Articles

Girl of Lore Interview with Author Melanie Dale

By on April 13, 2026   /   Articles, Author Interviews   /   Leave a comment

When I learned about a new book coming out that had a character with OCD (which I also write about) but was in the paranormal genre, I just had to read it! I’m excited to share my interview with Melanie Dale, the author of Girl of Lore, due out on April 21, 2026.

About the Book

Hi Melanie! Really fun read. Please give us a short summary of Girl of Lore.

Hi! I’m excited to chat with you! Okay summary. Fifteen-year-old loner and cemetery-lurker Mina Murray starts Lore Club to investigate local legends, but along the way she discovers a mysterious book and a body drained of blood. When a classmate goes missing, she worries that the town’s stories might be real. Is the monster lurking in the dark or in her own brain? Bahm bahm bahhmmm…

I felt a Stranger Things vibe. Any inspiration from it?

Oh my gosh I love Stranger Things and that is high praise. My inspiration came from Dracula and classic horror, but Mina and her friends do run all over town like the kids in Stranger Things. And the book is set in Georgia, where Stranger Things was filmed!

I enjoyed how you explained how people often think OCD (obsessive-compulsive disorder) means “being uber-organized and power cleaning all the time,” but how that isn’t always true. (There are many other types of OCD.) As someone with OCD, I appreciated this being addressed in the book. Can you explain what your goal was with helping the readers know more about OCD?

Yes! I have OCD as well, and when I was Mina’s age, I didn’t understand what was happening inside my head. It was scary and exhausting. I want readers like me to see themselves in Mina’s story and know that they aren’t alone and there’s help, and I want to give readers who don’t struggle with OCD a glimpse inside Mina’s head so they can understand that it isn’t like the stereotypes. My husband learned a lot about how my brain works from reading Girl of Lore! That’s what I love about reading fiction. It helps us develop empathy.

 

About the Author

Why did you want to write this book?

GIRL OF LORE is a love letter to my favorite genre and the stories that have shaped me, and it’s filled with gothic Easter eggs, obvious ones as well as tiny winks. My favorite novel of all time is Bram Stoker’s Dracula. Mina Murray is my favorite gothic character because she’s so smart and underestimated by the men. I remember when my son was in middle school I gave him a boxed set of some of my favorite horror classics, books like Dracula, Frankenstein, Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, The Call of Cthulhu, etc., and he gamely tried to plow through Dracula but petered off when Jonathan Harker was still trapped in that castle and I thought, “What if I could make this story more accessible for him? What if these characters were teens living in Georgia?” 

How are you like Mina? And how are you different?

Ooh, fun question. Nobody’s asked me this. Hmm, Mina and I both have OCD, but some of my intrusive thoughts and compulsions are different than hers. I gave her my cherry red Doc Martens and love of graveyards. But I am an extrovert and more comfortable around people. Mina is much better at drawing than I am. She’s vegan and I’m not. We both love dogs. My Maltipoo Khaleesi is asleep in my lap while we’re having this interview.  

Did you grow up reading horror/ghost stories? If so, what is your favorite?

Yes! In second grade I found In a Dark, Dark Room in the school library and read about Jenny, who wore a green ribbon around her neck. She wore the ribbon her whole life and when she was very old, she finally removed the ribbon. I’ll never forget the last line of that story: “and Jenny’s head fell off.” Oh my gosh AWESOME. I felt this delicious, visceral reaction. So ghoulish. I was hooked. I had a friend named Jenny and told her the story. She did not appreciate those nightmares. As I got older I discovered classic gothic literature and fell in love.  

 

Scripts vs Manuscripts & Adults vs Kids

I read that you also wrote episodes for the horror television show Creepshow (and one Molly Ringwald starred in). Very cool! For those of us writers who also have an interest in switching gears, please explain one difference in writing a teleplay vs a novel. 

