Archives de catégorie : Bologna 2025 Children’s & YA

THE TWELVE de Liz Hyder

From the award-winning author of Bearmouth, a haunting and captivating teen fantasy that explores the power of love and friendship in the face of ecological turmoil.

THE TWELVE
by Liz Hyder
Pushkin Children’s Books, October 2024

WINNER OF THE NERO PRIZE FOR CHILDREN’S FICTION

It’s supposed to be a treat for Kit, a winter holiday by the coast with her sister Libby and their mum. But when Libby vanishes into thin air, and no one else remembers her, Kit is faced with a new reality – one in which her sister never existed.

Then she meets Story, a local boy who remembers Libby perfectly. Together they embark on a journey beyond their wildest imagination into a world steeped in ancient folklore. Can Kit and Story uncover the secret of the Twelve and rescue Libby before Time runs out?

‘Channelling the dark menace of classic British fantasy writers such as Susan Cooper and Alan Garner, this is a beguiling tale of ancient magic, good and evil, deeply rooted in the Welsh landscape. Haunting illustrations by Tom de Freston add to the eerie atmosphere.’ — The Guardian

‘The ancient past is rendered vividly in this book that is ideal for tweens and teens who love beachcombing for fossils’ — The Times Children’s Book of the Week

Liz Hyder has been making up stories ever since she can remember. She has a BA in drama from the University of Bristol and, in early 2018, won the Bridge Award/Moniack Mhor’s Emerging Writer Award. Her first novel, Bearmouth, won the Waterstones Children’s Book Prize for Older Readers, the Branford Boase Award, and was The Times‘s Children’s Book of The Year.

Tom De Freston is an artist based in Oxford with his wife, Kiran Millwood Hargrave. His practice is dedicated to the construction of multimedia worlds, combining paintings, film and performance into immersive visceral narratives.

THE SUN AND THE STARMAKER de Rachel Griffin

From the New York Times bestselling author of Bring Me Your Midnight, The Nature of Witches and Wild Is the Witch comes a lush romantic fantasy about love, immortality, and the stories we tell ourselves to survive.

THE SUN AND THE STARMAKER
by Rachel Griffin
Sourcebooks, Fall 2025
(via Park, Fine & Brower)

Deep in the mountains of the Lost Range, the small village of Reverie is beyond the reach of the sun. Every morning, the Starmaker—the village’s protector and only sorcerer—trudges across a vast glacier and pulls in sunlight over the peaks, providing Reverie with the light it needs to survive.

Aurora Finch has always loved the stories of the mysterious Starmaker, but on the day of her wedding, a chance encounter with him in the frostbitten woods changes everything. He immediately detects magic inside her, and Aurora is forced to move to his ice-covered castle far up the mountain’s peak.

The Starmaker is cold and reserved, leaving Aurora to wander his enchanted castle with only an immortal rabbit for company. But as Aurora discovers more about the power inside her, she suspects that the Starmaker is hiding something, and as her magic strengthens and her attraction to the Starmaker grows, she must uncover his secrets before they destroy them both.

Rachel Griffin is the New York Times bestselling author of The Nature of Witches, Wild is the Witch, and Bring Me Your Midnight. When she isn’t writing, you can find her wandering the Pacific Northwest, reading by the fire, or drinking copious amounts of coffee and tea. She lives in the Seattle area with her husband, dog, and growing collection of houseplants.

FABLE FOR THE END OF THE WORLD d’Ava Reid

The Last of Us meets The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes in this dystopian romance about survival, sacrifice, and love that risks everything.

FABLE FOR THE END OF THE WORLD
by Ava Reid
HarperTeen, March 2025
(via Sterling Lord Literistic)

By encouraging massive accumulations of debt from its underclass, a single corporation, Caerus, controls all aspects of society.

Inesa lives with her brother in a half-sunken town where they scrape by running a taxidermy shop. Unbeknownst to Inesa, their cruel and indolent mother has accrued an enormous debt—enough to qualify one of her children for Caerus’s livestreamed assassination spectacle: the Lamb’s Gauntlet.

Melinoë is a Caerus assassin, trained to track and kill the sacrificial Lambs. The product of neural reconditioning and physiological alteration, she is a living weapon, known for her cold brutality and deadly beauty. She has never failed to assassinate one of her marks.

When Inesa learns that her mother has offered her as a sacrifice, at first she despairs—the Gauntlet is always a bloodbath for the impoverished debtors. But she’s had years of practice surviving in the apocalyptic wastes, and with the help of her hunter brother, she might stand a chance of staying alive.

