Miss Mary Mac introduces storytelling and creative writing in graphic novel form with chapters that cover writing as an art form, where ideas come from, creating strong images, motivation, inspiration, and the creative process. The reader is invited to consider their own experiences and how to find their interests and bring those both together to tell a story. The author provides examples from different perspectives and brings their words to life by pairing them with lavishly drawn figures by the artist. The details and shading throughout give each panel depth and draw the reader in to learn more. It also allows the reader to visualize themselves in places they may not have experience with themselves.
It is fantastic to have a craft novel about creative writing presented in graphic novel form as the visualizations alongside the advice from the author worked in tandem to create a full picture for any reader to follow. I also enjoyed that the author used some of their early writing as examples throughout the book. At times, the artist used cartoon proportions and non-realistic coloring to move the reader’s eye across the pages. Other times, the images were portrayed more realistically, which allowed the reader to take in the details.
This is obviously marketed toward younger readers interested in writing, but this would be a good introduction for anyone interested in learning more about the creative process or writing in general. It would be great for public and school libraries and would be a good addition to academic collections that collect juvenile or leisure books.
Creative Writing with Miss Mary Mac: A Handbook for Young and Future Authors By Mary McInerney Art by Rivkah LaFille Macmillan First Second, 2025 ISBN: 9781250216885
Company Age Rating: 8-12
NFNT Age Recommendation: Teen (13-16), Tween (10-13)
Michael Regina’s debut in 2021, The Sleepover, established him as a creator of thoughtful horror stories for a middle grade audience. His sophomore effort, Deepwater Creek, repeats this theme but with a new group of kids.
It’s the last fishing trip of summer and brothers Wade and Andrew and their friends Camilla and Tommy are determined to enjoy themselves with the brothers’ dad, despite the recent destruction of a hurricane and the resultant rumors that… something… is causing problems in the river. The dynamic of the brothers – Andrew, hesitant and cautious, Wade, constantly pushing him past his boundaries – is established during the trip while Camilla and Tommy are more background characters. Then disaster strikes. A strange fog rolls in, the fish start looking strange, and Andrew and their dad go overboard. Wade manages to help them escape, but there’s… something… in the water, seen only dimly as a blacker shape with three gleaming red eyes and a sharp horn against a cloud of shadows.
In the aftermath of the accident, Andrew withdraws into himself but Wade refuses to leave him alone and eventually convinces him, and their friends, to make another trip up the river and face their fears. Their journey will lead them into a terrifying world of strange underwater creatures and dark secrets from the past, forcing them to confront not only the monsters hiding in the fog but also their own fears.
Regina’s art has a distinctive, swirling look, due to the watercolors used to paint it. Regina’s medium is perfect for the story, with dirty grey fog drifting throughout the images and terrifying shadows lurking under the dark, murky water. Even the sunny day at the very beginning has ominous yellowish clouds in the sky and the story grows darker and darker as it progresses, with monstrous shapes only partially glimpsed through the clouds until they are briefly but fully revealed, evil red “eyes” blazing against churning teeth and whipping tentacles. When the group flees the monster, pushing through the fog to find the deserted wreck left from the monster’s last incursion, the art shifts to sepia tones. They encounter a “survivor” who tells the story and its disastrous results. After this sequence builds to a terrifying revelation, the small group plunges back into the fog, desperately trying to survive, the increasing darkness pierced only by strange sparks of light. The story ends in the dark water, now cleansed of the monster, as the two brothers together swim towards the bright light of the day and future.
This is classic horror, the monsters shown as both a very real menace and a dark, terrifying mystery with a deeper layer to the story reflecting on the hidden layers of the characters involved in the story. Both Wade and Andrew have layers of feelings they are hiding, especially Wade, who covers his anxieties over future change with his pushy insistence on Andrew “getting over it” and sticking with the group of friends. Andrew and Wade’s mom speaks Spanish, Tommy is Black, and Camilla is white with blonde hair. Although secondary characters, both Tommy and Camilla are fully realized people; Camilla has her own scientific agenda and can take over leadership when needed and Tommy has a dry sense of humor, firm loyalty, and a determined, practical streak that keeps the group going through their adventure.