With a novel, I’m writing all of it. Story, dialogue, setting, character descriptions. Film is very collaborative, so I learned to cut out a lot of the detailed descriptions and focus on the story and dialogue. For instance, in my first script I spent pages describing every detail on Molly Ringwald’s character’s desk and the script was twice as long as it needed to be. Cut cut cut. The set designer would make those details. I didn’t need to. And then writing a novel, the banter between characters came easily to me, but Mina’s inner thought life and fleshing out descriptions of locations was challenging. Many scenes in the book started out as straight dialogue, then I went back in and layered in actions and details.

In addition to writing for the upper middle grade market, you write for adults. Was it a difficult shift to write for a younger audience?

My books for adults are all nonfiction, so the biggest shift was switching to fiction, not the age of the reader. At the time I was writing Girl of Lore, I was raising three teenagers, which helped. That being said, I am a GenXer, so I’m thankful for early readers who noted several moments where a teen would not say that or think that.

This is me at the age Mina is in the book. I’m journaling!

And what drew you to the younger audience?

As a parent, I noticed a reading gap for my kids between middle grade and YA that I wanted to help fill. When they hit the tween and young teen years, they weren’t quite ready for some of the YA content but they wanted stories of teens like them. 

  

Writing & Research

I loved how you had a character with OCD in a horror novel (quite unusual and why I wanted to read this book!). Which part came first: the character having OCD or the supernatural element? (And you do a great job of having her conquer both.)

Thank you! The OCD and supernatural grew together, although I skirted around the OCD in the first few drafts. I had a meeting with my agent to process some helpful feedback and mentioned that I’d like to explore Mina’s OCD more but I was worried it would be too scary for middle grade. She encouraged me to go for it, and I’m so glad she did.  

With writing horror, I’m curious whether you start with knowing the ending and work your way backwards. Can you walk us through when you began (without any spoilers!)?

Dude, this was my first novel and I knew nothing. Ha, I had an idea for the concept, but I had never plotted out a story so large, so it took many drafts and invaluable feedback to point it in the right direction. I spent a long, long time creating the characters and getting them talking to each other. I wrote so many scenes that I ended up cutting. Maybe some of them will appear in future stories. I axed whole characters, gave Mina a more traumatic backstory, upped the stakes and then upped them again. My editor, Jessi Smith, helped pry my fingers off the original story of Dracula and encouraged me that Mina and her Lore Club friends were strong enough to live their own story.   

I always find it interesting the research involved in fiction. What research did you do for this book?

I worried that I’d end up on a watchlist somewhere with the kinds of things I was googling. Burying bodies, mausoleums, obelisks, crypts. A friend of mine used to work in a morgue and I called her up and asked her what to do with a dead body, then threw in “FICTIONALLY” when there was a pause at the other end of the line. I had the best time researching graveyards. I really wanted to picture Mina’s graveyard where she spends a lot of her time in the book, so I visited a ton of cemeteries. Whenever I travel, I love visiting cemeteries and try to take as many ghost tours as I can. When I was in New Orleans I visited St. Louis Cemetery No. 1. In Edinburgh I visited Greyfriars. We have a bunch of really beautiful graveyards near where I live. The older and wilder the better. 

 

For Teachers

Are you doing school visits related to this book? 

I am so excited to talk with fifth-, sixth-, and seventh-graders about writing! You can find out more about my author visits at School Visits – Melanie Dale 

How can we learn more about you? 

You can find me on my website at melaniedale.com or on Instagram and Substack @melanierdale. 

This was super fascinating. Thanks for your time, Melanie!

Thanks for having me! 

Back to Top

When You’re Brave Enough: Interview with Author Rebecca Bendheim

By on April 6, 2026   /   Articles, Author Interviews   /   Leave a comment

I have such a great job where, not only do I get to read books before they come out, but I get to ask the author all about how the book came to be! I learned so much through my interview with Rebecca Bendheim, author of When You’re Brave Enough (due out April 7, 2026). 

