Kids & YA Newsletter: May 2021

YOUNG ADULT

In the half-sunken city of Alante, powerful descendants of Greek gods dwell among the population. Io and her sisters are descendants of the Fates, who are always born in three: one to weave, one to draw, and one to cut the threads that connect people to the things they love. Io is the youngest of the three sisters and uses her ability to see and sever threads to work as a private investigator in the Silts, the seedy underbelly of Alante that’s ruled by a despotic mob queen. Her latest job leads to a horrific discovery: someone is maiming women’s threads and using the undead women as weapons to deliver justice for a mysterious crime. To find the culprit, Io must work with none other than Edei, the mob queen’s right hand and the boy with whom Io shares a rare fate-thread, a thread of destined love formed before she ever laid eyes on him. Following clues through the city’s darkest corners, Io and Edei begin to question the nature of justice and revenge as they uncover a conspiracy that involves the vicious Muses, the mob queen, the prestigious young commissioner who’s in the pocket of the city’s elite, and the commissioner’s fiancé—who is none other than Io’s estranged older sister. A genre-bending fantasy noir written by debut author Kika Hatzopoulou, THREADS THAT BIND sinks readers into a mystery of mythic proportions, all while cleverly interrogating the soulmate trope, exploring the complicated bonds of sisterhood, and examining questions of murky morality. (Please note, Michaela Whatnall is the agent on this project.)

Quin Donahue’s father—CEO of KATKO Foods, aka The Meat King—hunts wild game and big business. Her mother specializes in their family’s image via carefully curated social media. Quin is exactly who they want her to be when they are together—and secretly a vegan and animal rights activist when they are not. Just when she thinks she has mastered the tightrope balance between her two worlds, she meets Julius—son of the vice-president of PETA—who’s living the opposite version of her double life. Julius loves how passionate his mom is about her work, but he just can’t resist a juicy burger or a rare steak. When their paths first cross, Quin resists their attraction, but when they end up neighbors for the summer—Julius in a low budget hotel, Quin on a private beach—they start to fall for one another. Putting their differences aside, they soak up sunburned shoulders, beach fires, the sting of cold sodas from glass bottles, and the heat of slow kisses. But the weight of the real world intrudes when Julius’ mom spearheads a lawsuit against The Meat King, Quin’s dad. As tensions rise, the lawsuit threatens not just their romance, but the delicate balance of falsehood they’re each standing on. THIS VERSION OF US by Marjorie Brimer is a heartfelt YA debut for fans of Laura Silverman and Sarah Dessen, with a nod to Romeo & Juliet. (Please note, Sharon Pelletier is the agent on this project.)

Sixteen-year-old classical pianist Helena Kühn dreams of a life shaped by music and travel. But in 1989 East Germany, dreams—and dreamers—are not tolerated. After her best friend’s family defects to the West, a new, intriguing boy arrives in Helena’s life, landing in her friend’s coveted time slot with their exceptional music teacher. Helena wrestles with the necessity of suspicion in a country where someone is always watching, but she can’t deny her growing attraction to Lucas. Meanwhile, demonstrations in the city following the Monday peace prayers continue to grow, as citizens take to the streets to demand freedom to travel, freedom of speech, and fair elections. Like her father, Helena believes change is possible, and she’s drawn into the resistance movement, just as police violence ramps up in the city, with well-armed forces set against the peaceful demonstrators. Many are injured or imprisoned. When the Stasi pressure Helena to act as an informant, and Lucas confides his plan to escape to the West, Helena finds herself in an impossible situation, forced to choose between integrity and duty, family and friend, all while deciding if her dreams are worth fighting for—and if so, how high a price she’s willing to pay. Set in Leipzig during the protest movement that brought about the collapse of the Berlin Wall, SONG OF FREEDOM, SONG OF DREAMS is a historical YA novel in verse about hope, courage, and the empowering nature of music, by Schneider Award-winning verse novelist Shari Green. (Please note, Amy Elizabeth Bishop is the agent on this project.)

Isa may only be 17, but she’s confident that she’s solved the sex and emotion thing. It’s simple: keep them separate, keep yourself safe. Having a sex therapist for a mother and a cheater for a father, she’s learned that relationships equal pain. Isa’s best friend Allison is the polar opposite. For her, love and sex are inseparable, as evidenced by her long-term relationship with Trip—whom she met because Isa slept with him. The three of them are an inseparable unit until Trip breaks up with Allison six weeks before they are all supposed to leave for college. That’s when Allison and Isa decide to try on each other’s lives. Allison, the Harvard-bound, serial monogamist, will have a fling; and Isa, the NYU-headed hook-up queen, will have a summer romance. Isa makes a date with Leo, a quiet but intense waiter she works with. Allison starts hooking up with boys at parties. It scares Isa to stay longer than one night—to be vulnerable with someone she’s being physical with—but Leo doesn’t want to let her leave. And Trip won’t stop texting. And it turns out Allison hates sleeping with strangers. And Isa’s parents are separating. Isa is starting to wonder if maybe she didn’t have things figured out after all. Maybe she had it all very, very wrong. THIS IS YOUR SURVIVAL LESSON by Marcy Beller Paul is a bold, inventive novel-in-verse about love, mothers, friendship, sex, and what it means to share your body and your self with someone else. (Please note, Michael Bourret is the agent on this project.)