Readers who ventured into Regina’s previous book will be excited and nervous about stepping into another one of his strange worlds, where a new group of intrepid kids overcome their fears and venture forward to face both the monsters that lurk in the shadows and their own insecurities. The story will remain in readers’ imaginations long after they finish it, not just for the delicious thrill of what might be hiding in the shadows, but also for the hope of seeing the light beyond the darkness of fear, change, and grief.
Deepwater Creek By Michael Regina Penguin Random House, 2025 ISBN: 9780593117378
NFNT Age Recommendation: Middle Grade (7-11), Tween (10-13)
Echoes of October is built around a simple yet difficult question. The sort of question that children often ask and adults wish they could answer.
Why can’t we just get along?
That question is asked around the world in many ways and many languages. Yet it has taken on a particular vibrancy within the Middle East and especially regarding the Gaza conflict. This is the focal point of Echoes in October, which builds to the Hamas attack on Israel on October 7, 2023.
The story is told through the eyes of four children. All of them are 11 years old, but all of them were born of drastically different circumstances. Jannah is a Muslim girl from Gaza City. Amir is a Druze boy from Daliyat-al-Karmel. Lily is a Canadian Evangelical Christian, born in Toronto but recently relocated to Kibbut Kfar Aza. Eli is a Jewish boy from Tel Aviv. The children do not meet as a group over the course of the novel, though Eli and Amir are cousins. Lily and Jannah also meet briefly, as Lily’s father works as a volunteer driver who escorts Jannah into Israel for medical treatment.
However, despite its setting, Echoes of October plays out as a slice-of-life comic rather than a political thriller. The story remains firmly focused upon the children and their individual issues. This drives home their common ground and makes them more relatable to the young readers for who Echoes of October was written.
Eli, for instance, is worried about his parents talk of moving away from Israel. Their only concern is the safety of their family and what the threat of war may do to Eli. Yet Eli’s biggest fear is moving away from his friends, his school, and everything he knows. This is counterbalanced by the story of Lily, who has already undergone this trauma. She misses her friends in Canada and worries that her dream of being the next Taylor Swift may be short-circuited by moving halfway around the world.
Amir, an aspiring comic creator, has similarly big dreams of creating the first Druze superhero – a Captain America figure modeled on his soldier father. Unfortunately, most of his family have no use for his art and intend to put him to work in their restaurant instead of letting him continue school. Jannah also has issues with her family, for she has dreams of becoming a politician and bringing peace to the region so the people around her can be happy. Unfortunately, the people calling for violence on both sides are so much louder and so many refuse to listen to women, let alone girls.
Echoes of October does not pretend there are any easy answers. It does, however, offer one of the most heartfelt and well-structured introductions to the conflict in Gaza and how there is more than one side involved in the conflict. While the artwork and language used by Ami Adan are simple, they deliver a powerful idea that ultimately boils down to that one big question.
Why can’t we just get along?
Echoes of October is recommended by the author for readers 10 and up. This is a fair rating, as there is no objectionable content to be found here. Doubtless some will object to the idea of a children’s graphic novel that discusses the conflict in Gaza sight unseen. Yet this book is not entirely about that conflict. It is about four young people struggling to cling to some sense of normalcy in an increasingly angry world. That is something that all too many of us can related to in modern times and why I would recommend this graphic novel to readers of all ages rather than just children.
Echoes of October By Ami Adan Self-Published, 2025
Company Age Rating: 10+
NFNT Age Recommendation: Adult (18+), Older Teen (16-18), Teen (13-16), Tween (10-13) Creator Representation: Israeli, Palestinian, Jewish, Muslim, Character Representation: Canadian, Israeli, Palestinian, Jewish, Muslim, Protestant ,
Mira and Rosie are perfectly capable of babysitting their little sister Peanut… usually. But their parents have been gone for a week now, longer than their expedition was supposed to last, and Peanut is, well, manifesting magical powers. Hiding them is beginning to be a problem.
