Kids & YA Newsletter: January 2026
PICTURE BOOK
Meet Hamlet: a small, sassy, sensitive boar. Sometimes being the nice guy can leave one open to being taken advantage of, and Hamlet has his precious box swindled from him by a selfish, box-collecting alligator. The alligator is a gaslighting, gatekeeping girlboss king who refuses to return Hamlet’s box, as originally promised, leaving Hamlet to find creative solutions to getting his box back. Inspired by books like Pokko and the Drum by Matthew Forsythe and I Want My Hat Back by Jon Klassen, THE BOX by debut author-illustrator Dillian McGahey explores how each of our relationships to objects can carry different meaning, whether it be safety or social status, while also satirizing our current polarized environment. How do we fight greed and corruption without losing the softer, kinder part of ourselves? Hamlet knows how. (Please note, Michael Bourret is the agent on this project.)
In MOONFLOWERS, a young girl feels her eyelids get heavy when the lights go down. Then, she and her dog take to the skies and fly to the moon, where they are encouraged to dance among the moonflowers of the night. As the moon circles around the earth, the sleeping spell is cast, and she follows the moonflowers beyond the cosmos and back home. A lyrical bedtime book with a retro art style reminiscent of 70s giants like James Marshall and William Steig, MOONFLOWERS marks a stunning debut for author/illustrator Tony Alioto. Parents will love sharing Tony’s whimsical illustrations with their young children until they are lulled to sleep by the gentle text and the promise of the morning sun. (Please note, John Rudolph is the agent on this project.)
Alice and Aaron are best friends, and they always play games together for two. Astronaut and Mission Control. Prince and Princess. Witch and Wizard. But one day, Aaron comes over to Alice’s house and finds that she is playing Artist—and that she wants to play alone. After all, “an artist must not be bothered!” Alice says in her best artist-y voice. So Aaron goes home and tries playing with his neighbor Chris, but Chris doesn’t have the same imagination as Alice. And when Aaron checks if Alice is done with her art, not only is she still working, but she spills paint all over Aaron’s teddy bear Koala! Will Alice’s nascent artistic career mark the end of their friendship? With ALICE AND AARON, ALONE TOGETHER, Lisa Katzenberger (I Can Do It Even If I’m Scared; It Belongs to the World) creates a lively picture book text that identifies a common issue in children’s playtime and offers an ingenious suggestion for how to play “alone together.” (Please note, John Rudolph is the agent on this project.)
NONFICTION PICTURE BOOK
When the US government ordered the removal of everyone of Japanese ancestry from the West Coast after the bombing of Pearl Harbor, white visual artist Estelle Ishigo followed her Japanese American husband to Heart Mountain, Wyoming and was incarcerated alongside him. During their three years at the Heart Mountain prison camp, Estelle told the story of the 14,000 Japanese Americans unjustly held there through black-and-white charcoal illustrations. Black: the color of barbed wire fences and guns held by soldiers. White: snow that blew sideways in the winter; her breath in the cold; icicles on the roof of latrines. Estelle’s art captured life behind barbed wire and illuminated the community that persisted amidst a backdrop of tar-paper barracks, mess halls, and guard towers. Debut author Lena (Sunada-Matsumura) Newlin, a fourth-generation Japanese American and a descendant of Japanese Americans incarcerated at Heart Mountain, evocatively captures Estelle and her husband’s experience in the picture book biography BLACK, WHITE, AND BARBED WIRE: The Story of Artist Estelle Ishigo. It joins recent powerful picture book depictions of Japanese American incarceration like My Lost Freedom by George Takei and Love in the Library by Maggie Tokuda-Hall, while adding a new perspective—how an artist used illustration as activism from within the camps, sharing a crucial history with generations to come. (Please note, Michaela Whatnall is the agent on this project.)
MIDDLE GRADE GRAPHIC NOVEL
When a great magician passes away, his adoptive daughter Kess is left in charge of his old magic shop. Only problem: Kess never really took to magic, preferring instead to tinker with science experiments. To her great annoyance, the only magic she can do is summoning rabbits from a hat (the easiest kind!). The townspeople are expecting impressive magic from her, though, especially when it comes to banishing the Frost Giant, a yearly ritual the magician used to do to keep the town safe. Now, Kess is responsible for dealing with the giant, but she’s worried she’s not capable. When Kess’ arrogant older brother, Anodos, returns to the shop unexpectedly, the siblings can’t help but clash with one other—but with his help, Kess starts to discover how she can combine her skill at science with Anodos’ magic to protect the town in their own, new way. A gentle story of siblinghood, navigating loss, and embracing one’s own talents, debut author-illustrator Will Quinn’s middle grade graphic novel KESS AND THE MAGIC SHOP is perfect for readers who loved the cozy, character-driven charm of Tidesong by Wendy Xu and The Tea Dragon Society by K. O’Neill. (Please note, Michaela Whatnall is the agent on this project.)
MIDDLE GRADE
Would you rather have fangs or feathers? Be six inches or eight feet tall? Sneeze like a baby every two minutes or fart continuously (but silently)? These kinds of questions are fun to talk about in a game…but what if you had to actually live them? That’s what happens to Evan when he finds himself holding a very special deck of cards…which thrusts him and his friends Max and Aisha into a game they have no choice but to play. With the fate of their town, their friends and families, and maybe even more, in the balance. It’s another action-packed middle grade novel from J.A. Dauber (PRESS 1 FOR INVASION), full of magic, thrills, mystery, comedy, and just a little bit of young romance. WOULD YOU RATHER? isn’t just about making impossible, silly choices and facing their potentially very real consequences, though. It’s about trying to figure out what those choices mean—and what kind of person they might make you. For fans of Jumanji or Magic the Gathering, a fun adventure (and just maybe a little bit scary) for kids of all ages! (Please note, Stacey Glick is the agent for this project.)
