Kids & YA Newsletter: January 2025

PICTURE BOOK

When Mia's mama dies, she misses her greatly. To provide comfort, Mia’s uncle teaches her about their family’s special tradition when someone passes away: folding and burning money boats. Each boat, folded lovingly by family and friends out of shiny joss paper, is a vessel for a heartfelt blessing. Wanting to send special messages to Mama, Mia joins in, writing down memories and wishes on her boats. When Mia and her community have folded thousands of boats, it’s time to burn them in a bonfire, allowing the smoke to carry all the blessings to Mama in the spirit world. As Mia watches, she knows that her messages and love for Mama will reach her. Fitting on the shelf beside Everywhere, Still by M.H. Clark and I Dream of Popo by Livia Blackburne and Julia Kuo, BOATS THAT FLOAT ON FIRE by debut author Yia Lor is a warm and poignant picture book text that offers readers a window into a beautiful Hmoob/Hmong cultural practice while exploring universal themes of loss and remembrance. (Please note, Michaela Whatnall is the agent for this project.) 

MIDDLE GRADE

When twelve-year-old Elle's grandfather dies, her mother finally takes her to meet her estranged, and frankly strange, family. Intrigued by her aunt and uncle who live in a purple, haunted-looking house on a hill and the family pets that include a tarantula and a talking raven, she convinces her mother to let her stay in South Canyon for three weeks to work at the family's Halloween-themed mini golf course. Which isn't nearly enough time to enjoy all the wonderful weirdness South Canyon has to offer. Things begin to change when Elle finally starts paying attention to the family pet raven, who seems to be pointing her to a tombstone marked "Nevermore" on the 1st hole of the mini golf course. Elle finds a message from her dead grandfather hidden inside the tombstone, the first clue to a treasure hunt that leads Elle and her cousin Frankie down the rabbit hole of hidden family history. As Elle uncovers the mystery of her mother's estrangement from South Canyon, she realizes that the treasure hunt may be more than just fun and games: it may be the key to reuniting her broken family. Kim Karras’ AFTER NEVERMORE explores the warmth and wonder of family ties and posits that there is always room for more connection. Her middle grade debut, this is a delightfully fun and funny mystery with a ton of heart that will delight readers of Taryn Souders and Jennifer Chambliss Bertman. (Please note, Jim McCarthy is the agent on this project.) 

In his debut graphic memoir, THE THIRD MOVE, New York Times bestselling author James Riley explores what it’s like to grow up in a family that never stayed in one place very long. As a kid, he knew who to blame for the constant moves: himself. After all, if he hadn’t acted out before the first move at age five, begging and pleading with his parents to stay in their original home, maybe none of the bad things that took place afterwards ––tornadoes, a car hitting him on his birthday, another move just two years later –– would have happened. And things only got worse from there as a third move loomed, with James’s personality and sense of self slowly disappearing from his own life without an anchor to a home, school or friends. James tells his own story with a meta view on both his life and graphic novels, while the art of debut Irish artist Jennifer Lynch beautifully illustrates how it feels to leave everything you’ve ever known behind. Like other middle grade graphic memoirs The New Kid, Smile, and Best Friends, THE THIRD MOVE is hilarious, heartbreaking and relatable, whether you’ve had many homes or only one. (Please note, Michael Bourret is the agent for this project.) 

Prepare for a mouthwatering journey as you enter La-La Land—a world made entirely of food and candy. Eleven-year-old Teavon Harper has always been an outcast bullied by his classmates. But one day he’s magically transported to La-La Land and tasked with saving the kingdom. It’s under attack from a blackberry wizard who’s been banished into the faraway marshmallow meadows and morose peanut butter swamps and will use any means necessary (including mutated gingerbread men and licorice spells) to topple the king from his throne. Now Teavon must become a newbie candy magician to save La-La-Land before it spoils rotten forever. With the help of a crazed cookie cat, an old blueberry wizard and a life-sized animal cracker army, Teavon must conquer his biggest fear of failure as he embarks on a fight of epic proportions to prove himself worthy to the king. Filled with tasty treats and kooky creatures, Yaram Yahu's LA-LA-LAND AND THE BATTLE OF CHOCO LAGOON will make readers hungry for more. Perfect for fans of A.F. Steadman's Skandar series and Katherine Rundell's Impossible Creatures, and the first of a planned series. (Please note, Ann Leslie Tuttle is the agent for this project.) 

