Kids & YA Newsletter: September 2023

Günter Grimly loves the color beige and paints his house the perfect shade of cold oatmeal. Then his mailbox, then his garden—and he doesn’t stop there, spreading his favorite beige shades all through his too-colorful town. Soon Günter is wonderfully happy…but his neighbors are not! In SAD BEIGE GÜNTER GRIMLY, a wry and playful read-aloud story, TikTok parenting sensation Hayley DeRoche takes readers of all ages through a delightful exploration of how colors make our world wonderful—and there’s room for everyone’s favorites, no matter how bright or beige they may be. Hayley is the creator of the hilarious viral Sad Beige Children presence on TikTok and Instagram, praised by major media ranging from WashPo, The Cut, and TODAY to BBC, WSJ, and the Atlantic. She is a librarian and a regular contributor to McSweeney’s; this is her first story for kids. (Please note, Sharon Pelletier is the agent on this project.) 

All day long Silas the construction crane works hard, destroying the old and making way for the new. While he bangs and clangs, he dreams of what things will be like when all the work is done. One day, Silas discovers something new, something beautiful—a statue of a butterfly left behind at one of the building sites. Silas becomes captivated by his new friend, sheltering her from rain, reading her bedtime stories, and playing music so that she can hum along. But soon enough, Boss instructs Silas to knock it down! Will Silas find a way to save his new friend before it is too late? In SILAS AND THE STATUE, author/illustrator Meg Auchenbach (https://www.megauchenbach.com/) builds on the themes of her forthcoming debut picture book If You Are an Artist, further exploring how the creative mind appreciates beauty. With SILAS, Meg delivers a heartwarming story of finding beauty amidst desolation, friendship, and above all, hope. (Please note, John Rudolph is the agent on this project.) 

An adorable, shy, house spider lives in a seaside inn, terrified of guests—until befriending one of them changes life forever. Andi rarely leaves his web but when he does, he has one mission: Survival. Go unnoticed. Escape feet. Outrun the cat. Hope no one looks up. Scurry to safety. But when an unexpected friend scoops him up and sees him in a way no one has before—a cute, lovable, funny, talented house spider—it opens Andi’s eyes (all eight of them) to a new world. ANDI THE HOUSE SPIDER, a heartfelt humorous story, highlights working through fear and change mixed with subtle and entertaining info-fiction. Author Jenny Turnbull (whose debut picture book, Tate’s Wild Rescue, is coming summer 2024 from Crown Children’s) weaves a fun, touching tale about the undeniable power of compassion and friendship. Readers are left with a different perspective on confidence, new beginnings, and spiders. Optional back matter could segue into lesson plans about natural sciences and offers a different way to look at the importance of spiders/insects. (Please note, Stacey Glick is the agent on this project.)

“Everything begins with an idea,” according to famous radio personality Earl Nightingale—but how exactly do we come up with ideas? A WORLD OF IDEAS is a quirky picture book about how ideas grow in our heads and how we can find the very best idea even if they take longer to sprout than we’d like. After all, a good idea is only a good idea when you’ve picked the right one! With A WORLD OF IDEAS, author/illustrator Neena Phan makes a visually stunning and thought-provoking debut. Throughout A WORLD OF IDEAS, readers will take a metaphorical ride that shows ideas as plants, and hopefully they’ll grow an entire garden with some brilliant ideas of their own! (Please note, John Rudolph is the agent on this project.)

MIDDLE GRADE NONFICTION

PRESS 1 FOR 1NVASION is about a ten-year-old who really wants a phone. And ends up saving Planet Earth. Since Matt's parents won’t give him that phone, when he finds one just lying there on the sidewalk, he naturally picks it up and starts taking pictures. And that’s when he discovers that the crossing guard in front of his school is actually a monster. At least, so says the picture on the phone. Matt soon learns that: a) his lunch lady is also a monster; b) an invasion of Earth is due to take place within the next few days; and c) the lunch lady is having cold feet (well, tentacles) about the whole thing and needs his help. What happens next is a fast-paced, action-packed adventure that takes Matt and his friend Marcela through battles in their school cafeteria and high above the earth’s atmosphere; that places them in very close encounters with alien pets, best friends, and the business end of a gigantic oven; and that makes the characters ask themselves—and us—what you’d be willing to risk to save your friends, your family, and your whole planet. It’s a page-turner from ILA-CBC Young Adults’ Choice-winning author J.A. Dauber that’s funny and thrilling (but not too scary) and that’s perfect for fans of books like Sal & Gabi Break the Universe mixed in with a pinch of Star Wars. (Please note, Stacey Glick is the agent on this project.) 