For Melinoë, this is a game she can’t afford to lose. Despite her reputation for mercilessness, she is haunted by painful flashbacks. After her last Gauntlet, where she broke down on livestream, she desperately needs redemption.

As Mel pursues Inesa across the wasteland, both girls begin to question everything: Inesa wonders if there’s more to life than survival, while Mel wonders if she’s capable of more than killing.

And both wonder if, against all odds, they might be falling in love.

Ava Reid was born in Manhattan and raised right across the Hudson River in Hoboken but currently lives in Palo Alto. She has a degree in political science from Barnard College, focusing on religion and ethnonationalism.

AMONG GHOSTS de Rachel Hartman

Set in the world of New York Times bestseller Seraphina, a boy on the run from a dragon—among other dangers—seeks refuge in a haunted abbey in this wholly original ghost story about what haunts us, and what connects us.

AMONG GHOSTS
by Rachel Hartman
Penguin Random House, June 2025
(via Writers House)

A few things to know about the town of St. Muckle’s: It’s too out-of-the-way to interest greedy lords, and too damp and muddy for marauding dragons to burn. And anyone, from a humble serf to a runaway nun, may earn their freedom by living for a year and a day within the town walls. Seven years ago, Charl and his mother fled to St. Muckle’s and made it their safe-haven, building a new life in this so called Peasant’s Paradise. But when Charl sees something impossible—a ghost—soon the embers of his past are threatening to engulf his world in flame. A tragic accident is quickly followed by murder, a deadly plague, and a mercenary dragon.

Charl manages to escape to an abandoned abbey outside of town, but finds no safety within those ruined walls. A treacherous nun, a chorus of murdered girls, and the fearsome Battle Bishop await, ready to ensnare him in a complex web of history, magic and fate. For some things should never be forgotten, however much they haunt us, and Charl will need all his wisdom and resiliency if he is to fight for the world he knows…and the people he calls home.

Rachel Hartman is the author of the acclaimed YA fantasy novel Seraphina, a New York Times bestseller and winner of the 2013 Morris Award, and its sequel Shadow Scale. Coming in 2018 is Tess of the Road, a third novel set in the same fantasy world, following the adventures of one of Seraphina’s younger half-sisters. Rachel lives with her family in Vancouver, Canada. In her free time she sings with a madrigal choir (the QuasiModals), walks her whippet in the rain, and is learning to fence. You can visit her blog at http://rachelhartmanbooks.com or follow her on Twitter at @_rachelhartman.

THE PROPHECYMAKERS de Julie Abe

If you’re unremarkable… How will you leave your mark on the world? Abe’s unique combination of magic, humor, and imagination dazzles in this modern classic.

THE PROPHECYMAKERS #1
by Julie Abe
Bloomsbury Children’s Books, Winter 2026
(via Sterling Lord Literistic)

Lyra is Extremely Unremarkable. It’s even printed on her birth certificate. Her prophecy is the absolute worst rank in the realm. Lyra is also an orphan, shuttling from Guild to Guild, and looking for someone to take her in as one of their own. As soon as they find out about her fate, she’s shoved out the door, ragged suitcase in hand. If she doesn’t get into a Guild Registry before she turns twelve years old, she’ll be banished from the realm.

Her last chance is Waterfall Way. It’s a mysterious, beautiful village rumored to be rife with bad luck. Still, she’s determined to prove her worth. When her eccentric guardian requests she sort out Waterfall Way’s waterlogged, neglected magical library, she jumps at the seemingly impossible task. But, as she battles the bookdragons and makes friends with the villagers, she finds clues that hint that the prophecies that the realm relies on might not be exactly what they seem. Lyra may have an Extremely Unremarkable past, but she’s determined to fight fate for a future all her own.

THE PROPHECYMAKERS is a young middle grade fantasy where the heartwarming whimsy of Anne of Green Gables meets the sweeping adventures of Wilderlore, with a hint of A Wish in the Dark.

Julie Abe has lived in Silicon Valley, spent many humid summers in Japan, and currently basks in the sunshine of Southern California with never enough books or tea, where she creates stories about magical adventures. Her debut novel Eva Evergreen, Semi-Magical Witch received a starred review from Kirkus: “Bewitching… a must-read for fantasy lovers,” and was also listed as a Best Middle Grade Book by Kirkus Reviews, New York Public Library, Bank Street College of Education, and Book Riot. Julie is also the author of Eva Evergreen and the Cursed Witch; Alliana, Girl of Dragons; and Tessa Miyata is No Hero, as well as the young adult novels The Charmed List and Our Cursed Love.