The Children's Writer's Guild
sections
search
about
posts
features
reviews
One hundred years in the future stands a glittering one thousand story tower that has replaced Manhattan as it was once known. A place where anything is possible if you want it badly enough. Inside this tower are five teenagers whose lives are interwoven by technology, scandal, and betrayal. Friendships are put to the test. Personal boundaries are pushed to the limit. Everyone wants something and everyone has something to lose. Katharine McGee deftly explores the lies and deceit that make up the dazzling future New York elite in this thrilling debut novel.
Did Thisbe jump off the bridge that joins Coronado Island to the California mainland? Then where’s her body? She couldn’t have survived. Could she? Over a dozen narrators—including her no good boyfriend, her sister, her mother, the police, school friends—help tell Thisbe’s story in 87 brief chapters.
After 7-year-old Anna’s father disappears in 1939 Krakow, Poland, she follows a tall lanky man across a field. She calls him the Swallow Man. We never learn his name in spite of the fact that the two walk through the countryside for four years, hiding in full view.
Four stories are linked by the image of a spiral. The first centers on a Paleolithic girl who might be inventing the first written language glyph. Then Anna is hunted as a witch in 17th century England. The third brings us to the story of a mad poet in a 19th century asylum. And finally, the future. All are tragedies, but are they really tragic?
In this young reader revision of the best-seller, nine Washington State boys, sons of lumberjacks and farmers, compete first to get on the rowing team, then beat the champion California team to qualify to row against the elite eastern schools, and finally make it all the way to Hitler’s Nazi Germany to compete in the Olympics.
Lady Helen Wrexhall is preparing for her debut at the Royal Court. Amid fancy gowns and sparkling balls, she finds herself caught up in the investigation of a cabal of demons that are preying on young souls of Regency England. Her mentor, the ill-reputed Lord Carlston, is by her side to teach her the ins and outs of the mysterious Dark Days Club into which she is newly inducted. Humor, intrigue, and a touch of romance make this novel one to stand out!
At the end of World War II, 1945, citizens flee Germany as the Russians invade from the east and the Allies approach from the west. Four teenage narrators gradually give up their secrets. Three grow closer together, fighting severe cold, bombs, making their way to a ship that should rescue them. But who will survive? Are Joana and Florian falling in love?
In this autobiographical novel by David Almond, Dominic Hall comes of age in post World War II northern England in the shadow of the shipyards. At home, Dom is caught between his wise mother and his rough working-class father. Outside, he's drawn between the lovely, artistic Holly Stroud and the bully Vincent. The Tightrope Walkers is a dark yet deeply compelling story.
Every story needs a hero, a villain, and a secret. Shy Wink, popular Poppy, and brooding Midnight form a triangle of lust, lies, and deception in April Genevieve Tucholke’s newest novel. Every action is driven by a secret, hidden motive and all Wink, Poppy, and Midnight can do is try to uncover each other’s motives before it’s too late; for nothing is as it seems, nothing can be believed, and no one is who you think. Fans of Michelle Hodkin and E. Lockhart will revel in the heady spiral of this twisted tale.
Joan Skraggs runs away from her rural Pennsylvania farm home in 1911 hoping that life has more to offer her than the drudgery of feeding her irascible father, coarse big brothers, and chickens. The gentile girl is hired by a Jewish family in Baltimore, where she has electricity, books, adventures, and—lucky for us—keeps a diary. The plucky girl explores work, love, feminism and more.
Imperial Russia is being threatened by both the Ottoman Empire and the Kazakhs. The tsar now needs a magical enchanter by his side to help him rule the country. Vika Andreyeva and Nikolai Karimov are both powerful enchanters – and the only two of their kind in Russia. To decide between Vika and Nikolai, the tsar begins The Crown’s Game, a centuries-old magical dual that will test the powers of both enchanters. The winner of the Game will become the next Imperial Enchanter; the other will be sentenced to death. Nikolai and Vika embark on the adventure of a lifetime as they fight to win the coveted position and fight their growing attraction to one another. Can they dodge the twists of fate and survive the Game or will they succumb to forces beyond their control?
Cammie Deveau has had more than her share of tough breaks in life: She struggles with physical disability, and, having lost both of her parents, has been left in the care of her rumrunning aunt. When the possibility of attending a a special school for the blind opens up, the new life Cammie has longed for suddenly appears so close. But although Cammie may be desperate to escape her circumstances, her aunt has other ideas. Soon, Cammie is drawn into an outrageous scheme to undermine the local distillery that could finally let her take flight–or bring her whole life crashing down.
