What authors received YA book deals this month?
Fantasy
Victoria Aveyard will add a fourth novel to her Red Queen series with HarperCollins, according to Hollywood Reporter. Red Queen takes place in a world where those with red blood are commoners, and those with silver blood are gifted with god-like powers. When Mare Barrow discovers she has a power despite her red blood, she gets thrown into a fight for the throne. Aveyard will also release a separate book with HarperCollins in 2019, though details are not yet available.
Entangled Teen bought Erica Cameron’s Deserted for publication in spring 2017 as part of a three-book series, according to and ‘s Twitter feeds. A sister tries to escape the island she lives on to save her brother from an immortal sleep, but the magic tainting the island is “abnormal and dangerous.”
Science Fiction
Scholastic bought Fonda Lee’s untitled YA novel for publication in spring 2017, according to Publisher’s Weekly. A bio-enhanced teen soldier struggles for his freedom when taken hostage by an extremist group intent on removing Earth’s alien government.
Simon & Schuster will publish S.J. Kincaid’s The Darkness in fall 2016, according to Publisher’s Weekly. A genetically created teenager, though to to be a soulless killing machine, takes the place of the princess she is sworn to protect and discovers her humanity. It will publish simultaneously in the U.K.
Contemporary
Houghton Mifflin Harcourt bought Whitney Taylor’s debut Definitions of Indefinable Things for publication in spring 2017, according to Publisher’s Weekly. The lives of three teens in a small town intersect in ways none of them expect.
David Levithan announced four books to be released in 2016 with Alfred A. Knopf Books for Young Readers on Mashable earlier this month. One is a companion novel to Levithan’s Every Day and Another Day. The Twelve Days of Dash & Lily will be co-written by Levithan and Rachel Cohen and is a sequel to Dash & Lily’s Book of Dares. Cohen and Levithan will also release Sam & Ilsa, a standalone story about “twins who go to a fateful end-of-the-year party.” No details are yet available on the fourth novel.
Lindsey Culli’s This Above All sold to Curiosity Quills Press, according to Publisher’s Lunch and . The daughter of an ultraconservative family is cast as Romeo in her high school’s production of Romeo and Juliet.
Simon & Schuster / Atheneum bought Alison McGhee’s Dollar Will with no publication date yet set, according to Publisher’s Weekly. A boy in Los Angeles leaves dollar-store items as anonymous gifts to his neighbors in a story told in 100-word vignettes.
Jennifer Mathieu’s Moxie sold to Roaring Brook for publication in fall 2017, according to Publisher’s Weekly. A girl inspired by the 90’s Riot Grrrl movement starts her own anonymous zine and sparks a feminist revolution at her high school. A second untitled book, scheduld for publication in fall 2018, was also bought in the deal.
HarperCollins bought Sally J. Plat’s debut Someday Birds for publication in 2017, according to Publisher’s Weekly. Charlie, diagnosed with OCD and Asperger’s, travels cross-country to visit his hospitalized dad, bargaining with the universe that if he sees all the rare birds the two planned to see someday, then things will be okay.
Ava Dellaira’s 17 Years sold to Farrar, Straus and Giroux for publication in 2018, according to Publisher’s Weekly. The novel flashes back between the lives of a mother and a daughter, both at age 17.
Simon & Schuster bought Lilliam Rivera’s My Shelf Life for publication in spring 2017, according to Publisher’s Weekly. Margot Sanchez charges $600 to her father’s credit card and must work it off at her family’s chain of grocery stores in the south Bronx.
Ashley Royer’s debut Remember to Forget sold to HarperCollins / Blink for publication in spring 2016, according to Publisher’s Weekly. A 2014 Wattpad Watty award winner, Levi moves from Australia to America after the death of his girlfriend.
Jane B. Mason’s Without Annette sold to Scholastic for publication in summer 2016, according to Publisher’s Weekly. A girl must find herself again in the wake of her curmbling relationship at her elite boarding school.
Lucas Hargis’ debut If Found Return to Astropop sold to HMH for publication in fall 2017, according to Publisher’s Weekly. Two gender-fluid teens, unaware of the other’s identity, become smitten with each other by reading the other’s journals.
HarperCollins will publish Triangles: The Points of Love, an anthology edited by Natalie C. Parker, in 2017, according to Publisher’s Weekly. Full of stories about teen love, the anthology will feature Parker, Renee Ahdieh, Rae Carson, Brandy Colbert, Katie Cotugno, Alaya Dawn Johnson, E.K. Johnston, Tessa Gratton, Julie Murphy, Garth Nix, Cajiuat Posadas, Veronica Roth, Maggie Stiefvater, Sabaa Tahir and Brenna Yovanoff.
Putnam bought Krystal Sutherland’s We Were Never Here for publication in fall 2016, according to Publisher’s Weekly. Henry Page is falling for new girl Grace Town, despite her weird clothes and her visits to the graveyard every day.
A.E. Kaplan’s Grendel’s Guide to Love and War sold to Knopf for publication in spring 2017, according to Publisher’s Weekly. Tom Grendel is determined to take down the jock-next-door, but he’s falling for his enemy’s sister.
Retellings
A.G. Howard will publish a Phantom of the Opera retelling with Abrams in January 2017, according to Howard’s blog. In Roseblood, a French boarding school for music and art has ties to the classic opera – only for a senior to discover the real danger lurking in the opera house.
Horror
Amy Plum’s Dreamfall sold to HarperTeen for publication in summer 2017, according to Publisher’s Weekly. The first book in a duology, an experiment to cure chronic insomnia goes wrong and leaves its seven teenage test subjects in a shared coma where their nightmares live. If they die in the dream, they die in real life.
Emily-Lloyd Jones’ The Hearts We Sold sold to Little, Brown for publication in spring 2017, according to Publisher’s Weekly. A girl trades her heart to a demon and joins a gang of ‘heartless’ teens trying to save the world.
Alex Vantol’s novella Dead Man’s Curve sold to Leap Books’ Shine imprint for publication in fall 2016, according to Publisher’s Weekly. Booker accidentally runs over a strange figure on a wilderness highway.