About the Book

Hi Rebecca! I really enjoyed When You’re Brave Enough. This was a true coming-of-age story that addressed many things middle graders are dealing with: religion, sexuality, and friendship. I’m excited to dive in and learn more about how the book came to be. Can you please give us a brief summary of the book?

Thank you so much! When You’re Brave Enough is about introspective thirteen-year-old Lacey, who’s always had the same best friend, loud, super-enthusiastic Grace. When she finds out her family is moving Rhode Island before eighth grade, she hopes to reinvent herself and step into the spotlight on her own, so she’s ecstatic when she gets a lead role in the musical Bye Bye Birdie.

But then Lacey finds out about her new school’s longstanding, student-led tradition: the lead couple always kisses (for real!) in the final performance. Lacey’s role has two love interests, and suddenly she’s under a lot of pressure to decide. But what if she’d rather kiss the girl she has a duet with? As she prepares for her bat mitzvah and Grace plans a visit for the final performance, Lacey grapples with the concept of tradition, which ones are worth continuing, and what her perfect first kiss would look like if she were brave enough to listen to her heart.

Do you feel this book is more of a window, mirror, or both?

My biggest hope is that When You’re Brave Enough can be a mirror for queer kids and teens who are asking similar questions and grappling with similar pressures to Lacey. I read my first queer book when I was twenty, and it completely reframed my view of being a lesbian from worrying it would make my life difficult to seeing that being queer could open me up to true love and a more authentic, creative life.

While I wrote this book for LGBTQ+ kids and teens, I hope that anyone, regardless of identity, can enjoy it and get a window into one experience of a queer teen coming into her own. There are a lot of misconceptions about queer kids right now, and I hope this book shows people that they are, like all kids, working hard to figure out who they are and where they fit into their communities, and that they deserve support, love, agency, and patience as they make their way.

I loved how sexuality was shown as a fluid spectrum and how the protagonist was discovering where she was on it. What do you hope this story contributes to the landscape of LGBTQ+ literature?

I wanted this story to celebrate the importance of taking time to really sit with your inner voice and respect what it tells you. So many of my favorite middle grade books, such as The List of Things That Will Not Change by Rebecca Stead and Scar Like a River by Lisa Graff, are about a character who is hiding a secret from themselves because they’re in middle school, at the height of pressure to conform and be good, probably the hardest place on Earth to admit you are different. Fragments and memories come to the surface, clueing in the reader, but these characters try to push them away until they can’t anymore and must grapple with the truth. I wanted to contribute a lesbian version of this story and highlight Lacey’s coming out to herself as just as important, if not more important, than sharing who she is with the world.

 

About the Author

Me at Lacey’s age in my Bye Bye Birdie T-shirt. I still have the shirt, but no longer have the purple Uggs.

Do you see your preteen self in Lacey? Or any of the other characters?

Yes! Like Lacey, I was so confused when my friends started talking about crushes, not understanding that the complicated, yearning feelings I had for a girl in my theater group were just that. I felt behind my peers and desperate to have it all figured out.

I also see a lot of my younger self in Grace, since I was loud and silly as a middle schooler. I loved hiding in lockers and jumping out at people, singing terribly in school hallways, and dressing up in weird, mismatched costumes and wigs to walk to CVS with my best friend. There are parts of me in all my characters, and learning to love and understand them helps me do the same with myself.

What’s your connection to school productions? And why did you choose Bye, Bye Birdie?

I LOVE musical theater and was in Bye Bye Birdie twice growing up, once in fourth grade and once in sixth. I chose this show because of its emphasis on conformity and expectations; it’s set in the 1950s and centers around a group of poodle-skirt-clad teenage fangirls who are all obsessed with teen idol Conrad Birdie (AKA Elvis) and one girl, Kim, who is chosen for the “honor” of being Conrad’s last kiss before going to the army and is suddenly thrust into the spotlight. The start of Lacey’s journey mirrors Kim’s, as a new student facing pressure to kiss one of her co-leads onstage. But more importantly, as an author, I have to put my characters through the ringer so they can grow, and I thought this show about many, many girls obsessed with a boy would be the hardest one for Lacey to disrupt by being true to herself.