Mira and Rosie’s whole world was built on the ruins of a civilization destroyed by magic, and the few remaining magical beings are considered dangerous monsters. If Peanut is actually one of them, then Mira and Rosie have to keep that a secret. That’s getting more difficult all the time: Peanut is shapeshifting, bringing toys to life, and creating fires and floods. She’s a sweet, well-meaning little kid, but she has a toddler’s emotional volatility combined with powerful magic she can’t always control. Mira and Rosie are scrambling to keep her abilities hidden while also trying to pass the all-important combat trials at their high school.
Then a monster hunter arrives in town. Which isn’t even the sisters’ biggest concern, because Peanut’s magic has attracted the attention of something even more dangerous. Luckily, Rosie and Mira are joined by some unexpected allies as they fight to protect their beloved little werebeast of a sister.
Mira and Rosie are both patient and loving with Peanut. They sometimes get frustrated with her or with each other, which is understandable given their stress levels. Besides keeping Peanut safe, they have to compete in the combat trials at school, which determine who will be accepted at the prestigious Adventure Academy. Rosie is desperate to get in and be like their mother, an adventurer who makes expeditions into the dangerous Depths to recover artifacts from the age of magic. But while Rosie is determined to follow in her footsteps, Mira isn’t so sure that adventuring is for her. This adds to the strain on the two sisters as they navigate the combat trials.
The setting is a fun, vibrant mishmash of modern elements and fantasy. Rosie and Mira attend high school, but their classes include lessons on adventuring and magical versus mechanical artifacts. Their house is equipped with familiar technology like plumbing and kitchen appliances, but it also has a security system with booby traps like spiked floors and swinging axes. Sometimes the technology levels seem curiously mismatched – Mira and Rosie have a cell phone but also an old-fashioned rotary phone and a TV with rabbit ear antennae – which adds to the quirky feel of the setting. (Or possibly it’s just their family that’s quirky.)
The art is colorful and really showcases the setting’s blend of modern and fantasy elements. For example, the clothes range from modern-looking t-shirts to school uniforms to the hooded cloak of the Monster Hunter. There is also some interesting architecture. The characters are all highly expressive and a bit cartoony, especially during silly scenes, like when Rosie babbles at her crush. The depictions of magic range from fun and joyful to menacing: Peanut’s powers are glowy, bubbly, and brightly colored, while the magical creature that stalks her has a gloopy, tar-like appearance and, eventually, a creepy mask.
There is a little scariness in the book: the shadowy creature that pursues Peanut lurks in the background, seen by the reader but not by the sisters, growing as it feeds on magic. Ultimately, the creature tries to kidnap Peanut, leading to a big fight between it and the sisters and their allies. There are a few injuries, but no blood, and all the good guys are okay in the end.
The book has lots of fantasy action and some fun silliness, like when Peanut uses her powers to resist taking a bath. It also has lots of heart: it’s a story about two girls struggling to protect their sister and then discovering supportive friends in their community. There is some nice casual inclusiveness: the cast includes people of different races, and Rosie has a crush on a female classmate.
Some readers may be familiar with author Alina Tysoe from her webcomic, What’s Up, Beanie? That comic’s cute style carries over into elements of this book. Hand it to readers who like gentle fantasy adventures and sweet family stories.
My Sister the Werebeast By Alina Tysoe Macmillan First Second, 2025 ISBN: 9781250896681
Company Age Rating: 8-12
NFNT Age Recommendation: Middle Grade (7-11), Tween (10-13)
Kara Orc is a doctor-in-training alongside Tucker Wolf at the Creature Clinic. Besides working with her competitive rival, Kara also has to contend with her mother, head doctor of the clinic. When a giant collapses outside their doors, no one can figure out what’s wrong with him; however, an unconscious human is discovered under his boot. Humans live in Fableland, which is outside of Myth Valley where the clinic is located, so they are rarely seen.
Kara wants to do the right thing and treat the human as a patient, but her mother wants him gone and orders Oblong, the janitor, to take him away. Oblong decides to help Kara with her plan to secretly treat the human, except once the human, Mitch, wakes up, he and Oblong become friends and secretly travel around the clinic together. Mitch has a plan to help the other patients, but with humans banned from the premises, they’ll have to get creative to help him prove himself and treat the giant before it’s too late.