Eat. Dance. Fight. This is the life of the Bower, The Isle’s elite class of all-female fighters. At 16 years old and on the cusp of womanhood, Dirt is retired from Bowing competition and spends her days coaching the younger sisters of the Mud Fam. But when an attack from the powerful Vine Fam leaves the Mud without their top Bower, Dirt becomes the only one who can compete in the upcoming South God Bow tournament, where a loss will mean the end of her beloved Fam. Blending West African culture; a sport based on laamb, a Senegalese form of wrestling; and an incredibly fresh epic fantasy world, debut novelist Moses Utomi’s GODSKIN is a thrilling narrative about one young woman’s quest to save her chosen family and prove her worth in a Gods-blessed arena. Bringing to mind the stunning world-building of Tomi Adeyemi’s Legacy of Orïsha, the incredible strength of Namina Forna’s characters in The Gilded Ones, and the breakneck pacing and warrior-like focus of Fonda Lee’s work, Utomi’s novel is an incredibly dynamic fantasy debut sure to thrill readers. (Please note, Jim McCarthy is the agent on this project.)

For Libby Johnson, life in sleepy upstate New York consists of juggling her mothers’ moods, navigating her best friend’s bad decisions, and retreating to the imaginative world inside her head. Until, on her fifteenth birthday, an unexpected encounter with dreamy Ty McAllister sends her real life spinning. Preoccupied with a budding romance, Libby doesn’t notice that her mother’s state of mind has gone from comfortably predictable to erratic. Their delicate mother-daughter balance is quickly shattered after a devastating accident at the bank of the Mad River. Left to put the pieces of her life back together, Libby unearths a deep family secret that it seems everyone—even her trusted Grandma Mae—knew. Alone, broken and betrayed, Libby must decide if she can forgive the pasts of the people she loves in order to pave her own way forward. Holly Howley’s debut YA novel MAD RIVER explores the healing love of three generations and the complexities of coming of age in a family with mental illness. The novel combines light-hearted first-love themes with a heartbreakingly realistic portrayal of how the people we love the most sometimes hurt us the most. MAD RIVER will appeal to fans of All the Bright Places and Gilmore Girls. The manuscript won the Tassy Walden New Voices in Children’s Literature Award. (Please note, Stacey Glick is the agent on this project.)

Seventeen-year-old Cass Williams is fat, queer, and perfectly content spending her nights roleplaying online with fellow Tide Wars fans. When she’s behind the screen playing a pirate captain, she’s in a world where her mom didn’t just walk out on Cass and her dad, and the unexpected stress of Cass’s brand-new relationship with her school’s resident cool girl, Taylor Cooper, melts away. The only problem: no one in Cass’s real life knows about her roleplay addiction, or that her many nights of prioritizing Tide Wars over schoolwork means that she might not graduate. And when Cass realizes she has feelings for Rowan Davies, her snarky and compassionate online bestie, things get even more complicated. As Cass’s lies continue to build, she must decide what to do—be honest about her double life and risk losing her safe space, or keep it a secret and risk destroying her relationships and academic future. A queer love story that explores on- and off-line relationships in all their messiness, OUT OF CHARACTER by debut author Jenna Miller combines the embrace of fandom culture in Ashley Poston’s Geekerella with the fat positivity of Julie Murphy’s novels. (Please note, Michaela Whatnall is the agent on this project.)

MIDDLE GRADE

Twelve-year-old Brooklynite Lily Gardner has never been all that curious about her heritage. The only reminder of her life in Seoul is her cat, Hi Chi, who was found with her in front of an orphanage when she was a baby. But when an accident leaves her adoptive father close to death, Hi Chi reveals he is a disgraced guardian of her Korean family. The only thing that stuns Lily more than having a talking former haetae as a pet is that he can help her find the three elements that will save her dad’s life: the water of health, the blossom of life, and the vase of death. The race against time and lore will take Lily and Hi Chi far from their Williamsburg home and throw them in the path of Korean mythological creatures looking to aid or stop them. Lily knows failure will mean losing her father forever, but success will have a hidden cost. What she doesn’t realize is that using this power may unbalance the scales of life and death. The Jasmine Project author Meredith Ireland’s ownvoices middle grade debut LILY AND THE FLOWER OF LIFE features an adoptee discovering the power of her heritage alongside the depth of her love for her adopted family, in the midst of a spirited adventure complete with shapeshifting ancient foxes, a winged Saratoga racehorse, and a know-it-all three-legged crow. It is perfect for fans of Van Hoang’s Girl Giant and the Monkey King and Roshani Chokshi’s Pandava series. (Please note, Lauren Abramo is the agent on this project.)

