Archives de catégorie : Children’s Books

MAKE ME A LIAR de Melissa Landers

The detective story gets a fantastical twist in this novel about a girl with a transferrable consciousness, who uses her power for good, only to have it turned on her when someone uses her body to commit murder. Now she must solve the crime before the killer comes after her.

MAKE ME A LIAR
by Melissa Landers
Disney-Hyperion, December 2023
(via Kaplan/DeFiore Rights)

Caught red handed… for a crime she didn’t commit. Within the secret circles of Harvey Davis High School, everyone knows Tia Dante is worth her weight in hall passes. Using her genetic gift of transferable consciousness, she can slip inside your mind and do your dirty work—humiliate your cheating boyfriend, bring a bully to his knees, tell your boss where to stick it—and then return your body with no one the wiser. No task is too awkward, and unlike the competition, she takes care of business without peeking at your goods.
But while Tia is occupied during a routine payback mission, someone uses her body for a few dirty deeds of their own…like murdering the town prosecutor. With the crime caught on camera and no concrete alibi, Tia is forced to ask her infuriatingly gorgeous ex—Nash Brock–to help unravel the mystery. The heat is on, in more ways than one, and a few stray bullets later, Tia is in a frantic race against the clock to find the killer before they find her.

Melissa Landers is a former teacher who left the classroom to pursue other worlds. A proud sci-fi geek, she isn’t afraid to wear her Princess Leia costume in public—just ask her embarrassed kids. She lives outside Cincinnati in the small town of Milford Ohio, where she writes romantic space adventures for teens and the young at heart.

HEARTLESS PRINCE de Leigh Dragoon, illustré par Angela De Vito

A fierce warrior must save the heart of her beloved prince before it’s too late in the first book of a new YA fantasy-adventure graphic novel trilogy, perfect for fans of Noelle Stevenson’s Nimona and Kazu Kibuishi’s Amulet.

HEARTLESS PRINCE
by Leigh Dragoon
illustrated by Angela De Vito
Disney-Hyperion, November 2021
(via Kaplan/DeFiore Rights)

Evony is an orphaned princess from a kingdom destroyed by a power-hungry witch. Prince Ammon has recently been drawn to her, or at least he’s drawn to her uncanny ability to sense when familiars―servants to the witches―are approaching his kingdom’s borders. And Evony, well Evony has always longed for something more with Ammon. Wanting to prove himself to his kingdom and parents, Ammon takes Evony outside the borders to fight the familiars head-to-head. All is well until they’re captured by witch Aradia, who steals Ammon’s heart and leaves his body to turn into one of her familiars. What’s worse, his sister Nissa has been taken hostage by Aradia’s daughter. Evony makes it her mission to retrieve Ammon’s heart and save Nissa, taking her into the mysterious Witchlands. There, she will discover a secret about her past that will change everything.

Leigh Dragoon was raised in a log cabin in the Adirondacks, where she developed an early love of reading and writing. She became a fan of Little Women at age nine, after Beth’s demise made her bawl herself to sleep. This led to a lifelong appreciation of the book. After years of annual rereads, she became fascinated with learning about Louisa May and her family. She adapted both Richelle Mead’s Vampire Academy and Marie Lu’s Legend series into graphic novel scripts. She has also written two prose Adventure Time novels: Queen of Rogues and The Lonesome Outlaw.
Angela De Vito is a freelance animator, storyboard artist, and character designer working in NYC. She graduated from the School of Visual Arts with a BFA in Animation in 2014. Since then she has worked on animation for commercials and series pitches. Angela has worked for such studios as Hornet, Inc.; Titmouse, Inc.; Aardman Nathan Love; Click 3X; CHRLX; and Disney Digital Network. She also animation directed Comedy Central Digital’s Loafy, created by Bobby Moynihan.

THE (SUPER SECRET) SOCIETY OF OCTAGON VALLEY de Melissa de la Cruz

This new series from #1 New York Times best-selling author Melissa de la Cruz is The Mysterious Benedict Society for reluctant readers, chock-full of humor, adventure and mischief, and set at an exclusive, secluded, high-tech institute everyone wants to get into.

