Call it the debutante’s ball: three new children’s imprints and a first-time publisher will be showing their wares on the floor. Other giveaways include high-profile first novels (one by a familiar name: Terry Pratchett) and new directions for literary veterans (Paolo Bacigalupi, Kami Garcia). And several authors have written sequels or companions to well-received books, including Nancy Farmer, Jack Gantos, Maggie Stiefvater, and Elizabeth Wein. Happy hunting!
Abrams will offer galleys of Abominables, the final novel from the late Eva Ibbotson, which follows a family of yetis from the Himalayas to their possible new home in Europe; The Infinite Moment of Us by Lauren Myracle, about a good girl on the verge of graduating from high school who finds herself falling for a boy with a troubled past; Constable & Toop by Gareth P. Jones, a ghostly romp through Victorian London; and My Basmati Bat Mitzvah, a debut by Paula J. Freedman, in which Tara has more on her mind than just her Torah portion.
Algonquin, showing off its debut Young Readers list, is giving away copies of its two Buzz Panel selections: YA buzz pick If You Could Be Mine by Sara Farizan, about an Iranian teen in love with another girl; and middle-grade buzz pick The Time Fetch by Amy Herrick, a fantasy about a boy who accidentally causes a rip in the space-time continuum. Also at the booth are copies of Three-Ring Rascals: The Show Must Go On! by Kate Klise, illus. by M. Sarah Klise, which launches a circus-themed series by the sibling collaborators behind the 43 Old Cemetery Road series; Hollis Seamon’s Somebody Up There Hates You, a novel about a 17-year-old in hospice care and his relationship with the girl across the hall; and Anton and Cecil: Cats at Sea by Lisa Martin and Valerie Martin, illus. by Kelly Murphy, which details the adventures of a pair of feline brothers.
Amazon’s new Skyscape imprint has several YA galleys up for grabs, including Ghost Time by Courtney Eldridge, in which the FBI gets involved when a teen’s hacker boyfriend goes missing; Under the Empyrean Sky, book one in Chuck Wendig’s Heartland trilogy, set in a future agri-dystopia; Skin by Donna Jo Napoli, about a 16-year-old girl who panics when her skin begins to lose its pigmentation; and Into That Forest by Australian playwright Louis Nowra, in which two girls survive a flood in the Tasmanian bush and are raised in the wild by the tigers who rescued them.
Andrews McMeel will be giving away galleys of the middle-grade Desmond Pucket Makes Monster Magic by syndicated cartoonist Mark Tatulli, the first illustrated novel from its AMP! Comics for Kids line.
At the Bloomsbury booth, there are galleys of Wild Cards by Simone Elkeles, which launches a steamy, football-themed series; Crown of Midnight by Sarah J. Maas, which follows 2012’s Throne of Glass; Jamie Thomson’s Dark Lord: A Fiend in Deed, which continues Dirk Lloyd’s comedic adventures; Hostage Three by Printz Medalist Nick Lake, in which a family on a boat outing is captured by pirates; Starry Nights by Daisy Whitney, which combines art, romance, and YA fantasy; and Wake Up Missing by Kate Messner, a science thriller in which a girl uncovers a plot to recreate science’s greatest minds.
Candlewick giveaways include Bluffton by Matt Phelan, the middle-grade graphic novelization of a boy’s encounter in 1908 with a young Buster Keaton; Fallout by Todd Strasser, set during the summer of 1962 when the possibility of nuclear war is all anyone talks about—and then the unthinkable happens; Cherry Money Baby by agent and author John M. Cusick, a satirical tale of a smalltown trailer-park girl and an impulsive Hollywood starlet; The Kingdom of Little Wounds by Susann Cokal, a story of palace intrigue set in an imagined Scandinavian land; Open Mic, an anthology about growing up between cultures, edited by Mitali Perkins and featuring stories by Perkins, Naomi Shihab Nye, Gene Luen Yang, and others; and The Extra by Kathryn Lasky, which imagines the lives of the Gypsies who worked as extras for Nazi filmmaker Leni Riefenstahl through the eyes of one 15-year-old.