Margie Palatini (Piggy Pie!, Moosetache) is well known as a writer of humorous picture books, and with her young middle grade novel SPY CANDY, she continues her winning streak of hilarity. When Frankie Mahoney is sent by herself on the Acela train to meet her grandmother, a casual conversation with her seatmate turns into a dangerous case of mistaken identity. In no time flat, Frankie finds herself in the clutches of ruthless enemy agents who think she has a valuable nanobot “candy”. Armed with only her sassy wit and quick feet, she makes a big splash off the ledge of a downtown NYC skyscraper and forges an unexpected alliance in Gio Ramirez, a charming young thief looking for a big payday. The chase is on, and the clock is ticking as the new partners play a game of cat and mouse with a crew of bad actors searching to capture the prized candy and save the country. Filled with snappy dialogue, twists, turns, and over-the-top escapes across New York’s iconic landscape, SPY CANDY will have readers gasping, laughing, and racing to a surprise ending. (Please note, John Rudolph is the agent on this project.)

Written by a co-founder of the TrowelBlazers blog and a leading figure in studying how the past human response to climate change informs the present, ANIMAL BONE DETECTIVES: THE HIDDEN SCIENCE OF ZOOARCHAEOLOGY by Dr. Suzanne Pilaar Birch introduces middle grade readers to the exciting, cutting-edge field of zooarchaeology—a field where paleontology and archaeology meet. Zooarchaeologists don’t dig up dinosaur remains, but they do study animal bones, specifically those left behind at archaeological sites. This work addresses questions like the following: What was the real “Paleo” diet for Neanderthals? What was the environment like in the past? And how did people interact with animals on a day-to-day basis? ANIMAL BONE DETECTIVES will show how CT scanning has uncovered animal mummies in ancient Egypt; highlight how the Romans treated their pets; explain how ancient DNA reveals the process of domestication whereby wolves became dogs; and explore other topics like ritual burial and animal sacrifices. ANIMAL BONE DETECTIVES also profiles some of the hidden women archaeologists of diverse backgrounds in this fascinating account that is one of the first books of its kind to introduce young and curious future explorers to zooarchaeology. (Please note, Ann Leslie Tuttle is the agent on this project.)

PICTURE BOOKS

Wilma’s only eight years old, and she’s already had a bout of polio that left her leg so weak that it needed a brace. Still, nothing makes her sicker than being forced to the back of an awful bus by an awful bus driver for the trip to the hospital. Little did that bus driver know that one day she’d come back home as an Olympic gold medalist! Can Wilma use her success to make some changes to her deeply segregated hometown? In WILMA WINS! historians Amira Rose Davis (author of the forthcoming “Can’t Eat a Medal”: The Lives and Labors of Black Women Athletes in the Age of Jim Crow) and Michael G. Long (author of Kids on the March: 15 Stories of Speaking Out, Protesting, and Fighting for Justice) create an uplifting picture book text that shares Wilma Rudolph’s victory over Jim Crow on Wilma Rudolph Day, a celebration planned by her hometown upon her return from the Olympics. This lesser-known story from Wilma Rudolph’s life is sure to inspire readers as much as her Olympic triumphs and show how one person can make a difference in her community. (Please note, John Rudolph is the agent for this project.)

Up until the 11th century, “water tasters” would sip urine samples to determine whether a person had diabetes. Sweet-tasting urine indicated that they did. Those diagnosed were put on extreme diets and often died quickly. Thankfully, insulin was eventually discovered and although still challenging, diabetes is now a manageable disease. SWEET PEE: AN ILLUSTRATED GUIDE TO LIVING WITH TYPE-1 DIABETES, written and illustrated by artist Ana Morales, a type 1 diabetic herself, is an entertaining resource for children diagnosed with this chronic, autoimmune illness that affects the pancreas. The book explores the histories of diabetes and insulin, shares the author’s experiences with the disease for nearly 30 years, and, with the help of a whimsical created character, Madame Insulin, explains what goes on in the body of a type 1 diabetic. No child wants to feel like an outsider, but children with diabetes often do. They quickly learn about people’s aversions to needles and blood and they may often sense that their disease is an inconvenience to others. SWEET PEE aims to empower these children through education, storytelling and beautiful images to allow them to be their authentic selves and take ownership of their bodies and well-being. (Please note, Stacey Glick is the agent on this project.)

“Hi, I’m Lefty. This is my twin, Righty. We look almost the same—but not quite.” What’s the difference? Well, Lefty’s thumb is on THIS side, and Righty’s thumb is on THAT side. It didn’t matter much when they were babies, but when they got bigger Righty started doing all the fun stuff—holding forks, throwing balls, and guess who learned to write? But one day, they take a big fall and Righty ends up in a cast. Lefty tries to do all the things Righty used to do, but it seems like everything ends in an “Oops.” But then, a special present gives Lefty the chance to learn a new skill. Will Lefty be able to keep it up once Righty is out of his cast? Author/illustrator Mark Wood (markwoodillustration.com) shows Lefty’s story entirely from the point of view of a pair of hands, giving LEFTY an unusual and singular perspective. Yet readers are sure to recognize the sibling rivalry and subtle message of finding one’s way, and they will be cheering for Lefty to get it right! (Please note, John Rudolph is the agent on this project.)