This was an interesting take on the hospital setting that showcases how caring and asking questions can help patients just as much as the medicine that gets prescribed. The cast of characters was well rounded with a variety of personalities and creatures throughout the story. Most of the creatures will be known to the reader, but there’s a small handful, like Oblong, that are new and different. The coloring matched the tone, and the setting had a clean art style in the clinic and rougher details when it would enhance the characteristics of the scene outside of the clinic.
The charm of this story is in the relationship between daughter and mother, which addresses generational trauma in a realistic way. The author effectively portrays a variety of relationships between the myriad characters: family, friend, and rival. This would make a great addition to any middle school library or public library.
Creature Clinic By Gavin Aung Than Macmillan First Second, 2025 ISBN: 9781250847584
Company Age Rating: 8-12
NFNT Age Recommendation: Middle Grade (7-11), Teen (13-16), Tween (10-13) Creator Representation: Australian,
When Cassie, a fourth grade girl, thinks she’s won a grand prize from a mail flyer, she finds herself excited to share this fabulous feeling with her family, best friend, and favorite teacher. But as she is confronted with new big feelings (e.g. a classmate coming between Cassie and her best friend, everyone telling her she’s too sensitive, she didn’t really win any prizes), Cassie can no longer rely on her usual methods to find her way back to the wonders of life. Eventually, she is able to put some of the advice she is given into practice and starts communicating her feelings to her friends and family and works to find balance between her feelings and theirs.
This book does an excellent job of describing big feelings at a young age when you don’t understand where those feelings are coming from or how to talk about them. The fact that it has gorgeous illustrations adds to the appeal since words to describe feelings can be hard. Kids will be able to relate to the (slightly) fantastical depictions of everyday occurrences of wonder. This is a must in every library where kids can experience it and find a way out of their own big feelings. There’s no nudity, adult language, or romantic relationships depicted or discussed. Use it in your classroom or programming to talk about depression, feeling overlooked, friendship, or communication.
Dream On By Shannon Hale Art by Marcela Cespedes Macmillan Roaring Brook, 2025 ISBN: 9781250843067
At the end of the summer, siblings Evan and Jessie will both start fourth grade. Evan is right on schedule, while his gifted little sister Jessie is skipping a grade. The problem is, their school only has one fourth-grade classroom. Evan and Jessie are close, but Evan fears that being in the same class will make it obvious that his little sister is, in some ways, smarter than he is. So while Jessie is looking forward to school starting, Evan is dreading it.
Jessie—brilliant with academics but not so much with social skills – can’t see why Evan would be upset, which just upsets him more. Now, Evan doesn’t want to hang out with Jessie for what’s left of the summer, so he ditches her to set up a lemonade stand with another neighborhood kid. Jessie is hurt, but thinks maybe if she starts her own lemonade stand, she can impress Evan and make him want to hang out with her again.
Instead, the lemonade stands become a fierce competition, which spirals until Evan and Jessie make a bet: whoever earns more money by the end of the summer gets both of their profits. It’s Jessie’s math and business smarts versus Evan’s doggedness and people skills. Who will win? And will Jessie and Evan ever work things out between them, or will their closeness be a casualty of the lemonade war?
This graphic novel adapts the 2007 book The Lemonade War, the first of a series, which garnered a list of awards and positive reviews. Like the original, this adaptation gets its tension and momentum from Evan and Jessie’s sibling rivalry, but also slips in some math and lots of basic economics concepts, all explained in an accessible way for young readers. Jessie calculates profit margins and tries out the value-added tactic of offering free pretzels at her stand; Evan runs afoul of local business regulations when he starts selling lemonade on public property downtown without a license. As they try to out-maneuver each other, Evan and Jessie use business strategies including underselling, advertising, and even franchising.
Jessie and Evan are very different, but both sympathetic and interesting. Thought bubbles provide lots of information on their interior lives, showing readers when there is a miscommunication, something Jessie doesn’t understand, or something Evan thinks but isn’t willing to say. Flashbacks help explain their motivations and illustrate how close the siblings normally are. While no diagnosis is ever mentioned, Jessie seems coded as perhaps being on the autism spectrum: she takes social interactions at face value and is often confused when people are not straightforward, and one page shows her looking at a chart of facial expressions labeled with different emotions.
