Kids & YA Newsletter: September 2025

MIDDLE GRADE

Eleven-year-old Darla Jean Sullivan hasn’t spoken a word in 374 days. A Black girl adopted into a wealthy white family in a small Southern town, Darla Jean has always felt different. But when her classmates humiliate her by painting her skin white, cutting her hair, and posting the evidence online, Darla retreats into silence. Diagnosed with selective mutism, she finds herself surrounded by people who see her silence as a problem to fix, rather than a pain to understand. As sixth grade begins at a new school, Darla Jean quietly navigates a world of awkward stares, microaggressions, and old bullies. But everything starts to change when she meets Layla and Jada, two bold and brilliant new friends who see her, not her silence, and help Darla Jean rediscover her voice and take up space. Through new friendships, a journal, and quiet acts of resistance, Darla Jean begins to reclaim the power of her voice, on her own terms. SPEAK UP, DARLA JEAN is a stunning debut from author Aminata Jaiteh. Jam-packed with emotion and written in Darla Jean’s glorious first person voice, this gorgeous novel will appeal to readers of Genesis Begins Again by Alicia D. Williams and From the Desk of Zoe Washington by Janae Marks. (Please note, Jim McCarthy is the agent on this project.) 

YOUNG ADULT

After nearly drowning in childhood, sixteen-year-old Ella Ridgewood has sworn off the sea. That includes her rescuer and former best friend, Drew Strand, whose family makes their living on the water (and has a strange proclivity for dying in it). Everybody knows that Strands are trouble. So when his boss is murdered, Drew is the town’s top suspect. Certain he’s innocent, Ella decides to investigate, even if it means facing her guilt over their fractured friendship. Soon she discovers that the truth behind the murder is shockingly other-worldly: In the nearby ocean, a legendary tide rift has allowed 18th-century sailors to pass through to the present day. They’re searching for a Jonah—an occult navigator and coveted weapon of war. Believing Drew is the Jonah they seek, they’ve slaughtered his boss, taking Drew for their own. Determined to rescue him, Ella joins their rival ship, The Phantom, crewed by teenage pirates who are already in pursuit of Drew’s captors. Meanwhile, it’s becoming clear that Drew just might be a Jonah after all. The ocean is transforming him—now, he thirsts only for seawater, and his insides swell, plotting to tear away his mortal flesh. But, despite her better instincts, Ella can’t help the way her heart calls for him, even as it’s also awakening to the allure of The Phantom’s death-defying captain, Bennett. As treacherous tides tangle their fates, Drew, Ella, and Bennett fight to escape being dragged to the briny deep. THE VERY DEPTHS DID ROT by debut author Lyndsey Reeve is a propulsive, genre-blending YA speculative novel that reimagines Samuel Coleridge’s deliciously eerie Rime of the Ancient Mariner, for fans of the adventurous oceanic fantasy in Compass and Blade by Rachel Greenlaw and the swoony folk horror in Your Blood, My Bones by Kelly Andrew. (Please note, Michaela Whatnall is the agent on this project.) 
 

Ever since assuming control after the Last War, the Corporation has relied on the power of one girl. Widely believed to be the living embodiment of an all-powerful goddess, “the Only” is a cultural icon and a celebrity who serves from the age of six until her seventeenth birthday. On that day—before she can become too strong-minded and question the men in power—she is beheaded in a public ceremony and another six-year-old girl takes her place. This is how it has always been. Until now. The current Only, sixteen-year-old Juno, has never had reason to suspect she’s just a pawn of the Corporation and has never questioned her duty to sacrifice her life when she turns seventeen. Until the day a trusted member of her inner circle whispers in her ear, They’re lying to you, Juno, and mysteriously disappears. Meanwhile, sixteen-year-old Sparrow Merchant, a commoner, is barely making ends meet under the fist of the Corporation. So when she’s chosen to compete in a televised pageant to become part of the Only’s exclusive entourage (her “Squad”), the chance at wealth and security is too alluring for even jaded, skeptical Sparrow to pass up. But a rebellion is brewing, and its leaders need Sparrow’s help: they want her to assassinate Juno to prove to the public that the Only is just a mortal girl, nothing more. Sparrow may not believe in the Only, but she also isn’t the type to stick her neck out for a cause—until she learns that  she has been linked to this rebellion for far longer than she ever realized. MS Duirham’s YA debut, THE ONLY, is a stunning, thought-provoking dystopian that calls to mind The Grace Year by way of The Selection. Exploring themes of female friendship, celebrity culture, and the commodification of girlhood—all against a backdrop of high fashion and sharp knives—it is a super-charged thrill-ride that demands attention. (Please note, Jim McCarthy is the agent on this project.) 
 

Four months ago, Beth Wheeler’s world turned upside down. Her dad died, her relationship with her girlfriend imploded, and now, the only place that feels like home is Pelican Park, the oceanside amusement park where, once upon a time, her parents fell in love. But Pelican Park is under attack from a bloodthirsty development company hoping to demolish the park and build a resort in its place. Beth would do anything to save the park, but if she wants to take on a massive corporation, she’s going to need some help. Enter: Adam Greene, the only other person in Arista Beach who might love Pelican Park as much as Beth. But outside of the park, Beth and Adam have nothing in common. She goes to Arista Beach High. He goes to Southside Christian. She’s an atheist. He’s Southern Baptist. She’s queer. He’s... not. Like, not at all. Right? Right? Taking place over the course of one life-changing summer, Elliott Wiltrout’s debut YA romance, SUMMER IN FREE FALL, is the story of two kids putting aside their differences and working together to save the place they love most—and maybe even saving each other in the process. Melding a whirlwind summer romance with both a nuanced critique of evangelicalism and a thoughtful examination of loss, it’s perfect for fans of Casey McQuiston, Becky Albertalli, and Alice Oseman. (Please note, Michaela Whatnall is the agent on this project.) 
 

For fifteen-year-old Yashar, war is something that happens on TV. It belongs to news headlines and Hollywood movies, not to his quiet life in Ahvaz, in southern Iran. But in September 1980, Iraq invades, and suddenly his hometown is at the heart of the battlefield. As his family rushes to fortify their home, Yashar stumbles across a hidden suitcase in the workshop. Inside, he finds a stack of drawings by another child, kept alongside his own drawings as a kid. Has his mother been keeping the memory of a sibling he never knew? And if so, what became of this other child? Yashar confides in Nilou, his childhood friend newly returned to Ahvaz. Together they search for answers, and their bond deepens into a fierce first love. While bombs fall and school life fractures, the drawings reveal a trail of clues. The missing boy was obsessed with Tintin, using comics to map his world in secret codes. Decoding his art, Yashar and Nilou begin to uncover a darker history: the sibling may have crossed paths with a notorious serial killer…and may still be alive. For readers of Ruta Sepetys and Khaled Hosseini, Amir Ahmadi Arian’s GODLESS CITY is a breathtaking YA debut about the horrors of war and the mysteries hidden within families. (Please note, Jim McCarthy is the agent on this project.)