Ashley Herring Blake
HMH Books for Young Readers
352 pages
$17.99
“Debut author Blake puts the teens in a near-impossible situation, adeptly showing how Sam and Hadley can be more adult in handling the complications of romance than all four of their parents . . . Readers will be left thinking about the ways love can both hurt and heal.”
—Publishers Weekly
Bart King
Disney-Hyperion
320 pages
$16.99
“An entertaining and imaginative tale that’s perfect for the8 to 12 age range…Kids will love the wild and crazy adventures…Teachers will appreciate the tie-ins to English and science, used in such an ingenious way, kids won’t realize they’re learning!”
–Joanne Fritz, “My Brain on Books”
Journalist Vince Vawter looks back on writing Paperboy, his first novel for children
May 16, 2016 “After my debut novel, Paperboy, won a 2014 Newbery Honor, a question gnawed at me: what do I know about children’s literature?” Prior to his appearance at the Children’s Festival of Reading, held in Knoxville on May 21, 2016, journalist Vince Vawter reflects on his surprising second career as a middle-grade novelist.
An unlikely trio of friends in Kate DiCamillo’s Raymie Nightingale search for trust and healing
May 3, 2016 In Raymie Nightingale, two-time Newbery medalist Kate DiCamillo returns to small-town Florida to explore the relationship among three very different girls, each struggling with a difficult personal story. DiCamillo will discuss her seventh novel at the Nashville Public Library on May 7, 2016, at 2 p.m. and at the Memphis Public Library on May 8, 2016, at 1:30 p.m.
Writing as E.F. Abbott, children’s author Kristin O’Donnell Tubb transforms a legend into a lesson in John Lincoln Clem: Civil War Drummer Boy
April 19, 2016 The fourth book in Macmillan’s “Based on a True Story” series for middle-grade readers, John Lincoln Clem: Civil War Drummer Boy, is the tale of Johnny Clem, a drummer boy for the Union side during the Battle of Shiloh. Writing under the pseudonym of E.F. Abbott, Williamson County author Kristin O’Donnell Tubb tells a story that’s something less than history and something more than fiction. Tubb will discuss the book at Parnassus Books in Nashville on April 24, 2016, at 2 p.m.
In Brooks Benjamin’s debut children’s novel, a seventh-grader faces some hard choices as he tries to figure out friendship, loyalty, and what it means to be true to yourself
April 13, 2016 In Brooks Benjamin’s middle-grade novel, My Seventh-Grade Life in Tights, twelve-year-old Dillon Parker wants to compete for a scholarship to dance school, but his freestyle crew thinks dance schools are for losers. Benjamin will appear at Parnassus Books in Nashville on April 16, 2016.
