The Children's Author & Illustrator Fall Preview will be held Wednesday, May 10, 2–3 p.m. ET. The powerhouse event features a beloved mother/daughter team, acclaimed award winners, dynamic debuts, amazing artists, classic children's book writers and a TikTok sensation for readers of all ages. Please join us for what promises to be a dynamic, fascinating hour of thoughtful conversation!
The Way I Am Now by Amber Smith (Margaret K. McElderry Books, $21.99, 9781665947107, November 7).
Eden and Josh decide to give their relationship another chance in this much anticipated sequel to the New York Times bestseller The Way I Used to Be that explores how to move forward after trauma—in life and in love.
Eden and Josh never had a fair shot at a healthy relationship. When they dated in high school, they each had their own problems getting in the way of the deep connection they felt toward one another. Unbeknownst to Josh, Eden was carrying the burden of a devastating sexual assault, while Josh was dealing with his own private struggle of having an alcoholic father.
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| Amber Smith | |
Months after Eden and two other girls publicly accuse their rapist, Eden is starting college while her case goes to trial. Now when she and Josh reconnect, it seems like it might finally be in the right place at the right time for them to make it work. But is their love strong enough to withstand the challenges and chaos of college and the crushing realities of a trial that will determine whether Eden gets the justice she deserves?
Amber Smith is the New York Times bestselling author of the young adult novels The Way I Used to Be, The Last to Let Go, Something Like Gravity, and The Way I Am Now. An advocate for increased awareness of gendered violence, as well as LGBTQ equality, she writes in the hope that her books can help to foster change and spark dialogue surrounding these issues. She grew up in Buffalo, New York, and now lives in Charlotte, North Carolina, with her wife and their ever-growing family of rescued dogs and cats. You can find her online at AmberSmithAuthor.com
Duel by Jessixa Bagley, illustrated by Aaron Bagley (Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers, $24.99, 9781534496552, November 7).
A rivalry between sisters culminates in a fencing duel in this funny and emotional debut graphic novel sure to appeal to readers of Raina Telgemeier and Shannon Hale.
Sixth grader Lucy loves fantasy novels and is brand-new to middle school. GiGi is the undisputed queen bee of eighth grade (as well as everything else she does). They've only got one thing in common: fencing. Oh, and they're sisters. They never got along super well, but ever since their dad died, it seems like they're always at each other's throats.
When GiGi humiliates Lucy in the cafeteria on the first day of school, Lucy snaps and challenges GiGi to a duel with high sisterly stakes. If GiGi wins, Lucy promises to stay out of GiGi's way; if Lucy wins, GiGi will stop teasing Lucy for good. But after their scene in the cafeteria, both girls are on thin ice with the principal and their mom. Lucy stopped practicing fencing after their fencer dad died and will have to get back to fighting form in secret or she'll be in big trouble. And GiGi must behave perfectly or risk getting kicked off the fencing team.
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| Jessixa Bagley | |
Jessixa Bagley is children's book author-illustrator with a background in fine art and comics. She has had work featured in publications such as New American Paintings, The Chicago Reader, Nickelodeon Magazine, and Highlights Magazine. Her first picture book, Boats for Papa, received numerous awards and accolades including the 2016 SCBWI Golden Kite Award for picture book text and a 2016 Washington State Book Award. Her picture book Laundry Day received a 2018 Ezra Jack Keats Honor Award for writing. Many of her picture books are also Junior Library Guild Selections. In her work, she's drawn to animals and emotional themes often inspired by her own experiences. Jessixa also teaches and speaks about writing and illustration. She often illustrates for other writers and artistically collaborates with her husband, Aaron Bagley. Jessixa lives in Seattle with her husband and son.
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| Aaron Bagley | |
Aaron Bagley is a human man who draws for a living. He likes to draw what he observes (people, boats, cats) and what he experiences (dreams, feelings, life events). His work has been featured in The Virginia Quarterly Review, The Stranger, Seattle Weekly, The Seattle Review of Books, and many more. Above all else, Aaron loves collaborating with his wife, Jessixa. Together, they've created picture book Vincent Comes Home and middle grade graphic novel Duel.
Susie King Taylor by Erica Armstrong Dunbar, with Candace Buford (Aladdin, $19.99, 9781665919944, September 26).
From the acclaimed, New York Times bestselling author of Never Caught and She Came to Slay comes a vibrant middle grade biography of Suzie King Taylor, the first Black Civil War nurse, in a new series spotlighting women of color who left their mark on history.
