May was a loner in a new school. One day, a girl came up to her and drew on the playground with some chalk. That was the birth of Princess X. This girl, Libby (also new to the school), became May’s best frend. They were inseperable. Together, Libby and May created notebooks upon notebooks of the adventures of Princess X. Libby drew the pictures. May wrote the stories. But they came up with the adventures together. And they didn’t need anyone else.
For those who weren’t aware, author J.K. Rowling‘s juggernaut Harry Potter book series is going to be re-released with fully illustrated editions of the books including art by Jim Kay.
The first of the books, Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone, will be released by Scholastic in the fall on October 6th—the first of Rowling’s Potter series to be illustrated. After that, one new book will be released each year for the next seven years.
The first four images of what the illustrated versions of Harry Potter will look like have been released online, offering our first peek at Hermione, Ron, Hagrid, and Draco. You can check them out below.
“A long, long time ago…” there was a special boy named Charlie, who could feel the Hum all around him. He was learning (secretly) to manipulate it, under the tutelage of his too harsh grandfather. Charlie is bullied, as most unlikely heroes are. A robot girl from the future, Geneva, “smashes” in to save him from those bullies in order to enlist him to help to save the future from “The Future.”
The city of LAnges in the year 2042 is in danger of losing its humanity to a bigger bully, Gramercy Foxx, corporate billionaire inventor. Charlie has to harness the power of the Hum to stop Foxx, who can make everyone he comes in contact with do whatever he wants. “The Future” will expand that to the world. Charlie only has Geneva, the Hum, and a puppy.
Smasher by Scott Bly will keep the YA audience enthralled with this time-traveling thriller.
Perpetual sunset. That’s what happens when the world stops spinning on its axis. That’s elementary school science, right? It’s the only time of day Megan has ever known. She has never seen a sunrise and has never walked in moonlight. Not that there’s a moon anymore anyway. It was cracked in half 20 years ago, when the Visitors came. It is the “rock that splits the sky.” In the west is the Zone, a dangerous, time-warped and space-warped area, where Megan’s father has disappeared. Megan has had a vision — the vision of the Visitors plan for the rest of the survivors. She has to brave the Zone to find her father and stop the Visitors. She, her friend Luis, and Kelly, the girl they find along the way, set out into this unknown.
Vega Jane (quite possible the coolest name ever) is a 14 session female Wug. She lives in Wormwood with her brother, works as a finisher at Stacks, and spends time with the stuttering Delph. Everybody’s dirty, everybody’s hungry, and everybody exhausted….everybody….except the Council, of course. Surrounding Wormwood is the Quag, the whole Quag and nothing but the Quag. If you dare to even stick a pinky toe into the Quag, the garms, jabbits, and colossals will get you in a sliver if the freks don’t get you first. Or will they?
Vega Jane is not sure.
David Baldacci’s The Finisher is literally another world from the adult thriller novels he usually writes. This YA first of an obvious series has a very slow start as one tries to navigate the made-up language. It ends up pulling you out of the story in order to decode, rather than allowing you to fully immerse yourself into Wug life. Stick it out though. Baldacci ends most chapters with teasers, urging you to read on like:
“None of them would turn out to be right.”
and
“Until I knew my fate there would be no rest for me.”
Students of the Unusual™ comic cover used with permission of 3BoysProductions
The Mercuri Bros.™ comic cover used with permission of Prodigal Son Press