How did you come up with the idea of a closing night kiss?

During my fourth grade production of Bye Bye Birdie, the eighth graders who played Albert and Rosie actually did kiss in the final performance! I remember being terrified that I’d have to do that too, and what if I had a co-lead I didn’t want to kiss? I never got a lead role, so I thankfully didn’t have to worry about this, but the fear stayed with me and I loved seeing how it played out with Lacey’s story.

I love how this ended—I think it’s a great message for kids. Did you always plan the closing-night kiss ending how it did or did you play with various endings?

I always knew who Lacey’s first kiss would be, but I played with a few different versions of where and when, public or not public. When I thought of the current ending, I knew that was it. It felt so perfectly Lacey-and-_______. No spoilers!

 

Research/Writing

Tell us a little about your MFA thesis and how it impacted writing this book.

I wrote my critical thesis at Vermont College of Fine Arts on the impact of positive queer representation in middle grade fiction. Through this, I learned that my experience having my first crushes on girls from nine to eleven but not coming out until years later was normal. Most queer and trans kids realize they’re queer or trans by early adolescence, but middle school is also the time when they’re most likely to be inundated with negative messaging about being LGBTQ+. I also learned that a supportive adult or a positive queer role model can have a real impact on improving the mental health of an LGBTQ+ child, so I made sure to add characters who fill both these roles in the book. I wrote the first draft of When You’re Brave Enough in 2020 and kept going through years of revision and rejection by remembering the impact books like these can have if they get into the hands of a kid who needs them.

Are you more of a plotter or pantser?

A plotter! I usually start by coming up with one character or situation, and then I love the brainstorming phase where I get to think of a million ideas of how their story could unfold. In that phase, I often spend more time in the character’s world than in my own life. But as I write my (terrible) first draft, the characters usually decide they want to do something totally different than I had planned, and I have to go back and revise the outline. Still, I like having it there instead of a blank page!

I liked how there was a parallel with Anne Frank and her diary. When in your writing journey did you create the connection to The Diary of Anne Frank?

The Diary of Anne Frank wasn’t part of my first few drafts of the novel, but when I got a copy of it for my sixth grade students, I decided to re-read it. I was shocked to read the same part Lacey is shocked by, where Anne writes about kissing her best friend and being attracted to the women in her art history books. I realized that when I was in middle school, I read a version of Anne’s diary with many passages omitted, including this one. I wished I could have gone back and given my younger self the unedited, unabridged version. Instead, I gave it to Lacey.

What was the most difficult part in writing this book?

The hardest part was making Grace feel like a well-rounded, fully there character from two thousand miles away. Much of my revising focused on putting memories of Grace in places that made sense, adding her visit, and making the emails between Lacey and Grace come alive through video transcripts, photos of flowers, and even songs, which my audiobook narrator actually plays ukulele and sings in the audiobook!

What was something you didn’t expect that was super beneficial in writing/finishing/publishing this book?

I first wrote this novel in verse and changed it to prose for and revise and resubmit request with an editor. That editor, Jessica Anderson, wasn’t able to acquire the book, but I so appreciate her wise idea to take the emotional heart of each poem and build it into a short scene, adding more dialogue, setting description, and physicality for the characters. Now, when I’m struggling with a project, I write the scene as a poem, figure out the emotional heart that way, and then build it into a prose scene.

 

For Teachers

Are you doing school visits related to this book?

Yes! As a former middle school teacher, I love doing school visits, especially for grades 5-8. I’m doing two main formats right now. One is a presentation about emotional bravery that ends with a chance for students to make a promise to themselves of something they’d like to be emotionally brave enough to do. If they want, they can write it down on this five foot sign!

