EVERY REASON TO STAY de Lane Clarke

A heartbreaking yet hopeful novel about one girl’s journey through grief and the family, first love, and shocking truths she finds on the other side—perfect for fans of Jandy Nelson and Every Last Word.

EVERY REASON TO STAY
by Lane Clarke
Little, Brown Books for Young Readers, July 2026
(via Park, Fine & Brower)

All her life, it’s just been sixteen-year-old Skylar and her rockstar dad against the world. But this year, a horrible accident cuts the summer short and upends her life.

As Skylar grieves her dad, she discovers a huge secret: her mother is still alive. Now, Skylar is uprooted from her home and thrust into a family of strangers on the other side of the country. Furious with the mother who deserted her, she seeks comfort in her baking and decides to enter a local competition with a dazzling prize of a trip to a Parisian pastry school. As she gains her footing in the contest and her new town, she befriends a girl who seems just as lost as her, and she also finds more than friendship in the frustratingly irresistible boy next door. But as Skylar bakes her way to a brighter future, she’ll uncover truths about the past in the last place she expected.

Filled with heaps of emotion, a spoonful of hope, and an unexpected twist of fate, this is a powerful story about the true meaning of home.

Lane Clarke is a lawyer, an associate literary agent with Ultra Literary, and the author of Love Times Infinity. She lives in Virginia with her husband, daughter, and fur babies.

TWIX de Jennifer Donnelly & Dave Mottram

Sold in a heated auction, this illustrated middle-grade duology from New York Times bestselling author, Jennifer Donnelly is bursting with heart and adventure!

TWIX
by Jennifer Donnelly
illustrated by Dave Mottram
Balzer + Bray/Macmillan, March 2027
(via Writers House)

Twix is afraid of a LOT of things (including, but not limited to, rat traps, cats, and Brussels sprouts, to name a few), but most of all he’s afraid of disappointing his big brother, Rolo. Rolo is everything Twix is not: cool, smart, and fearless, not to mention one of the best RATSCAR drivers in New York City. So when Rolo disappears, Twix doesn’t believe for a second that his larger than life brother is truly gone. He’s determined to find him, even if it means leaving the cozy comfort of their family’s apartment and venturing onto the mean streets of Manhattan. With the help of his best friends, Wilson and Plum, Twix embarks on the perilous journey.

Photo: © Doug Dundas

But the three get more than they bargained for when their search leads them to a mysterious island run by a gang of sinister rats. Dangers abound on the island, and soon Twix discovers that his brother isn’t the only one who has been taken prisoner. Not only that, but the entire colony is controlled by a vicious and power-hungry rat king. What can three little city rats possibly do in the face of such overwhelming odds? Twix must learn to manage his anxiety and embrace his unique talents if he has any hope of rescuing his brother and freeing the imprisoned rats.

Jennifer Donnelly is the author of the adult novels The Tea Rose, The Winter Rose, and The Wild Rose, as well as the young adult novels These Shallow Graves, Revolution, and A Northern Light, winner of Britain’s prestigious Carnegie Medal, the LA Times Book Prize for Young Adult Literature, and a Michael L. Printz Honor Book Award. She lives and writes full-time in Upstate New York.

Dave Mottram is a designer and illustrator working in Ohio. He has illustrated Wordy Birdy, Race Car Dreams, Mighty Tug, and Oy Vey! Life in a Shoe. To learn more about Dave’s work, visit him at davemottram.com and follow him on Instagram at @dmott70.

GALAXY BRAIN de Chris Harding

Sold in a rapid US pre-empt, Chris Harding’s graphic novel debut follows a kid who hacks her school’s chatbot to explore the secrets of popularity. Perfect for readers who love Real Friends or The Witches of Brooklyn.

GALAXY BRAIN
by Chris Harding
Balzer + Bray/Macmillan, Spring 2027
(via Writers House)

Cover not final

13-year-old Polly is a clever inventor and a proud nerd—her sister calls her “Galaxy Brain,” and she even built her own robot, Box, which got her into a prestigious school with a strong science and tech focus. So when her best friend Henna becomes popular and leaves Polly behind, Polly uses her skills to hack the school’s AI chatbot to study the popular kids and figure out how to fix things.

