Archives par étiquette : Writers House

TISH de Edwina Wyatt, illustré par Odette Barberousse

A lovable imaginary friend is looking for his place in the world, and finds it through his companionship with three different children who need him. TISH is a story of friendship, goodbyes and longing, and a tale of having the confidence to believe.

TISH
by Edwina Wyatt
illustrated by Odette Barberousse
Berbay Books Australia, May 2021
Ages: 7-9

Where did you come from?” The beast wanted to explain that Nowhere was a place halfway between Curiosity and Courage. But he couldn’t. For that, he would need a map; the heart is a vast place where one can easily get lost.
This is the exquisite tale of an imaginary friend, desperate to be loved and the children whose beliefs make him real – at least for now. CBCA Honour Award-winning author Edwina Wyatt has created a heart-warming story of friendship, longing and courage. Once you know Tish, you won’t ever forget him.

Edwina Wyatt is an Australian children’s author. She grew up in Sydney and worked as a lawyer and a high school teacher before becoming a writer of books for young readers. Her debut junior fiction novel The Secrets of Magnolia Moon (Walker Books) was awarded the CBCA Honour Book of the Year for Younger Readers, and shortlisted for the Readings’ Children’s Book Prize. She has received three CBCA Notables for her picture books. Edwina lives in the Victorian High Country with her husband, two children, and too many animals.
Odette Barberousse est une autrice/illustratrice jeunesse française. D’aussi loin qu’elle s’en souvienne, elle a toujours adoré dessiner mais il lui aura fallu vingt ans et quelques détours pour réaliser que c’est tout ce qu’elle voulait faire de sa vie… C’est en devenant maman qu’elle s’est découvert une passion pour la littérature jeunesse. Son premier album, Elénor, paru chez MonsieurEd en 2020, a été entièrement réalisé à la main, aux crayons de couleur et crayons de plomb. Odette Barberousse vit en Bretagne.

CHILDREN OF THE FOX de Kevin Sands

In this thrilling Ocean’s Eleven-like heist story for young readers, five kids with unusual talents are brought together to commit an impossible crime. Failure is unacceptable … but success could be deadly.

CHILDREN OF THE FOX
by Kevin Sands

Viking, October 2021

From the bestselling author of the Blackthorn Key series, this magic-infused fantasy brings together a ragtag group of kids to pull off a crime so difficult, countless adults have already tried and failed. Lured by the promise of more money than they’ve ever dreamed of, five young criminals are hired to steal a heavily guarded treasure from the most powerful sorcerer in the city. There’s Callan the con artist, Meriel the expert at acrobatics (and knives!), Gareth the researcher, Lachlan who can obtain anything, and Foxtail, whose mysterious eyeless mask doesn’t hinder her ability to climb walls like a spider. Though their shadowy backgrounds mean that they’ve never trusted anyone but themselves, the five must learn to rely on each other in order to get the job done.
But as Callan has been warned most of his life, it’s best to stay away from magic. It can turn on you at any moment, and make you think you’re the one running the con game, when in reality you’re the one being fooled. Faced with these unsurmountable odds, can the friends pull off this legendary heist, or has their luck finally run out?

Since escaping from university with a pair of degrees in theoretical physics, Kevin Sands has worked as a researcher, a business consultant, a teacher, and a professional poker player. He is the author of the bestselling The Blackthorn Key series. He lives in London, Ontario.

DUNGEONEER ACADEMY de James Parks & Ben Costa

This awesomely illustrated new middle-grade trilogy from the creators of Rickety Stitch is Dungeons & Dragons meets The Last Kids on Earth and Fablehaven!