Inspired by his Papi’s love of gazing at las estrellas, Alex Ramirez wants to be an astronaut one day. But that dream feels demasiado lejos because Alex’s school days are spent in a self-contained classroom with a small group of other students and just two teachers (a program referred to as SC), where he receives support for his difficulties with concentration and self-control. Alex knows that in many ways SC is the right fit for him, but he is also fed up with the sameness of it all. What he wants more than anything is permission to leave SC for part of each day to attend seventh grade science—something his teachers and overprotective Mami think is beyond him. When the SC kids are assigned to deliver café during the school day to prepare them for future jobs, Alex has had enough. Mustering up his bravery, he advocates for himself and finally gets permission to attend science. But once he’s there, he wonders if he has what it takes to do this. On top of the workload and lack of accommodations, he must navigate run-ins with two babosos, long-time bullies who are only too happy to make fun of Alex’s way of moving through the world. It will take determination, continued self-advocacy, and support from his friends and familia for Alex to find just the right place for himself in the messy universo that is middle school. Written by debut author Jasminne Paulino, THE EXTRAORDINARY ORBIT OF ALEX RAMIREZ is a middle grade novel-in-verse perfect for fans of Starfish by Lisa Fipps and A Kind of Spark by Elle McNicoll. (Please note, Michaela Whatnall is the agent on this project.) 

YOUNG ADULT 

It is 1923, five years after the end of the Great War, during which brilliant inventor Athena Hightower drafted plans for an advanced zeppelin called the Zephyr that she intended to help with the war effort. Ignored by the British government, Athena and her adoptive father, Lord Hightower, decided to build the Zephyr in secret at his manor house in the countryside. In combining principles of alchemy and physics, the ship could traverse the Aether, the hyperspace outside our physical universe, allowing for almost instantaneous travel across great distances, even across space. It turned out that Athena’s invention would have far better uses than as a weapon—it could be used for scientific exploration. Preparing for adventure, the Zephyr’s crew is assembled. There’s ace pilot and former Wing Commander Cornelius “Spitfire” Goodheart; Hermes, a telepathic alien; and two teen stowaways, Jack Grayling—a runaway who is apprenticing with a magician—and Bee Goodheart—Spitfire’s musically talented niece. The group’s journeys bring them into conflict with a powerful being as old as the universe, testing their bonds and forcing them to confront truths about themselves and their place in the cosmos. Written by Edgar Award-winning author Matthew J. Kirby and illustrated by Tanner Hansen, VOYAGE OF THE ZEPHYR is a retro-futuristic, swashbuckling young adult graphic novel adventure that mixes the space exploration of Star Trek with the magic of Amulet and historical fantasy of Compass South. (Please note, Michael Bourret is the agent on this project.)

Zelda Van Doren is determined to become a spinster no matter how many single young enchanters her mother coerces into coming over for afternoon tea. After all, a husband would be bound to discover that she's hiding a magical gift and try to make her stop using it—or even lock her up in an asylum—and Zelda has no intention of giving up her magic. On the contrary, she's concocted a plan to teach herself all 438 spells that enchanters learn in order to prove (to herself, at least) that she's as powerful as any man. Spellcasting, however, turns out to be astonishingly difficult, and Zelda begins to wonder if her magic is as strong as she thought it was. Even more alarming, she finds herself developing some awfully friendly feelings for the stern-faced John Pendleton, her latest would-be suitor. Zelda is too busy failing at spellcasting to consider what these feelings might mean, but when she finally discovers why she's been struggling with her magic she must decide what it is she truly wants—and how much she's willing to risk to get it. Elizabeth Johnson’s YA debut, ENCHANTING GIRL, is for fans of Cynthia Hand, Brodi Ashton, and Jodi Meadows’ Lady Janie series or Robyn Schneider’s The Other Merlin. It’s a fresh, funny fantasy with a hilarious voice that charms from the very first page. With determination, grit, and good humor, Zelda is an overwhelmingly lovable narrator, and readers will enjoy her against-the-odds fight to learn magic in a patriarchal world just as much as they appreciate her (deeply inconvenient) inklings of romance. Historical in era, but refreshingly contemporary in execution, this is a sterling debut. (Please note, Jim McCarthy is the agent on this project.)