Kids & YA Newsletter: September 2026

YOUNG ADULT

Washington, D.C., 2009. Aspiring writer Mia, fifteen, is desperately searching for answers after developing life-altering symptoms. She’s too sick to fence, her social life is nonexistent after her best friend dropped her, and the apparition of her recently deceased grandmother, Alice, has been following her to doctors’ appointments. To be constantly questioned by doctors if she’s faking her illness is one thing. To have Gran’s apparition question her motives as well…that’s another. Kansas City, MO, 1952. With a dead father, a typist mother, and a little brother just starting school, seventeen-year-old Alice holds her family together. Her one solace is her school’s debate program, which she believes is her ticket out of Missouri. But when she is forced to partner with a new transfer student who is unlike her in every way and knocks her off her axis, and when she faces a devastating assault that will impact her forever, Alice has to confront the possibility that she will lose her carefully planned future. Told in alternating prose and verse, and based upon the true story of the author and her grandmother as teens, WE DAUGHTERS is a multi-generational story about disability, bodily autonomy, and how sometimes we only understand the people we love after they’re gone. The second novel by Lillie Lainoff, award-winning author of One for All and founder of Disabled Kidlit Writers, it is a work of true beauty for fans of Under the Same Stars and All My Rage. (Please note, Jim McCarthy is the agent on this project.)

Ten years ago, Finn lost everything when an empress slaughtered his family and conquered his country, Eritannia. Back then he was a princess—now, newly transitioned and trained as a contract killer, Finn has returned home to take back what’s his. His plan? Use a series of royal balls leading up to a royal wedding as cover to infiltrate the castle. He’ll eliminate the empress’s most trusted protectors one by one, ending it all with her. Within the castle, Prince Rory prepares for the balls reluctantly. His engagement is arranged and loveless, orchestrated to further solidify his mother’s empire. But when he discovers that the long-lost Eritannian heir has returned and is killing within the castle walls, his mother tasks him with tracking down and killing the princess. Rory accepts unquestioningly. As Rory hunts for a princess who no longer exists and Finn executes his revenge, their paths collide at the balls, where sparks fly. But the closer they become, the harder it gets to separate missions from feelings. When identities are revealed, the boys must make a choice: cling to each other at the cost of their lives, or cling to vengeance at the cost of love. TEAR DOWN THE STARS by debut author Jason Langford is a dual-POV enemies-to-lovers fantasy romance, perfect for fans of Queen of Faces by Petra Lord and Heartless Hunter by Kristen Ciccarelli. (Please note, Michaela Whatnall is the agent on this project.)

Two teenage opposites join an 80s movie club and are thrust into an alternative VHS world made up of films bearing an eerie resemblance to Molly Ringwald and John Hughes’ most famous collaborations. When Maggie Ringer as Angie in Lovely in Lace gains consciousness and goes rogue, the group who created and controls this 80s film world, The Preservationists, need someone to fill her role until they can find her and save the film world from disintegrating forever. Enter popular, naive Hannah who loves the escape these movies provide and readily accepts the opportunity to play this role. But also enter cynical, critical Jace who accidentally gets sucked into the world behind Hannah and wants to correct the films’ faults. As they contend with their new reality and each other, Maggie appears and reveals the more sinister motivations behind this world: The Preservationists kidnap real teens to replace the principal characters in the movies in order to infuse fresh teen energy into the storylines and keep the films popular in the present day, despite their obvious problems. Together, Jace, Hannah, and Maggie must work to find an escape, rescue the teens who have been absorbed over time, and decide if the films are worth preserving at all. In alternating perspectives and with equal parts adventure, romance, and cultural criticism, Tanya Boteju’s BE KIND, REWIND is an exploration of art’s impact on identity, the power of nostalgia, and the importance of breaking out of the roles we are expected to fill. (Please note, Jim McCarthy is the agent on this project.)

YOUNG ADULT NONFICTION

When people think of punk rock, they usually focus on the loud music and the wild fashions—distorted guitars and pounding drums, mohawks and body piercings. But below the surface, so much of punk is really about protesting the status quo, making punk a protest movement in its own right. Having long focused on the Civil Rights era and the protest movements of the 1960s, National Book Award finalist Michael G. Long (More Than a Dream) now turns to the punk era with PUNK AND PROTEST: THE STORY OF THE PUNK MOVEMENT IN 12 BANDS. Through capsule biographies that Long brings to life with his usual sharp, engaging prose, PUNK AND PROTEST stage-dives into punk’s music, art, and fashion to show that from the start, punk rockers protested against war and consumerism, racism and sexism, and, of course, “the establishment.” Featuring the stories of famous bands like Ramones, the Clash and Green Day, and with a special focus on female-led bands like Bikini Kill and the Linda Lindas, PUNK AND PROTEST will include a treasure trove of humorous and jaw-dropping images that reinforce the book’s central theme: punk is protest. (Please note, John Rudolph is the agent on this project.)

MIDDLE GRADE

Fourth grader Evan has come up with the most brilliant idea in the history of the world, if he does say so himself. After learning about the concept of insurance at family dinner, he offers his first-grade sister and her friends a special kind of policy: he and his friends Max and Nora will “protect them from monsters” in return for a portion of their snacks and desserts. Soon enough, the three of them are rolling in candy….which is all very well, until actual monsters start showing up, and the little kids ask them to hold up their end of the deal. Award-winning kids’ author J.A. Dauber mixes comedy, not-too-scary horror, adventure, and a little bit of mystery in MONSTER INSURANCE, as Evan and his friends have to figure out what’s behind this surprising turn of events, and how to take responsibility to fight off the monsters for good. For fans of The Last Kids on Earth. (Please note, Stacey Glick is the agent on this project.)