What authors received YA book deals last month?
Fantasy
Marie Lu’s Kingdom of Back sold to Putnam for publication in early 2019. Based on the childhood of the composer Mozart and his sister Nannerl, a magical imp from the “imaginary” kingdom of Back offers to fulfill Nannerl’s secret wish to always be remembered, unwittingly luring her into a terribly pact to solidify her place in history.
Astrid Scholte’s Four Dead Queens sold to Putnam for publication in spring 2018. A teenage thief discovers all four of the nation’s queens have been murdered and teams up with the messenger she stole from to figure out who did it.
Mary E. Pearson’s Dance of Thieves sold to Henry Holt for publication in spring 2018, with a second book to follow. Set in the Remnant Chronicles universe, a reformed thief is sent by the Queen of Venda to investigate the disturbance in a distant land only to find herself matching wits with the leader of an outlaw dynasty.
Amy Rose Capetta’s The Brilliant Death sold to Viking for publication in fall 2018. Teodora DiSangro is the daughter of a mafia-like family in a magical 19th-century Italy who must master her hidden powers to transform into a boy and plunge into the dangerous politics of her newly unified country, even as her shape-shifting multi-gendered magical tutor pulls her heart in another direction.
Philip Pullman announced a follow-up series to his beloved His Dark Materials trilogy. The Book of Dust will be delivered in three volumes. “The first volume will take place a decade before the events of His Dark Materials, when Lyra is an infant” and will release on October 19. “The second and third volumes will be set ten years after the original trilogy’s conclusion, and will follow Lyra as a young woman.”
Rebecca Shaeffer’s Not Even Bones sold to Houghton Mifflin Harcourt for publication in fall 2018. A teenage girl dissects monsters and packages their parts for sale on the black market, but when her mother brings home a live specimen, she decides to help him escape and ends up sold on the black market in his place.
Jonathan Maberry’s Rot & Ruin: Broken Lands sold to Simon & Schuster for publication in summer 2018, with its sequel Rot & Ruin: Lost Roads to follow in summer 2019. A new cast of characters joins Maberry’s popular Rot & Ruin series in a nightmare landscape of nature gone wild and weird.
Gwen Cole’s futuristic Western Ride On sold to Sky Pony Press for publication in spring 2018. A teen outlaw crosses paths with a girl whose brother is taken by the Lawmen gang, turning a rescue mission into a question for revenge.
Claire LeGrand’s Empirium trilogy sold to Sourcebooks Fire, with first book Ashborn to publish in spring 2018. Two young women centuries apart — one a troubled, magic-wielding queen; the other a bounty hunter serving a ruthless empire — must fight in a cosmic war that spans millennia, only to discover as their stories intersect that they have the power to save their world or doom it.
Toil & Trouble, an anthology edited by Tess Sharpe and Jessica Spotswood, sold to HarlequinTeen for publication in fall 2018. This feminist witch anthology will feature Brandy Colbert, Zoraida Cordova, Andrea Cremer, Kate Hart, Emery Lord, Elizabeth May, Anna-Marie McLemore, Tehlor Kay Mejia, Karuna Riazi, Lindsay Smith, Nova Ren Suma, Robin Talley, Shveta Thakrar, Tristina Wright, and Brenna Yovanoff.
Contemporary
Kasie West’s Love, Life and the List sold to HarperTeen for publication in winter 2018. A girl complies a list of soul-stretching experiences to complete with her best friend – the boy she happens to be in love with – to bring more emotional depth to her art.
Carrie Mac’s A Boy Like Her sold to Knopf for publication in summer 2019. Charlie starts a new school determined not to identify with either gender but becomes pressured to conform one way or another.
Austin Siegemund-Broka and Emily Wibberley’s Upstaged sold to Puffin for publication in summer 2018. When a teen girl is cast as Juliet in her school play after being the Rosaline in all her off-stage relationships, she discovers the Romeo she never expected.
Juleah del Rosario’s novel-in-verse 500 Words or Less sold to Simon Pulse for publication in fall 2018. A high school senior attempts to salvage her reputation by writing her Ivy League-classmates college admissions essays while struggling with her own moral compass.
Dana Mele’s People Like Us sold to Putnam for publication in spring 2018 in a two-book deal. A tight-knit group of girls discover a classmate’s body in the lake and are targeted by a revenge website who threatens to implicate them for murder.
Michael Belanger’s The History of Jane Doe sold to Dial for publication in summer 2018. A high school history buff tries to unravel the complicated relationship with the ex-girlfriend he calls Jane Doe.
Eric Kester’s Right Tackle sold to FSG for publication in spring 2018. A make-or-break small-town football season pushes brotherhood to its limits.
Two Sophie Jordan novels sold to Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, with the first to publish in January 2019. Girl Code follows two best friends who make and break rules for navigating the world of guys, schools, parties and family in alternating points of view. Guy Code explores the same through male perspectives.
Genre Unspecified
Marieke Nijkamp’s Before I Let Go sold to Sourcebooks Fire for publication in January 2018. Days before Corey is to visit her former home, her best friend commits suicide. When she returns, Corey discovers the town’s people are nothing like she remembers – and nobody is telling the truth about Kyra’s death.
Colleen Oakes’ The Black Coats sold to HarperTeen for publication in winter 2019. A teen joins a vigilante group seeking justice for violence against women.
Graphic Novel
Tony Medina, John Jennings and Stacey Robinson sold their YA graphic novel I Am Alfonso Jones to Tu Books for publication in fall 2017. Alfonso Jones is thrust into the afterlife where he watches his family fight to gain justice after he is killed by an off-duty police officer.
David Bowles and Raúl the Third sold their steampunk graphic novel Clockwork Curandera to Tu Books for publication in fall 2019. Clockwork Curandera is a reimagining of Frankenstein in an alternate colonial Mexico.
Nonfiction
Mackenzi Lee’s Bygone Badass Broads – which you may have seen on YA Interrobang with book recommendation tie-ins – for publication in spring 2018. The collection will explore 52 bygone badass broads with illustrations from Lee.