The other is a writing workshop where students write a poem describing how a certain emotion feels in their body and then use that poem to build out a scene. I also combined these in my most recent visit! My goal during visits is to add enough visuals and opportunities to participate that even the most distractable student (AKA my younger self) is locked in, thinking, and learning. I also love to speak at pride events or to GSAs!

 

How can we learn more about you?

You can find me on social media @rebeccabendheim or at my website rebeccabendheim.com!

Thank you for your time, Rebecca!

Thank you for these thoughtful questions and for spotlighting When You’re Brave Enough!

Back to Top

April New Releases

By on April 2, 2026   /   Articles, New Releases   /   Leave a comment

April showers bring….a storm of brand new Middle Grade Releases. Take a look at the books coming your way this month.

 

 

A Potion, a Powder, a Little Bit of Magic
Or, Like Lightning in an Umbrella Storm
by Philip C. Stead

A plucky young goatkeeper sets out on a misadventurous rescue mission in this uproarious debut novel with premium hardcover features, perfect for fans of Kate DiCamillo and Lemony Snicket.

In a kingdom ruled by a capricious king, the castle rests on the backs of twenty-four goats, and the welfare of those goats rests on the back of a girl called Bernadette. So when one goat escapes, it’s up to her—with the help of a very forgetful wizard and a Boat That Does Not Grant Wishes—to bring it back safely.

Her task may be straightforward, but this book is anything but. Like a swirling herd of restless goats, the chapters are all out of order. The ending may prove to have been the beginning all along. All the while, the author of Bernadette’s saga—a character himself—hurries to write her a resolution, with very mixed results. And if you’re feeling lost, don’t worry; the story has twenty-four morals, of varying advisability, to edify you along the way.

Award-winning picture book author and illustrator Philip Stead makes a confident debut as a novelist in this laugh-out-loud, one-of-a-kind illustrated tale, chock-full of running gags, broken fourth walls, and underdog triumph.

 

 

Are Octopuses from Another World? Discover the Science Behind Teuthology
By Rosie Rowntree (Author) and Valeria Abatzoglu (Illustrated by)

It’s a big question–are octopuses from another world? These animals and their incredible, unique features help reveal fascinating facts about the animal kingdom.

Discover how teuthologists study octopuses and learn about . . .

  • The incredible adaptations that let octopuses thrive in the world’s harshest conditions
  • How octopuses can edit their own genes!
  • Why these tentacled animals need nine brains and three hearts
  • Incredible ways octopuses interact with the natural world around them . . . and so much more!

Beautifully bound with gorgeous illustrations, The Big Questions Answered is more than just a series of books–it’s a complete resource for kids, teachers, and parents to collect. Start a lifelong interest in science–it can change the world!

 

 

The Genie Game by Jordan Ifueko 

Harriet the Spy meets Black Mirror in The Genie Game, the start of a thrilling new middle-grade series from Jordan Ifueko, author of the New York Times bestselling fantasy Raybearer.

Valentine Adesanya has two missions: 1) become a Feared and Fabulous Film Director and 2) find her missing big sister, Mango. She suspects The Trio Trust, a collection of creepy mega-companies that now rule the United States, made Mango disappear.

A text lures Valentine to a magical boba shop, which comes to life and tells Valentine she is now a GENIE: a member of the General Employee Network of Immortal Engineers, an underground workforce run by the Trio Trust. Genies may only leave their bottles to grant the wishes of mortals. With each granted wish, The Trio Trust gains more magic, and so the Trio hosts a glamorous wish-granting competition, rewarding top players with fabulous prizes. The twist?

The greedy Trio forbids genies from using magic. Genies must grant wishes using nothing but smarts, luck, and elbow grease.

To free her sister Mango and escape the Genie Game, Valentine must score more wish-granting points than any other Genie. But how did the Trio Trust get so powerful in the first place? Why is a magical monster stomping through her home city of Gloss Angeles?