Chronicle has galleys of The Clockwork Scarab: A Stoker and Holmes Novel, the first YA book by romance-mystery author Colleen Gleason, in which Sherlock Holmes’s niece and Bram Stoker’s half-sister team up to solve a murder in an alternative, steampunk Victorian London; and The Templeton Twins Make a Scene by Ellis Weiner, illus. by Jeremy Holmes, second in the middle-grade series about siblings Abigail and John Templeton.
Creston Books, founded by author Marissa Moss, is making its BEA debut and will have finished copies (at the PGW booth) of How to Be Human: The Diary of an Autistic Girl by Florida Frenz, the pen name of a 15-year-old with autism; Lola Goes to Work by Marcia Goldman, about a terrier that aspires to be a therapy dog; Elisa Kleven’s Cozy Light, Cozy Night, which presents a year of everyday wonders; and Rotten Pumpkin by David Schwartz, with photos by Dwight Kuhn that show exactly what happens to a jack-o’-lantern after Halloween.
Disney booth offerings include Rose Under Fire by Elizabeth Wein, a companion novel to her Printz Honor–winning Code Name Verity; The Enchanter Heir by Cinda Williams Chima, the fourth installment in the Heir Chronicles; Lockwood & Co.: The Screaming Staircase by Jonathan Stroud, first in a new series about three teen members of a psychic detection agency; and The Odd Squad: Zero Tolerance by Michael Fry, sequel to Bully Bait.
Flux has galleys of The Truth About You & Me by Amanda Grace (the sometime pseudonym of author and literary agent Mandy Hubbard), an epistolary tale in which a 16-year-old girl attends her local college through an accelerated program and falls for her professor—who thinks she’s 18.
David R. Godine is giving away f&g’s of Pizza in Pienza by Susan Fillion, in which an Italian girl introduces readers to her hometown and favorite food.
Harlequin’s offerings include The Eternity Cure by Julie Kagawa, part two of the Blood of Eden series, which is being developed for a feature film; and Dare You To by Katie McGarry, sequel to the author’s bestselling debut, Pushing the Limits.
HarperCollins is showcasing galleys of Fortunately the Milk by Neil Gaiman, in which a father’s quick trip to the grocery store turns into a much longer outing when he is abducted by aliens; middle-grade buzz pick The Very Nearly Honorable League of Pirates #1: Magic Marks the Spot by Caroline Carlson, which follows a girl who escapes a finishing school to join a misfit crew on the high seas; The Year of Billy Miller by Kevin Henkes, which introduces second-grader Billy Miller to fans of Ramona, Clementine, and Judy Moody; The Boy on the Porch by Newbery Medal–winner Sharon Creech, about finding love in surprising places; and The Burning Sky by Sherry Thomas, which combines magic and romance in the first novel in a trilogy.
At HMH, galleys on offer include Independent Study by Joelle Charbonneau, second in the Testing trilogy, which debuts this coming June; How to Catch a Bogle by Catherine Jinks, first in a middle-grade adventure trilogy set in Victorian London; The Carpet People by Terry Pratchett, the first U.S. edition of the author’s first published novel, written when he was 17; The Song of the Quarkbeast by Jasper Fforde, second in the Chronicles of Kazam, which began with 2012’s The Last Dragonslayer; The Shade of the Moon by Susan Beth Pfeffer, fourth in the apocalyptic series that began with Life As We Knew It; and Palace of Spies by Sarah Zettel, which launches a series about a 16-year-old orphan coerced into posing as a lady-in-waiting at the palace of King George I.
Holiday House will feature galleys of The Misadventures of the Magician’s Dog by Frances Sackett, a middle-grade fantasy about an ordinary boy who adopts a talking pooch and must rescue a self-destructive wizard.