DUNGEONEER ACADEMY
by James Parks & Ben Costa
Aladdin/Simon & Schuster, Summer 2022; 2023; 2024

Coop Cooperson is the only human kid at Dungeoneer Academy, a school for future explorers in the Land of Eem, a world of monsters, mazes, mayhem—and even magic! Coop is surrounded by great friends—Oggie (hulking, sensitive bugbear), Mindy (whiz kid imp), and Daz (would-be class superstar boggart, if she only applied herself). Together, they become literal lifesavers when a school-trip-gone-wrong flings the kids into an adventure that puts all their Dungeoneer skills to the test. As Coop and his misfit friends try to find their way home, they’ll face more than their own fears to overcome a menagerie of dangerous creatures, obstacles, and a mysterious enemy from the Academy’s past.

James Parks & Ben Costa have been friends since the 2nd grade, and always loved making stuff together. It all began in grade school, drawing superhero comics with crayons and construction paper. In high school, they spent hours making wacky homemade movies, and as college roommates, they wrote comics and short fiction, coming up with the idea that would become Rickety Stitch and the Gelatinous Goo, their first published graphic novel series. They love fantasy, and strive to craft tales that celebrate the adventures of unlikely heroes. They grew up playing tabletop roleplaying games like Dungeons and Dragons, creating countless characters and collaborative worlds. It’s a pastime that’s paved the way for their creative careers, and they still play with the same friends to this day.

SNEAKS de Catherine Egan

Men in Black meets The Westing Game in the middle-grade debut of the author of the Julia Vanishes trilogy! When Ben’s school project uncovers a secret society whose aim is to keep sneaks—mischievous interdimensional sprites—from slipping into our universe!

SNEAKS
by Catherine Egan

Knopf, January 2022

What starts as a boring class project takes an intergalactic turn when Ben, Akemi, and Charlotte discover that the elderly woman they’ve been assigned to interview is a member of the super secret Gateway Society—and she’s in trouble. Agatha gives them a box to keep safe and then disappears! Of course they open the box—and learn about Sneaks: interdimensional malsprites that can slip through the seals between worlds and wreak havoc. The Gateway Society usually handles Sneak attacks, but Sneaks are converging on the town in alarming numbers, and they are after the notebook and strange statue the kids found in Agatha’s box. And they want something else too: to pull a more dangerous creature through the seal. Can three misfit kids work together to decode the notebook and stop an intergalactic takeover? Can they find Agatha? Can they get their class project done on time?
This funny, fantastical adventure will leave readers checking under their beds for Sneaks that go bump in the night.

Catherine Egan grew up in Vancouver, Canada. Since then, she has lived on a volcanic island in Japan (which erupted while she was there and sent her hurtling straight into the arms of her now husband), in Tokyo, Kyoto, and Beijing, on an oil rig in the middle of Bohai Bay, then in New Jersey, and now in New Haven, Connecticut. She is currently occupied with writing books and fighting dragon armies with her warrior children. SNEAKS is her middle grade debut.

A CONSPIRACY OF MOTHERS de Colleen van Niekerk

From a bold new voice in literary fiction comes a compelling story of three mothers whose lives intersect during a generation-defining period in South Africa’s history.

A CONSPIRACY OF MOTHERS
by Colleen van Niekerk
Little A, October 2021

The year is 1994, and South Africa is in political turmoil as its first democratic election looms. Against a backdrop of apartheid and racial violence, traumatized artist Yolanda Petersen returns from the Appalachian foothills to the land of her youth at the behest of her mother. While there Yolanda longs to reconnect with her estranged daughter, Ingrid, the product of an illegal mixed-race affair with a white man. But Ingrid is missing, and as Yolanda quickly discovers, she isn’t the only woman in Cape Town desperate to protect her own. Ingrid’s very existence is proof of a white man’s crime, and that man’s mother will do anything—even kill—to ensure the truth remains buried.
An evocative debut which takes place a few months prior to Nelson Mandela’s presidency and release from prison, A CONSPIRACY OF MOTHERS tells a gripping story of love and betrayal from multiple perspectives while deftly balancing the painful legacy of apartheid with the trials of motherhood.

Colleen van Niekerk was born and raised in Cape Town, South Africa, and now lives in Vancouver, Canada. This is her debut novel.