And why does the Trio Trust seem so afraid of 13-year-old Valentine Adesanya?

 

Lightfall: A Place Between by Tim Probert 

In the fourth installment of the award-winning, critically acclaimed Lightfall series, Bea, Cad, and their friends continue their quest to restore light on their dark world. Perfect for fans of Amulet and Avatar, this next book dives deeper into the magical world of Irpa, where ancient secrets and adventures abound.

After surviving a shipwreck on the Fuerre Sea, Cad washes ashore on the shores of Pellidyr. There, he searches for Lorgon, the Water Spirit, but instead finds the other spirits of Irpa who question if their planet can be saved. One of them offers to help Cad and transports him to A Place Between, a strange liminal realm between the living and the dead, where Cad works to uncover the reason Lorgon summoned them to Pellidyr in the first place.

Meanwhile, Bea awakens within the walls of the capital city. While Pellidyr’s leader has heard the tales of Bea’s derring-do and believes her to be a hero with all the answers, she’s never felt more uncertain about the future. What she does know is that she can’t accomplish anything without her crew. When Bea’s escape plan also brings her to A Place Between, she makes a shocking discovery that changes her understanding of everything that came before her…and what could soon follow.

 

 

Auntie Q’s Golden Claws Nail Salon by Van Hoang

A funny and heartwarming middle grade novel about first jobs and second chances where one girl’s summer punishment becomes a mission to save a struggling nail salon and bring her family together—perfect for fans of Front Desk and Millionaires for the Month.

Twelve-year-old Domi Pham had the perfect summer planned: lounging by the pool, making art with her best friend, and celebrating her escape from seventh grade. But one costly mistake puts her dream summer on hold. Instead, she finds herself deep in debt to her parents, and shipped off to New Mexico to work at her Auntie Q’s nail salon for the next three months.

At first, Domi is miserable—surrounded by nosy aunties, constant nail polish fumes, and endless work. But as she gets to know Auntie Q and the people in the salon, she starts to see their struggles and resilience in a new light. When she discovers that the salon is at risk of closing, Domi puts her creativity and determination to the test to help save it.

Dawn on the Coast: A Graphic Novel (The Baby-sitters Club #19) by Arley Nopra (Adapted by), Arley Nopra (Illustrated by), Ann M. Martin (Author)

A Baby-sitters Club graphic novel adapted and illustrated by New York Times bestselling cartoonist Arley Nopra!

Dawn can’t wait for her trip to California. Aside from all the sun and fun, it’s her first visit since her brother, Jeff, moved back to live with their dad. California is better than Dawn ever remembered it. The beaches are beautiful, the local theme park is a blast, and Dawn is enjoying all her favorite foods. Plus, Dawn’s best friend, Sunny, has even started her own baby-sitting club! Things are going so well that Dawn begins to wonder if she might want to stay in California with her dad and Jeff.

Dawn is a California girl at heart, but could she really leave Stoneybrook — and her mom and The Baby-sitters Club — for good?

 

 

Laleh and the Language of the Birds by Perin Gurel (Author), Marjane Searl (Contributions by)

Thirteen-year-old Laleh Lateef’s world shatters when her ornithologist father vanishes from the bird sanctuary they called home. She’s forced to live with her grouchy uncle, quiet aunt, and rebellious cousin Ivy, who delights in calling her “Bird Nerd.” Life feels hopeless-until two crow brothers, Gold and Silver, begin delivering strange gifts.

When the gifts fit together into a magical device that lets Laleh talk to birds, she uncovers a breathtaking secret: Her father’s disappearance is part of a larger menace haunting the sanctuary. And her uncle is the likely culprit.

With the sanctuary and its feathered residents in danger, Laleh and Ivy must team up-whether they like it or not-and follow the clues through an ancient Middle Eastern legend known as The Language of the Birds. Their destination: Avesia, the mythical sky realm of perfect bird habitats.

The catch? No one has ever reached it without wings.