The art is clear, with a slightly cartoonified realistic style. Panel sizes and layouts vary, adding visual interest. The backgrounds are fairly simple, keeping the focus on the characters and what they are doing – including, occasionally, working out lemonade-related math, which is laid out for readers to see. When a flashback begins, the panel outlines change from having black outlines and sharp corners to brown outlines and rounded corners, and all the colors take on a slightly muted look, like a subtle version of the sepia tone in old photos.
This book has sympathetic characters who feel like real kids. It packs in a lot of kid-friendly economics concepts, but its driving force remains the relationship between Evan and Jessie. Hand it to kids who like realism and good-hearted young characters trying to navigate family and friend conflicts – and to fans of stories about kid entrepreneurs, like the Baby-Sitters Club.
The Lemonade War By Jacqueline Davoes Art by Karen De la Vega Harper Collins Harper Alley, 2025 ISBN: 9780063310384
Yellow Singing Sail is the memoir of Yinfan Huang—a girl who was growing up in rural China, Xintian County, until her family moves to the big city of Guangzhou. The narrative is full of the relatable experiences of being the new fish out of water in town. There are many, many ups and downs to the experience, but Yinfan finally finds a friend who loves her for exactly how and who she is.
But this book doesn’t contain the story of just Yinfan – it also tells of her grandparents, her mother, her uncle; all pivotal figures in her life and all different in their personalities and upbringings. There are echoes of older generations permeating through the years, messages and lessons diluting as time goes on, but oddly enough, superstitions still holding strong. China’s one-child policy is in effect, and Yinfan even has to go to mandatory military training as a young teen.
I always want to be in good faith when I comment on the illustrations—I have to use my undergrad degree somehow, right? I wish I could say more about its successful aspects, but visually this is not the graphic novel for me. The art is incredibly simple with very, very few colors—it evokes doodles on a sticky notepad during work (or, perhaps more accurately, school day doodles on notebook paper). Even those scant scant colors remind me of highlighter markers (green, orange, and gray). There is no rendering, no backgrounds, and no real dynamics to show visual hierarchy. Very little of it is technically proficient. Perhaps this memoir was best meant for a more textually dense setting, like a traditional print book, as the story contains lots of explanation and labels. The prose is easy to read and very heartfelt.
This is a good book, I feel, for modern American children. It gives a perspective that seems a bit hard to find these days. Yellow Singing Sail takes place in a modern backdrop, but there are a number of instances that stand out in this story that might pique a young reader’s interest: imagine never having seen an airplane, or using a mechanical pencil, being mandated to have the same haircut as all of your classmates, or traveling across the country only to find that a different language is spoken and the isolation that comes with that. The story is interwoven with both unique and universal experiences that could create connections between the author and reader. I struggled quite a bit with the visual aspects of this book, but I could see a young person reading it, seeing these illustrations, and being encouraged to write and draw their own stories.
Yellow Singing Sail: A Memoir of an Only Child in China Vol. By Yinfan Huang Kids Can Press, 2025 ISBN: 9781525305511
Company Age Rating: 11-14
NFNT Age Recommendation: Middle Grade (7-11), Tween (10-13) Creator Representation: Chinese-American, Character Representation: Chinese-American,
Armed with a flashlight and his knife (with a sharp point, serrated edge, and nail file), young Dave prepares to dive deeper and deeper (and deeper) into the watery abyss to find his missing mother…
Deeply Dave is a graphic novel written and drawn by Michael Grover and adapted from Grover’s original webcomic of the same name. Dave is a young boy diving into the deep and dark water to look for his mother, whose spaceship went missing far below. How this came to pass is revealed throughout the story, but much like Dave, the reader is facing the unknown with only certain elements of the story being revealed at first. Throughout his journey, Dave meets a unique cast of characters, some friend and some foe, who add heart and charm to the story.
The publisher describes Deeply Dave as a “madcap, hilarious adventure” and it certainly is that, but it is more than its funny moments, though those are incredible. This book achieves the delicate balance of sprinkling humor onto a story with serious undertones mixed with hope. Such a concoction is what life is all about, which is why reading Deeply Dave is such an incredible experience.
