I Can Make This Promise by Christine Day - On Shelves Now! Dear Reader, Before we begin Edie’s story, I’d like to tell you about the day I realized who she was. And where she was from. And why I...
BUTTERFLY YELLOW by Thanhhà Lại - On Shelves Now! Dear Reader, At a Buddhist temple in San Diego, there is a memorial room filled with tiny photographs of those who have passed. Mostly, the portraits show people with gray hair...
How to Read a Bookby Kwame Alexanderart by Melissa SweetOn Shelves Now! A note from author Kwame Alexander: I wrote this poem for World Read Aloud Day in 2010. My friend Pam Allyn, founder of the global literacy organization LitWorld,...
Other Words for Home by Jasmine Warga on shelves now! Dear Reader, Imagine that you are an Arab American girl who was born in the United States, and this happens: The boy sitting across from you in science class casually...
A Normal Pigby K-Fai SteeleOn Shelves Now! What is normal? Who gets to decide what the word "normal" means? Pip is a spotted pig who grows up in an all-pink pig town. Pip is by her standards pretty normal; she...
Lalani of the Distant Sea by Erin Entrada KellyOn shelves 9.3.19 Dear Reader, There's a reason why folktales and fables can be so frightening. They tell us something about our world — its beasts and monsters, curses and evils. We...
Where Are You From? by Yamile Saied Méndez; illustrated by Jaime KimON SHELVES NOW! Dear Reader, Although I have lived in the United States longer than I lived in my birth country, Argentina, and have been an American citizen since...
A KIND OF PARADISE By Amy Rebecca TanON SHELVES NOW! Dear Reader, I was walking along the main street of my town one evening when I noticed lights shining from inside an empty storefront. I peered inside to find a...
Sweeping Up the Heart by Kevin Henkes on sale now! Dear Reader, Although it is my picture books that people seem to know best and love most, it is my novels that are nearest and dearest to my heart....
HEROINEby Mindy McGinnisON SHELVES NOW! Dear reader, I began writing Heroine after a school visit to an area particularly hard-hit by the opioid epidemic. Over lunch, staff confessed to me that nearly everyone in town had been impacted by addiction, either as...
OPPOSITE OF ALWAYS by Justin A. Reynolds on shelves now! Dear Reader, This story began with heartbreak. I’d just lost one of my closest family members, followed by the unexpected and sudden death of my best friend (still in...
THE BLOOD SPELL by C.J. Redwine on sale now! BORN IN A LIBRARY I was lucky. My family had no television. No brand name clothes or popular toys. No money for eating out at restaurants or impulse buys. What we...
NEW KIDBy Jerry CraftON SHELVES NOW! Dear Book Lover, I can honestly say that I have wanted to be an artist ever since I was old enough to hold a crayon and not stick it up my nose. Even though...
The Field Guide to the North American Teenager by Ben Philippe On shelves now! Dear Reader, My favorite superhero has always been Spider-Man. This wasn't due to his superpower or beautiful love interests permanently dangling from bridges but the fact...
You were a press witness to an execution, which led you down this path to eventually write WE’LL FLY AWAY. What effect did this experience have on you? I’ve always been against the death penalty, but it was more of...
JUSTINA IRELAND, author of the forthcoming YA novel Dread Nation, recently addressed a group of booksellers at the NEIBA Children’s Breakfast in Providence, R.I. The following is a written transcript of her moving talk on the power of stories, diversity...
How a Librarian Changed My Life By Aaron Hartzler Like most kids, from elementary school on up, I did my dead-level best to fit in. I always had a good group of friends, but there were still things about me...
We hope you have all had a chance to read KICK, the outstanding YA novel co-written by debut teen author Ross Workman and New York Times bestselling author Walter Dean Myers. When Ross Workman, then 13, emailed his favorite author,...