Lerner giveaways include A Wounded Name by Dot Hutchison, a debut YA retelling of Hamlet set at the prestigious Elsinore Academy; Shadowlark, the second in Meagan Spooner’s steampunk dystopian Skylark series; Believe by Sarah Aronson, about a teen who was the only survivor, at age six, of a suicide bombing in Jerusalem; Sex and Violence by Carrie Mesrobian, in which a promiscuous teen hooks up with the wrong girl, with dire consequences; and Losing It, an anthology in which authors including Melvin Burgess, A.S. King, Patrick Ness, and Jenny Valentine contribute stories about the all-important first time.
Little, Brown galleys include All the Wrong Questions: “When Did You See Her Last?” Lemony Snicket’s sequel to “Who Could That Be at This Hour?”; The Coldest Girl in Coldtown by Holly Black, set in a world where quarantined monsters and humans mingle within walled cities; Unbreakable by Beautiful Creatures co-creator Kami Garcia, which kicks off the Legion series, about a teen who discovers the ancient, supernatural truth behind her mother’s death; Zombie Baseball Beatdown, Paolo Bacigalupi’s first foray into middle-grade fiction, combining madcap horror with serious themes of food safety, racism, and immigration; Treasure Hunters by James Patterson, Chris Grabenstein, and Mark Shulman, illus. by Juliana Neufeld, the start of a middle-grade adventure series about four globe-trotting siblings; and Pretenders, a new YA series by Lisi Harrison that follows three girls and two boys through their freshman year of high school.
Macmillan is giving away a five-chapter preview of From Norvelt to Nowhere by Jack Gantos, plus the paperback edition of his Newbery-winning Dead End in Norvelt; galleys of Altered, book two in Gennifer Albin’s Crewel World series; Tumble & Fall by Alexandra Coutts, which finds three teenagers grappling with emotional issues as an asteroid is set to strike Earth; Battling Boy, graphic novelist Paul Pope’s illustrated tale of a kid who takes on a world full of monsters; and finished copies of Bedtime Math by Laura Overdeck, illus. by Jim Paillot, which aims to show families that mathematics can be fun.
McSweeney’s McMullens is giving away Momo by Michael Ende, a fantasy originally published in 1973 (six years before Ende’s The Neverending Story), now featuring new art and a new translation from the original German.
Merit Press, Jacqueline Mitchard’s new YA publishing venture, is making its first BEA appearance (at the F&W booth). And at table #18 in the autographing area, Leah Konen will be signing 150 finished copies of The After Girls, in which two girls cope with the aftermath of a third friend’s suicide.
The Penguin booth will have galleys of two middle-grade buzz picks at the booth: Counting by 7s by Holly Goldberg Sloan, about a 12-year-old genius obsessed with nature and diagnosing medical conditions; and Fantastic Family Whipple, Matthew Ward’s debut about a world record–breaking family plunged into a mysterious series of catastrophes; plus Frozen by Melissa de la Cruz and Michael Johnston, a futuristic new series from the creator of the Blue Bloods series and her husband; All the Truth That’s in Me by Julie Berry, a murder mystery about a girl who disappears for two years and returns unable to speak; Twistrose Key, a debut middle-grade fantasy by Norwegian journalist Tone Almhjell; and Recipe for Adventure, launching a new middle-grade series by cookbook author and TV personality Giada De Laurentiis.
Quirk has a galley giveaway for middle-grade buzz pick Nick and Tesla’s High-Voltage Danger Lab by first-time author “Science Bob” Pflugfelder and Pride and Prejudice and Zombies author Steve Hockensmith, in which 11-year-old Nick and Tesla Holt construct MacGyver-ish contraptions (instructions included) to rescue a girl from a bumbling duo of kidnappers.
Random House’s galleys include Steelheart by Brandon Sanderson, a postapocalyptic YA adventure by the author of the Mistborn trilogy for adults; Teardrop, first in a new series by Fallen author Lauren Kate, which tells of a Louisiana girl whose tears have the power to raise the lost continent of Atlantis; The Eye of Minds, first in Maze Runner author James Dashner’s Mortality Doctrine series, set in a world of cyber terrorists; and Mister Max: The Book of Lost Things, beginning a three-book series by Newbery Medalist Cynthia Voigt that is set in turn-of-the-20th-century London’s theater world.