Instead of the happy ending Polly was picturing, it’s a complete disaster. Her artificial rise through Dorsey’s social stratosphere reconnects her with Henna, but the cool kids all talk, dress and think differently. (How do they not get that spiders are cute??)

Meanwhile, her nerd friends are wary of this new Polly, her family is bemused, and she may have accidentally created an AI monster. It turns out brilliant tech can’t solve all of life’s problems, and Polly will discover that fitting in doesn’t necessarily equal true friendship, and that the best way to optimize popularity is just by being yourself.

Chris Harding is a writer and illustrator who most recently worked on Netflix’s Emmy-award winning series StoryBots: Answer Time, and whose past jobs include creator of a nationally syndicated comic strip and making art for Hallmark cards. GALAXY BRAIN is his debut novel.

THAT GIRL WON’T DIE de Jumata Emill

At Prentiss Everton Academy, the past doesn’t stay buried. . . and survival is the ultimate status symbol. Gossip Girl meets The Count of Monte Cristo in the new YA thriller from acclaimed author Jumata Emill.

THAT GIRL WON’T DIE
by Jumata Emill
Delacorte, January 2027
(via Writers House)

When Tessa Edmond steps onto the campus of Prentiss Everton Academy—the most exclusive all-Black boarding school in South Georgia—she’s immediately singled out. Students whisper. Teachers stare. Because Tessa looks exactly like Whitney Templeton, the super popular, well-connected golden girl of the school, who died three months ago in a so-called accidental drowning.

Tessa’s gone from rags to riches overnight, dropped into a world of privilege, power, and ruthless social hierarchies. At Prentiss Everton, reputations are everything—and Whitney’s former friends, rich, connected, and dangerous, don’t know what to make of the girl who looks like a ghost.

But no one suspects that Tessa and Whitney were estranged cousins, and that Tessa came to Prentiss Everton with a mission. She’s there to find out what really happened to Whitney. Because Whitney’s death certainly wasn’t an accident—and someone at the school knows it.

As secrets unravel and tensions explode, Tessa digs deeper into Whitney’s inner circle, using their lies against them. But the closer she gets to the truth, the more bodies start turning up, and soon Tessa realizes the same people who killed her cousin may be coming for her next.

Jumata Emill is the critically acclaimed author of The Black Queen, Wander in the Dark, and I Don’t Wish You Well. He earned his B.A. in mass communications from Southern University and A&M College, and now works as a journalist covering crime and politics. He’s a Pitch Wars alum and member of Crime Writers of Color. When he’s not writing about murderous teens, he’s watching and obsessively tweeting about every franchise of the Real Housewives.

REGINA AND THE KNAVES de Bonnie Maisen

In Bonnie Maisen’s thrilling middle-grade debut, an accomplished amateur thief must join forces with the knaves—the most infamous thieves in all of Solaris—in order to reclaim the magical heritage that’s been kept from her.

REGINA AND THE KNAVES
by Bonnie Maisen
Aladdin/Simon & Schuster, Spring 2027
(via Writers House)

Meet thirteen-year-old Regina Fletchley: orphan, powerless Golden, and one of Solaris City’s most wanted thieves. As « The Prince, » she’s built her reputation by breaking into the supposedly impenetrable mansions of the Golden class. But despite her talents—and she’d be the first to tell you they’re considerable—one prize remains out of reach: her lumencoin, the key to both her dormant magic and last connection to her parents. The one heist Regina most longs to pull off is to steal back her lumencoin—but that task is impossible to pull off. Or at least it’s impossible to pull off alone…

Enter the Knaves: the only thieves in Solaris whose reputation eclipses Regina’s own. They make an offer Regina can’t refuse: if she can help them pull off an ambitious job, they’ll consider hitting the archives where her birthright is hidden next. As Regina struggles prove herself to the crew, something unexpected happens: she begins to feel like a part of something for the first time ever. But when her recklessness put the Knaves in jeopardy, Regina will need to orchestrate her boldest scheme yet to save her newfound family.

Bonnie Maisen writes stories of magic and mayhem for her three sneaky children. She has published flash fiction at GoHavok.com and is a former editor of their Mystery Monday genre.