In the Pirate Realms—a whimsical fantasy world loosely inspired by the Golden Age of Piracy—mysteries and mischief abound. Our heroine, Sally Spyglass, is the proud daughter of The Great Pirate Detective, the man hired by scallywags across the Realms when they have mysteries that need solving. When the Great Pirate Detective sets off on a “very important an’ dangerous mission” without his daughter, Sally is confused and hurt. And when a strange lad named Barnabas shows up on her doorstep claiming to be her father’s new apprentice, it only adds salt to the wound. Isn’t she his apprentice? Sally’s dad left her with strict orders not to leave her home isle while he’s away, but when an exciting case lands in her lap, she seizes the chance to have an adventure of her own—and prove her skills and smarts along the way. With Barnabas and her dog, Greybeard, at her side, Sally joins the crew of The Salty Squid, where mutiny is a-brewin'. Can Sally, Barnabas, and Greybeard help the fearful Cap’n Riptide by sniffing out the secret leader of the mutineers before they are all marooned in the dreaded Desolate Isles? Evan Griffith’s (Manatee Summer) SALLY SPYGLASS AND THE GREAT MUTINY MYSTERY is the first book in the Sally Spyglass series for middle-grade readers, a rollicking but sweet mystery set on the high seas of a fantasy world inspired by pirate legends and lore. (Please note, Michael Bourret is the agent on this project.)
YOUNG ADULT
Seventeen-year-old Tig Anderson has seventy-two hours to pull off the biggest lie of her life: get to her secret Parsons interview in New York City, impress fashion icon Anna Bellicosi, and make it home before her controlling mother finds out she's been hiding this dream for years. FALLING THROUGH THE UNIVERSE by award-winning author Cecilia Galante is a YA contemporary romance set over three intense days, about a fashion-obsessed introvert whose carefully controlled world unravels when her beloved grandfather collapses two days before her Parsons interview. In the chaos of the ER, Tig meets Ten James, a quiet, brilliant boy weighed down by grief he refuses to name. As the two are pulled together through emergencies, panic attacks, family fractures, and one life-changing trip to New York City during a snowstorm, Tig discovers a courage she never knew she had—and a love she never expected. With sequel potential, FALLING THROUGH THE UNIVERSE blends high-stakes drama with an aching slow-burn romance in a story about growing up, finding love in unexpected places, and learning that showing up for people might be the bravest thing you can do. Perfect for fans of Nina LaCour and Jenny Han. (Please note, Stacey Glick is the agent on this project.)
Teenage witch Lottie LaRoux is cursed, but she’s making the best of it. Anyone who falls in love with a LaRoux woman will die, so Lottie has shut herself off from romance. To cope, she throws herself into work at her family’s love magic shop, selling spells and potions to help others achieve the true love she’ll never experience. But something is causing her family’s magic to malfunction, and if Lottie doesn’t find a way to fix it, she’ll lose the shop—and her only shot at making something positive out of her cursed life. When Lottie meets Bellamy Liao, a paranormal YouTuber desperate to outrun a few ghosts of his own, they strike a deal: if he uses his paranormal investigator skills to help her restore her family’s magic, she’ll give him the memory-erasing spell he needs to forget his troubled past for good. But as they embark on an investigation through Lottie’s witchy seaside hometown, she finds herself drawn closer to charmingly eccentric Bellamy. As their reluctant partnership grows into something dangerously real, she’s forced to confront if saving the shop is worth risking her own heart—and the boy she’s starting to love. A speculative contemporary romance, Libby Kennedy’s debut YA novel WHEN LIFE GIVES YOU LOVE CURSES has all the magical charm of Practical Magic and Kiki’s Delivery Service, with the high stakes romance perfect for readers of Bring Me Your Midnight by Rachel Griffin and A Fragile Enchantment by Allison Saft. (Please note, Michaela Whatnall is the agent on this project.)
When fifteen-year-old Marie isn’t training with San Francisco Ballet, she’s immersed in rigorous academics at her exclusive private high school. Both elements of her life are ultra-competitive and cutthroat. So when Allie, an extraordinary dancer and Marie’s closest ballet friend, drops out of the Nutcracker days before the first performance—giving Marie a more prominent role—Marie doesn’t question it. But soon Marie realizes that Allie isn’t just sick or injured. She has vanished. When Marie investigates, no one gives her straight answers. Some even question her sanity. And Marie becomes obsessed with finding out what happened to Allie. She doesn’t expect a clue to come from her final art history project on the “little rats” (the ballerinas Degas famously painted). After she digs into the provenance of a Degas sketch on loan to a local museum from a private collector, she follows a hunch about Allie—and stumbles upon a horrifying secret implicating the most powerful billionaires in San Francisco. As Marie gets closer to the truth and finding Allie, those billionaires threaten her with expulsion from school and ballet. But she refuses to give up her quest for Allie—and redemption for every “little rat” degraded by wealthy men. Set during the glittering holiday season in San Francisco, with glimpses into the dark underworlds of wealth, ballet, and nineteenth-century Parisian art, Christie Matheson’s YA debut, LITTLE RAT, explores the power of loyalty, friendship, and fighting for what’s right. (Please note, Stacey Glick is the agent on this project.)