom and about her own heart.
From a major new voice in fantasy, K. X. Song offers a powerful meditation on the forces that shape our destiny and the grit required to overcome them … and on the double-edged sword of ambition, which can both free and corrupt.

K. X. Song is a Highlights Foundation fellow and a HG Wells Turnill Prize honoree. She currently resides in the San Francisco Bay Area, where she can often be found feeding the pampered ducks of Golden Gate Park. Her debut YA novel, An Echo In The City, is slated for publication in summer 2023 by Little, Brown Books for Young Readers and is about two teenagers falling in love and coming of age amid the Hong Kong protests.

BITTERSWEET IN THE HOLLOW de Kate Pearsall

In this beautifully dark and enthralling YA, four sisters with unusual talents investigate a mysterious disappearance in their secluded Appalachian town. For fans of House of Hollow and Wilder Girls!

BITTERSWEET IN THE HOLLOW
by Kate Pearsall
G.P. Putnam’s Sons, October 2023
(via Park & Fine Literary)

In rural Caball Hollow, surrounded by the vast National Forest, the James women serve up more than fried green tomatoes at the Harvest Moon diner, where the family recipes are not the only secrets.
Like her sisters, Linden was born with an unusual ability. She can taste what others are feeling, but this so-called gift soured her relationship with the vexingly attractive Cole Spencer one fateful night a year ago . . . A night when Linden vanished into the depths of the Forest and returned with no memories of what happened, just a litany of questions—and a haze of nightmares that suggest there’s more to her story than simply getting lost.
Now, during the hottest summer on record, another girl in town is gone, and the similarities to last year’s events are striking. Except, this time the missing girl doesn’t make it home, and when her body is discovered, the scene unmistakably spells murder.
As tempers boil over, Linden enlists the help of her sisters to find what’s hiding in the forest . . . before it finds her. But as she starts digging for truth—about the Moth-Winged Man rumored to haunt the Hollow, about her bitter rift with Cole, and even about her family—she must question if some secrets are best left buried.

Kate Pearsall is a creative thinker, an award-winning copywriter, and a storyteller. She has a degree in business and public relations and has written for magazines and newspapers. Her debut novel, BITTERSWEET IN THE HOLLOW, was inspired in part by a childhood listening to her mom’s stories about growing up in the Appalachian Mountains and visiting family in West Virginia.

THE BRAVEST WARRIOR IN NEFARIA d’Adi Alsaid

Phineas and Ferb meets the Despicable Me series in this hilarious and heartwarming middle-grade debut from acclaimed author Adi Alsaid about a wannabe hero who lives in a goofily evil kingdom where nefarious schemes abound.

THE BRAVEST WARRIOR IN NEFARIA (Book 1)
by Adi Alsaid
Alladin/Simon & Schuster, September 2023
(via Park & Fine Literary)

Welcome to Nefaria, where nearly every day the kingdom faces another evil scheme. Most are harmless, though, so the citizens of Nefaria simply learn to live with the latest hijinks and go on with their lives. This includes Bobert Bougainvillea, who is much more concerned with the fact that he seems to be invisible. From the teachers in his school to his classmates, almost no one notices Bobert, no matter how visible he tries to be. Then everything changes when Bobert follows his classmates to a cursed gumball machine.
Before he knows it, Bobert is sucked into one of Nefaria’s most villainous evil schemes, a plot that has been a long time in the making—too long, in the evil wizard Matt’s opinion. And retreating into invisibility this time won’t do, not when Bobert is the only one with the drive, knowledge, and—if his newfound courage doesn’t fail him—bravery to foil Matt’s plan.

Born and raised in Mexico City, Adi Alsaid is the author of several young adult novels including Let’s Get Lost, We Didn’t Ask for This, and North of Happy, a Kirkus Best Book nominee. He also edited Come on In: 15 stories about Immigration and Finding Home. He currently lives in Chicago with his wife and two cats, where he occasionally spills hot sauce on things (and cats).

BRING ME YOUR MIDNIGHT de Rachel Griffin

From the New York Times bestselling author of The Nature of Witches and Wild is the Witch comes a lush romantic fantasy about forbidden love, the choices we make, and the pull between duty and desire.

BRING ME YOUR MIDNIGHT
by Rachel Griffin
Sourcebooks, August 2023
(via Park & Fine Literary)

Tana Fairchild’s fate has never been in question. Her life has been planned out since the moment she was born: she is to marry the governor’s son, Landon, and secure an unprecedented alliance between the witches of her island home and the mainlanders who see her very existence as a threat.
Tana’s coven has appeased those who fear their power for years by releasing most of their magic into the ocean during the full moon. But when Tana misses the midnight ritual―a fatal mistake―there is no one she can turn to for help…until she meets Wolfe.
Wolfe claims he is from a coven that practices dark magic, making him one of the only people who can help her. But he refuses to let Tana’s power rush into the sea, and instead teaches her his forbidden magic. A magic that makes her feel powerful. Alive.
As the sea grows more violent, her coven loses control of the currents, a danger that could destroy the alliance as well as her island. Tana will have to choose between love and duty, between loyalty to her people and loyalty to her heart. Marrying Landon would secure peace for her coven but losing Wolfe and his wild magic could cost her everything else.

Rachel Griffin writes young adult novels inspired by the magic of the world around her. She is the New York Times bestselling author of The Nature of Witches and Wild Is the Witch. Born and raised in the Pacific Northwest, Rachel has a deep love of nature, from the mountains to the ocean and all the towering evergreens in between. She adores moody skies and thunderstorms, and hopes more vampires settle down in her beloved state of Washington.