Archives de catégorie : Fiction

NO! SAID CUSTARD THE SQUIRREL de Sergio Ruzzier

From award-winning creator Sergio Ruzzier, an oddball “squirrel” forges his own path in this comical tale about being yourself.

NO! SAID CUSTARD THE SQUIRREL
by Sergio Ruzzier
‎ Abrams Appleseed, Septembre 2022


Custard the Squirrel, aren’t you a duck?
Will you please quack?
Will you do anything you don’t want to do?
“NO!” said Custard the Squirrel.

From the brilliant mind of author-illustrator Sergio Ruzzier comes this delightfully wacky story about rejecting others’ expectations of who you should be and being unapologetically, authentically you. Simple, universal, and hilarious, this rollicking read-aloud is an ode to free spirits everywhere.

Sergio Ruzzier is a Sendak Fellow who has written and illustrated many critically acclaimed children’s books. Born in Milan, Italy, he now divides his time between Brooklyn and the Apennine Mountains in Italy.

THE POWERS #2 de Melissa Benoist & Jessica Benoist

The thrilling and heartfelt second book in The Powers middle–grade fantasy series, from Supergirl’s Melissa Benoist and her sister, the writer Jessica Benoist

THE POWERS Book 2
by Melissa Benoist & Jessica Benoist
‎ Amulet/Abrams, November 2022

After the dramatic and deadly events of HAVEN’S SECRET, twin sisters Parker and Ellie McFadden are eager to grow their newfound magical abilities and step into their roles as co–protectors of their corner of the world. The Danger is only growing stronger, and Parker and Ellie will need every bit of training and help they can muster. But when Aunt Sadie, their mother’s long-lost sister, shows up on their doorstep, the girls learn more about their lineage and capabilities than they could have ever bargained for—if they can take the enigmatic Sadie at her word. This exciting follow-up to HAVEN’S SECRET is a page-turner from start to finish, raising the stakes for an even more action-packed and heartfelt adventure.

Voir la présentation du tome 1 : THE POWERS #1: HAVEN’S SECRET

Melissa Benoist is an American actress based in Los Angeles who is best known for her roles in Glee, Whiplash, and Supergirl (in which she plays Supergirl). She and Jessica Benoist, her sister, are lifelong readers of science fiction and fantasy and are particularly passionate about using fantasy as a vehicle for making topical themes accessible to young readers. She lives in Kansas.

DEMON COPPERHEAD de Barbara Kingsolver

A modern retelling of Dickens’s David Copperfield, which transposes that epic novel, chapter by chapter, to a modern place and time: the American south.

DEMON COPPERHEAD
by Barbara Kingsolver
‎ HarperCollins USA, Fall 2022
(via Frances Goldin Literary)

DEMON COPPERHEAD is the story of a boy born to a teenaged single mother in a single-wide trailer, with no assets beyond his dead father’s good looks and copper-colored hair, a caustic wit, and a fierce talent for survival. In a plot that never pauses for breath, relayed in his own unsparing voice, he braves the perils of foster care, child labor, derelict schools, athletic success, addiction, disastrous loves, and crushing losses. A modern retelling of Dickens’s David Copperfield, which transposes that epic novel, chapter by chapter, to a modern place and time: the American south.

Barbara Kingsolver is the author of nine bestselling novels, including The Poisonwood Bible and The Bean Trees. Her work of narrative nonfiction is the enormously influential bestseller Animal, Vegetable, Miracle. Kingsolver’s work has been translated into more than 20 languages and has earned literary awards and a devoted readership at home and abroad. She was awarded the National Humanities Medal, the highest honor for service through the arts in the United States, as well as the prestigious Dayton Literary Peace Prize for her body of work.

CAN I STRAY de Jenna Adams

CAN I STRAY follows the story of Brooke’s age-gap relationship with Matt and the lasting impact it has on her life. It explores themes of consent, mental health, co-dependency and toxic relationships.

CAN I STRAY
by Jenna Adams
‎ Neem Tree Press, October 2022
(via Randle Editorial & Literary)

Fourteen-year-old Brooke Tyler has spent her whole life waiting for a boy to choose her. Matt is about to go to university, scared to leave behind everything he knows. When both are cast as romantic leads in Romeo and Juliet, they fulfil the roles of forbidden lovers both on and off the stage. Brooke is sure that her fairy tale is coming true – and best of all, Matt is older.
Brooke considers secrets and lies a small price to pay for her first boyfriend, but the relationship is set to cost her the moment they have sex. When Brooke learns that Matt’s actions that night were illegal, her world shatters.
Years later, Brooke and Matt reunite as adults. Matt wants to undo all the damage he caused, but Brooke makes a choice which forces them both to question their relationship.
Told in three acts, this debut reveals a young woman’s journey for independence as she strays away from everything she has ever known to navigate her traumatic past.

Jenna Adams lives in London and writes from her third-floor flat which is covered in plants. She always has a book in her handbag, and runs a Twitter and Instagram where she posts about her favourite novels.

LAST SUMMER ON STATE STREET de Toya Wolfe

For fans of Jacqueline Woodson and Brit Bennett, a striking coming-of-age debut about friendship, community, and resilience, set in the housing projects of Chicago during one life-changing summer.

LAST SUMMER ON STATE STREET
by Toya Wolfe
‎ William Morrow, June 2022
(via The Gernert Company)

Even when we lose it all, we find the strength to rebuild. Felicia “Fe Fe” Stevens is living with her vigilantly loving mother and older teenaged brother, whom she adores, in building 4950 of Chicago’s Robert Taylor Homes. It’s the summer of 1999, and her high-rise is next in line to be torn down by the Chicago Housing Authority. She, with the devout Precious Brown and Stacia Buchanan, daughter of a Gangster Disciple Queen-Pin, form a tentative trio and, for a brief moment, carve out for themselves a simple life of Double Dutch and innocence. But when Fe Fe welcomes a mysterious new friend, Tonya, into their fold, the dynamics shift, upending the lives of all four girls.
As their beloved neighborhood falls down around them, so too do their friendships and the structures of the four girls’ families. Fe Fe must make the painful decision of whom she can trust and whom she must let go. Decades later, as she remembers that fateful summer—just before her home was demolished, her life uprooted, and community forever changed—Fe Fe tries to make sense of the grief and fraught bonds that still haunt her and attempts to reclaim the love that never left.
Profound, reverent, and uplifting, LAST SUMMER ON STATE STREET explores the risk of connection against the backdrop of racist institutions, the restorative power of knowing and claiming one’s own past, and those defining relationships which form the heartbeat of our lives. Interweaving moments of reckoning and sustaining grace, debut author Toya Wolfe has crafted an era-defining story of finding a home — both in one’s history and in one’s self.

Toya Wolfe grew up in the Robert Taylor Homes in Chicago’s South Side. She earned an MFA in Creative Writing at Columbia College Chicago. Her writing has appeared in African Voices, Chicago Journal, Chicago Reader, Hair Trigger 27, and WarpLand. She is the recipient of the Zora Neale Hurston-Bessie Head Fiction Award, the Union League Civic & Arts Foundation Short Story Competition, and the Betty Shifflet/John Schultz Short Story Award. She currently resides in Chicago. LAST SUMMER ON STATE STREET is her debut novel.