Spring 2023 Children’s Flying Starts

By PW Staff |

Jun 23, 2023

We spotlight six of the season’s most promising children’s and YA debuts.

Beth Lincoln

In Beth Lincoln’s debut middle grade mystery, The Swifts: A Dictionary of Scoundrels, an eccentric family bequeaths each newborn with a name from the dictionary that the child is intended to live up to. Released in February, the book became an immediate bestseller and has now been sold in 14 territories.

Jesús Trejo

Comedian Jesús Trejo’s childhood experience working weekends alongside his father in the family landscaping business became the basis for his dynamic debut picture book, Papá’s Magical Water-Jug Clock, illustrated by Eliza Klinz.

Ari Tison

Structured in vignettes and verse, Ari Tison’s debut YA novel, Saints of the Household, tells the poignant story of Bribri American brothers as they navigate the fallout after a misguided act of violence.

Balint Zsako

“Generous” is a word that Hungarian-born artist Balint Zsako uses often in conversation, and it’s a good one to describe his debut, Bunny & Tree, a wordless hand-painted picture book that overflows with conceptual fireworks and deep emotion.

Thien Pham

Thien Pham builds each chapter of his debut graphic memoir, Family Style, around resonant food memories from his experience immigrating to the U.S. from Vietnam as a child.

Terry J. Benton-Walker

Terry J. Benton-Walker brings young Black heroes to the forefront of his YA debut fantasy, Blood Debts, which is flooded with Southern culture and a magical system inspired by Afro and Afro-Latinx rituals and practices.

A version of this article appeared in the 06/26/2023 issue of Publishers Weekly under the headline: Spring Children’s Flying Starts