 

Rialto by Kate Milford

A standalone mystery from a New York Times bestselling, Edgar Award-winning author set in a contemporary world tinged with magic, in which two sisters spend summer vacation in a small town in the shadows of abandoned amusement park that is not what it seems.

Ivy and Dahlia Vicar know this summer’s trip to visit friends in Rialto, Missouri, is going to be different from their usual family vacations.

Twelve-year-old Dahlia, an artist who lives with anxiety, is looking forward to something new. Rialto, after all, has its own abandoned theme park! But mystery-loving, fourteen-year-old Ivy is struggling with how to be the right kind of big sister to Dahlia, and longs for the way things—especially vacations—were when they were younger.

In Rialto, it quickly becomes clear that this vacation will also be different in totally unexpected ways. For one thing, the town stands in the middle of an improbable forest that, according to local legend, swallowed it overnight decades before. Then there are Dahlia’s even more improbable sightings of impossible creatures—a giraffe with antlers and a leopard with wings. And there’s their new friend Remy, whose family inherited the house they’re all staying in from an aunt who left bequests for local friends that Remy must personally distribute.

When he enlists Ivy and Dahlia to help deliver these gifts, they find themselves drawn into a mystery going back to the time when Rialto Park was still open. And it begins to seem that, if they are going to help Remy solve it, they will have to find a way to believe in magic.

Themes of friendship, family, mental health, and resilience are expertly woven through this magical, richly imagined story of two sisters and an enigmatic town that transforms everyone who visits it.

 

 

Forbidden Mountain by Brandon Mull

CHOOSE YOUR GUARDIAN. CHOOSE YOUR DESTINY.

From the #1 New York Times bestselling author of the Fablehaven and Beyonders series comes an epic new fantasy set in a world where every child bonds with a spiritual guide—some promising greatness and glory, while others, destruction and death.

Every Anoran child dreams of the day they will enter the sacred bonding hut and match with a guardian—a spiritual guide who grants magically enhanced abilities. A lucky few will bond with Advocates, who promise greatness and glory. Others will be tempted by forbidden offers from the Accursed—dangerous spirits who bring nothing but destruction and a penalty of death to any Anoran who chooses them. But when Mako discovers that the worst of these agents of chaos has returned to spread an ancient evil through the empire, he faces an unthinkable choice: Will he bond with one of the Accursed to gain the power to stop another?

Halfway across the empire, Arden has no guardian and no prospects of adventure…until she infiltrates an underground criminal network to find her missing friend. Relying on her knack for sensing the truth through even the smoothest lies, Arden finds herself at the center of a sinister conspiracy that runs much deeper than she ever imagined.

Soon Mako’s and Arden’s fates collide, and together they must face bandit armies, dark secrets, and untold dangers to fight an enemy who could destroy all they’ve ever known.

 

Life on the Moon by Matthew Swanson (Author) and Robbi Behr (Illustrated by)

The extraordinary tale of a curious boy sent to live on the moon, the wondrous discoveries he makes, and the courage it takes to speak a truth no one wants to believe.

The first rule of life on the moon is: There is no life on the moon.
The second rule is: Don’t ask questions.

12-year-old Leo gets a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to join the very first Moon colony. He’s excited to be part of the top-secret mission, but things quickly go off the rails. Right after his family lands on the Moon, Leo’s dad is called off on an urgent mission from which he never returns. The authorities claim the mission never existed, and Leo’s dad is accused of desertion.

Leo goes looking for his dad and discovers far more than he bargained for. Everyone in the colony insists there’s NO life on the Moon. But Leo’s explorations reveal a landscape brimming with extraordinary creatures—with baffling behaviors and beliefs.

Leo’s big question is: why keep Moon life a secret? Who stands to gain? And how can he find a way to save his new Moon friends before the lie becomes a reality?

 

See anything you can’t wait to add to your Spring and Summer To Read Pile? Let us know in the comments below.

 

 

 

Back to Top