YOUNG ADULT

Here's the truth: Seventeen-year-old Lottie Mitchell is a liar. She's afraid she might also be a horrible person – because someone good wouldn't have caused the death of her best friend, Val.  Lottie's worked so hard to disconnect herself from what she's done that she's running out of escape routes. Until Val's unrealized plan to hike the Pacific Crest Trail comes to light, giving her the perfect out. Messina, Lottie's other best friend, has no idea that Lottie's betrayal is what caused Val's death. She's got her own secrets to worry about– she's running for her life from a terrifying, abusive stepfather. Together, the two friends plot to steal Val’s ashes and hike the Pacific Coast Trail to fulfill Val's lifelong dream.  The only problem, aside from hundreds of miles of wild terrain and the fast-approaching fire season, is that without Val playing peacekeeper, Lottie and Messina are at each other's throats. Their found family bonds run deep, but so do their wounds. And the secrets they carry are heavier than the packs on their shoulders. Using Val's cryptic notes in her old copy of Cheryl Strayed's Wild as their bible, the pair start to uncover parts of themselves they didn't know existed as they trek through the Mojave Desert and toward the jagged peaks of the High Sierra. This is going to be the adventure of a lifetime – if they can survive it. And each other. H. D. Carver’s RUN WILD is a gut-punch of a debut about two teens and their harrowing journey towards hope. For readers of Kathleen Glasgow and Robin Benway, this novel is both heartbreaking and hopeful, and its characters demand to be known. (Please note, Jim McCarthy is the agent on this project.) 

When Poppy Winter-Stone receives an invitation from her estranged family in England inviting her to celebrate Beltane (a pagan celebration of summer) with them, she seizes the chance. How else will she find out the truth behind her dad’s drowning and why she wakes from her nightmares under her bed, out of breath, sure she is underwater? And if her visons and premonitions are anything to do with her family’s history of witches. But when Poppy arrives at the coastal cottage, she finds a tarot- reading Gran she doesn’t remember, an ancient wicker doll that never stays where it’s left, and her name crossed off the family tree. The deeper she digs, the more it feels like her nightmares are coming true. Children trapped in a drowning church, a blue boy luring her into the sea, and a bell that only she can hear, ringing from a church swept away 400 years ago. With Beltane and the burning of the Wicker Man, family lore says the next generation will receive their powers. With the help of an attentive love interest, Poppy must decipher what’s real from what’s myth if she is going to survive the festival, but with her grasp on reality fleeting, she’s running out of time to fulfill her destiny. Keely Parrack’s (Don’t Let In The Cold, 10 Hours To Go) THE DROWNING SHORE is folk horror in the vein of ALL THE DEAD LIE DOWN, a twisty story sure to keep you up at night. (Please note, Michael Bourret is the agent for this project.) 

 
Little Women meets Mad Max in DAUGHTERS OF THE LAST DESERT, a YA post-apocalyptic novel about four sisters who train in an isolated compound to avenge their mother's death, only to discover they've prepared for the wrong fight. The Haven sisters spend their days running obstacle courses, sparring, and honing their survival skills in a remote Arizona compound. Their father wants to make them strong so they can take revenge against their mother's killer. Petra, Raven, Cheyenne, and Knox believe the outside world is a snake pit and only trust each other. But when Cheyenne finds an injured young man in the desert who claims their mother is alive—and their father knew all along—everything the sisters believe about the world unravels. Desperate for answers, they travel to a bustling settlement in the ruins of Phoenix. Harsh desert life made them fighters, but their wits matter more than their fists among the outsiders. When they find their mother, the sisters face a new challenge: figuring out who they are without their family's mission. They each choose a different path—Petra embraces her mother's glamorous world, Raven joins a rebellion against it, Cheyenne chooses compassion over violence, and Knox plots her own revenge—setting them on a collision course that could destroy them all. DAUGHTERS OF THE LAST DESERT is an extraordinary adventure that finds indie published author Jordan Rivet looking for her traditional publishing debut. For fans of Kim Liggett’s The Grace Year, this epic story of family, survival, love, and violence marks the arrival of an exceptional talent. (Please note, Jim McCarthy is the agent on this project.) 

It’s 1917 in Washington, DC, and Lily has never questioned her future: after high school, she will have a quick engagement to her (charming, handsome) boyfriend and then a house and family of her own. But her carefully plotted life is forever changed when her brother is conscripted into the army, and Lily’s family rents out his room to Charlotte, a young nurse. Charlotte is in Washington to do more than just to help with medical checks for soldiers in the war effort—she’s come as a suffragist to fight for women’s right to vote. Though Lily is oblivious to Charlotte’s activities at first, they become impossible to ignore as Charlotte brings home signs of violence the women endure while picketing in front of the White House. As Lily witnesses Charlotte’s conviction that she holds as much worth as a man, Lily comes to realize that she cannot accept the life that’s been prescribed for her, and she boldly decides to join the suffragists in their fight. But the violence against the women has only intensified over the course of the year, and Lily is thrown into the most vicious episode of all: the Night of Terror at Occoquan prison, where the warden and his men beat and torture the suffragists. Starving, injured, and alone, Lily must decide how far she is willing to go for the right to vote. Set against the backdrop of WWI and letters from Lily’s brother fighting in the trenches, this story, which is based on true events, explores the fundamental need to make your voice heard, no matter the cost. In MIND NOT THE TIMID, the stunning debut novel from nonfiction writer Rebecca E.F. Barone (Race to the Bottom and Unbreakable), a little- known moment in the history of suffrage is devastatingly brought to life. (Please note, Michael Bourret is the agent for this project.)