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| Erica Armstrong Dunbar | |
A groundbreaking figure, Suzie King Taylor (1848–1912) tended to the wounded soldiers of the 1st South Carolina Volunteer Infantry Regiment during the Civil War. Afterward, she was a key figure in establishing a postbellum educational system for formerly bonded Black people, opening several dedicated schools in Georgia. Taylor was also the first Black woman to publish her memoirs.
Even as her country was at war with itself, Taylor valiantly fought for the rights of her people and demonstrated true heroism.
Erica Armstrong Dunbar is the Charles and Mary Beard Professor of History at Rutgers University. Her first book, A Fragile Freedom: African American Women and Emancipation in the Antebellum City, was published by Yale University Press in 2008. Her second book, Never Caught: The Washingtons' Relentless Pursuit of Their Runaway Slave, Ona Judge, was a 2017 finalist for the National Book Award in nonfiction and a winner of the 2018 Frederick Douglass Book Award. She is also the author of She Came to Slay, an illustrated tribute to Harriet Tubman, and Susie King Taylor and is the co-executive producer of the HBO series The Gilded Age.
Dork Diaries 15: Tales from a Not-So-Posh Paris Adventure by Rachel Renée Russell (Aladdin, $14.99, 9781534480483, September 26).
Nikki Maxwell deals with the trials and triumphs of middle school in this fifteenth installment of the #1 New York Times bestselling Dork Diaries series!
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Rachel Renée Russell |
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Will Nikki Maxwell and her friends make it to Paris in this next installment of the blockbuster Dork Diaries series?
Rachel Renée Russell is an attorney who prefers writing tween books to legal briefs. (Mainly because books are a lot more fun and pajamas and bunny slippers aren't allowed in court.) Rachel lives in Chantilly, Virginia.
There Was a Party for Langston by Jason Reynolds, illustrated by Jerome Pumphrey and Jarrett Pumphrey (Atheneum/Caitlyn Dlouhy Books, $18.99, 9781534439443, October 3).
New York Times bestselling and award-winning author Jason Reynolds's debut picture book is a snappy, joyous ode to Word King, literary genius, and glass-ceiling smasher Langston Hughes and the luminaries he inspired.
Back in the day, there was a heckuva party, a jam, for a word-making man. The King of Letters. Langston Hughes. His ABCs became drums, bumping jumping thumping like a heart the size of the whole country. They sent some people yelling and others, his word-children, to write their own glory.
Maya Angelou, Amiri Baraka, and more came be-bopping to recite poems at their hero's feet at that heckuva party at the Schomberg Library, dancing boom da boom, stepping and stomping, all in praise and love for Langston, world-mending word man. Oh, yeah, there was hoopla in Harlem, for its Renaissance man. A party for Langston.
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| Jason Reynolds | |
Jason Reynolds is a #1 New York Times bestselling author, a Newbery Award Honoree, a Printz Award Honoree, a two-time National Book Award finalist, a Kirkus Award winner, a UK Carnegie Medal winner, a two-time Walter Dean Myers Award winner, an NAACP Image Award Winner, an Odyssey Award Winner and two-time honoree, the recipient of multiple Coretta Scott King honors, and the Margaret A. Edwards Award. He was also the 2020–2022 National Ambassador for Young People's Literature. His many books include All American Boys (cowritten with Brendan Kiely); When I Was the Greatest; The Boy in the Black Suit; Stamped; As Brave as You; For Every One; the Track series (Ghost, Patina, Sunny, and Lu); Look Both Ways; Stuntboy, in the Meantime; Ain't Burned All the Bright (recipient of the Caldecott Honor) and My Name Is Jason. Mine Too. (both cowritten with Jason Griffin); and Long Way Down, which received a Newbery Honor, a Printz Honor, and a Coretta Scott King Honor. He lives in Washington, DC. You can find his ramblings at JasonWritesBooks.com.
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| Jerome Pumphrey | |
Jerome Pumphrey is a designer, illustrator, and writer, originally from Houston, Texas. His work includes It's a Sign!, Somewhere in the Bayou, The Old Boat, and The Old Truck, which received seven starred reviews, was named a Best Book of the Year by Publishers Weekly, and received the Ezra Jack Keats Writer Award Honor—all of which he created with his brother Jarrett. Jerome works as a graphic designer at The Walt Disney Company. He lives near Clearwater, Florida.
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| Jarrett Pumphrey | |
Jarrett Pumphrey is an award-winning author-illustrator who makes books for kids with his brother, Jerome. Their books include It's a Sign!, Somewhere in the Bayou, The Old Boat, and The Old Truck, which received seven starred reviews, was named a Best Book of the Year by Publishers Weekly, and received the Ezra Jack Keats Writer Award Honor. Jarrett lives near Austin, Texas.