THE (SUPER SECRET) SOCIETY OF OCTAGON VALLEY
by Melissa de la Cruz
Disney-Hyperion, September 2023
(via Kaplan/DeFiore Rights)

You only get in if you’re EXTRAordinary…. A handful of sixth-graders have been chosen to attend an exclusive weekend at the Octagon Valley Institute, the mysterious, high-tech lab of the uber famous multimillionaire, genius, recluse Onassander Octagon. What will they do there? No one is telling. Which just makes everyone want to get in.
Edwin Edgefield has high hopes for the weekend—hopes he’ll meet other kids like him—kids who will accept him even though he’s got a photographic memory, genius level math skills and some very specific personality quirks. But when he meets the other kids, he starts to wonder if they’re all in the right place. There’s amateur rapper Kimmy, who’s obsessed with TikTok, violin-player Julie, who has zero social skills, and surfer dude Dilip, who’s well, a surfer dude. And then, strange things start to happen. Things that involve an escape room challenge, a zero-gravity chamber, a river full of piranhas and . . . some ninjas? Turns out the Octagon Valley is all about using teamwork to make the dream work, and these normally isolated kids might not all survive. But those who do will be treated to the greatest prize—and the biggest surprise—of their lives—a chance to be truly EXTRAordinary.

Melissa de la Cruz is the author of the #1 New York Times best-selling Descendants series, as well as many other best-selling novels, including Alex & Eliza, the Never After series and the Blue Bloods series. She recently launched her own imprint, Melissa de la Cruz Studio, which publishes fun, fabulous, feel-good stories for children. She lives in Los Angeles, California, with her husband and daughter.

SIMON THE HUGGER de Stacy B. Davids, illustré par Ana Sebastián

A story about hugs, consent, and a lovable, huggable sloth named Simon.

SIMON THE HUGGER
by Stacy B. Davids
illustrated by Ana Sebastián
Beaming Books, November 2022
(via Kaplan/DeFiore Rights)

Simon the sloth loves to hug. He hugs plants. He hugs rocks. He hugs his friends. He even hugs himself! So when his best friend, Elsa the jaguar, and others around him start saying no to his hugs, he is crushed. Why wouldn’t someone want to be hugged? After being rejected several times, he learns that both he and his friends need to want a hug at the same time so they both feel comfortable.
This lighthearted story about a lovable, huggable sloth is a gentle introduction to the importance of receiving consent before offering physical affection to others, and respecting others’ boundaries.

Stacy B. Davids, PhD, is a psychologist and a former special education teacher. Her highly praised picture book, Annie’s Plaid Shirt, won Silver in the Foreword INDIES Book of the Year Awards. She lives in Florida and loves cats, cookies, and chocolate.
Ana Sebastián is a children’s book illustrator based in Spain. She studied fine arts at the University of Zaragoza and Université Michel de Montaigne, Bordeaux, France. She also completed a master’s degree in digital illustration. Her work is focused on colors and light. Working mostly with her iPad Pro, she also likes working with colored pencils, gouache, and watercolors.

GODLY HEATHENS de H. E. Edgmon

The first book in a YA contemporary fantasy duology in which a teen, Gem, finds out they’re a reincarnated god from another world.

GODLY HEATHENS
by H.E. Edgmon
Wednesday Books/St. Martin’s Press, November 2023

Maybe I have always just been bad at being human because I’m not one.  Gem Echols is a nonbinary, Seminole teen living in a tiny town in Georgia. Known for being their peers’ queer awakening, Gem leans hard on charm to disguise the anxious mess they are beneath the surface. The only person privy to their authentic self is another trans kid, Enzo, who’s a thousand long, painful miles away in Brooklyn. But even Enzo doesn’t know about Gem’s dreams, haunting visions of magic and violence that have always felt too real. So how the hell does Willa Mae Hardy know about them? The strange new girl in town acts like she and Gem are old companions and seems to know things about them they’ve never told anyone else. When Gem is attacked by a stranger claiming to be the Goddess of Death, Willa Mae saves their life and finally offers some answers. She and Gem are reincarnated gods who’ve known and loved each other across lifetimes. But Gem—or at least who Gem used to be—hasn’t always been the most benevolent deity. They’ve made a lot of enemies in the pantheon—enemies who, like the Goddess of Death, will keep coming. It’s a good thing they’ve still got Enzo, but as worlds collide, and the past catches up with the present, Gem will discover that everyone has something to hide.

H.E. Edgmon (he/they) is a questionable influence, a dog person, and an author of books both irreverent and radicalizing. Born and raised in the rural south, he currently lives in the Pacific Northwest with his eccentric little family. His stories imagine Indigenous worlds and center queer kids saving each other. H.E. has never once gotten enough sleep and probably isn’t going to anytime soon. His highly acclaimed THE WITCH KING duology is out now.