Running Press is showcasing Broken by Elizabeth Pulford, illus. by Angus Gomes, a YA novel in which Zara’s coma pulls her into the world of her brother’s favorite comic book, and she must try to draw her way out; and Dare Me by Eric Devine, featuring a boy who tackles a series of increasingly risky dares and posts them online.
Scholastic galley offerings include Spirit Animals Book #1: Wild Born, which kicks off a multiplatform middle-grade series by Brandon Mull, author of the Beyonders and Fablehaven series; The Wolf Princess by Cathryn Constable, a middle-grade fantasy set in the winterland of Russia; Star Wars: Jedi Academy by Jeffrey Brown, which takes place in a middle school far, far away; The Hypnotists Book 1: Hypnotize Me, the launch of a middle-grade adventure series from Gordon Korman; Invasion by Walter Dean Myers, which tells of two young American recruits—one black, one white—sent to the front lines of the Normandy invasion in WWII; and The Raven Cycle #2: The Dream Thieves, which follows Maggie Stiefvater’s The Raven Boys.
Simon and Schuster is offering The Lord of Opium, Nancy Farmer’s long-awaited sequel to The House of the Scorpion; Just like Fate by Cat Patrick, a novel of romance and family loyalties; and Ghost Hawk by Newbery Medalist Susan Cooper, about the friendship between a young Native American and a colonial New England settler.
Soho Teen will have galleys for Relic by Heather Terrell, the first in a series set in a Game of Thrones–like world, in which Eva must take her slain brother’s place in a race to rule the survivors of a catastrophic flood; This Is W.A.R. by Lisa Roecker and Laura Roecker, which finds four very different girls at a posh country club seeking to avenge their best friend’s death; Elizabeth Kiem’s debut, Dancer Daughter Traitor Spy, about a Bolshoi ballerina forced to defect from Moscow to Brooklyn during the Cold War; and Projection by Risa Green, in which two teens use an ancient ritual to trade souls—and the video of their transformation goes viral.
Sourcebooks is giving away The Snatchabook by Helen Docherty and Thomas Docherty, about the importance of bedtime stories (ARC plus canvas tote will be given out); Broken by CJ Lyons, a thriller about a terminally ill teen, and the bestselling adult author’s first foray into YA; Don’t Push the Button! by Bill Cotter, a picture book about a monster named Larry with one simple rule (see title); and Scorched by Mari Mancusi, author of the Blood Coven vampires series, in which a teen must protect a baby dragon from soldiers from the future.
St. Martin’s Griffin is giving away copies of Rainbow Rowell’s Fangirl, a YA buzz pick and the follow-up to her YA debut, Eleanor and Park. In the new book, twin sisters Cath and Wren find themselves drifting apart when one outgrows the obsessive fandom that defined their childhood.
Tor Teen has The Rithmatist by Brandon Sanderson, the fantasy writer’s YA debut; Antigoddess, a new teen series by Kendare Blake, author of Anna Dressed in Blood (currently in development with Stephenie Meyer’s film production company); and The Planet Thieves, Dan Krokos’s middle-grade debut and the first in a new series.
Workman is offering Frog Trouble: And Eleven Other Pretty Serious Songs by Sandra Boynton, her sixth CD/illustrated songbook, featuring musicians Ben Folds, Alison Krauss, and Dwight Yoakam, among others.
Zest Books is giving away copies of Little Fish: A Memoir from a Different Kind of Year, Ramsey Beyer’s illustrated account of her transition from a childhood in smalltown Michigan to her first year of college, and How to Lose Everything: A Mostly True Story by Philipp Mattheis, in which four teens pay a huge price for finding a small fortune hidden inside an abandoned house.