Grover’s narrative ability is elevated through the skillful use of visual art. The characters and setting may seem simplistic at first, but the sparse use of shapes and colors is intentional, juxtaposed against meaningful perspective drawing to create depth and ambience. Grover’s original webcomic has music, animation, and a scrolling website to add atmosphere to the story. Gentle and attentive care has been taken to recreate Deeply Dave in a physical print format. Panels that once existed on the web have not simply been placed on a page and printed. Careful choices have been made in terms of adapting animations into static panels. The physical book is printed on its side so that pages are flipped vertically in order to mimic the scrolling feature of the webcomic.
The publisher’s age rating for Deeply Dave is ages 8-12, which is a great age group for it, but, much like the title suggests, this book goes deeper than that. Teens and adults will enjoy this whimsical yet serious tale that’s about more than just a boy looking for his missing mother. The publisher markets Deeply Dave for fans of the animated series Adventure Time, and the comparison is apt. There are some darker plot elements and subtle moments that will resonate with older readers. The physical book of Deeply Dave would make a great addition to libraries searching for a graphic novel with wide age appeal and an innovative style. Readers who love the graphic novel should definitely check out the original webcomic by Grover as it is one of the most original pieces of art that has come along recently.
Deeply Dave By Michael Grover Henry Holt, 2025 ISBN: 9781250331038
Company Age Rating: Ages 8-12
NFNT Age Recommendation: Adult (18+), Middle Grade (7-11), Older Teen (16-18), Teen (13-16), Tween (10-13)
Something lurks in the water off the coast of New Marseyland. Something dark. Something unnatural. Something evil. Something that… quacks. The dreaded Moby Duck, a man made monster, ominously waddles to the center of the center volume in the Cryptid Kids series from Sara Goetter and Natalie Riess.
Cryptid lover K is back for a new mystery and a new mysterious creature and she’s bringing her semi-willing friends with her. Fueled by a passionate curiosity and love for weird and unlikely creatures inspired by her great aunt TK, nothing will stop our intrepid scientist from discovering new species… except maybe all a noisy arcade. It is really loud.
The cryptid hunters are going on vacation to the shore where K intends to find the elusive Moby Duck, a creature unlike any other she has studied. Luc, K’s “kinda boyfriend”, is more focused on making a good impression on K’s family while Penny is only allowed to spend time with K with the expressed promise to her mother of “No looking for cryptids, no ‘operations,’ nothing cryptid related at all.” Unfortunately, K and friends are not the only ones looking for the dreaded waterfowl: pirate and cryptozoologist Arrvida Scales is on the hunt with less than savory intentions. But even more devastating than that threat is Penny’s new friend Jo joining them, who seems to be drawing more of Luc and Penny’s attention than K, and K’s dad suggesting that it may be time she gave up the cryptids and generally not getting her.
There’s a lot going on in this graphic—kidnappings, pirates, one eyed seagulls, secret cousins, aliens. The aliens, who resemble jackalopes, really caught me off guard if we’re being honest. But beneath the shenanigans, this is a story about relationships and the way they evolve. K needs to find new ways to connect with her dad. Her dad needs to come to terms with years of anger at his aunt while figuring out how to give K room to grow up into herself.
This is a goofy read and I mean that as the highest compliment. The humor feels very Dav Pilkey adjacent with a dryness that’s at odds with the extreme circumstances of the book. Seasoned partners Goetter and Riess add a sweetness to the story and the characters that make them relatable and real, even with the plot’s absurdity. This is something these married creators are very good at and have displayed throughout their collaborations.
The graphic starts with a peek at Creature Monthly, the K’s zine/scientific publication, that provides an introduction to the central characters and a quick recap of the events from the previous book making this accessible to new readers without reading the first volume. The panels alternate between moving smoothly and steadily through the story to moments of almost frenetic bouncing during big action scenes. Like I said, there’s a lot going on. And I quite liked it.
Cryptid Kids: Moby Duck seems specially built for reluctant readers. It’s visually exciting, supremely silly, and centers around a very real heart that makes this middle grade reader sing. This is the kind of series that kids who say they hate reading can easily lose themselves in.
Cryptid Kids: Moby Duck, Vol. 2 By Sara Goetter and Natalie Riess Macmillan First Second, 2025 ISBN: 9781250899408
Company Age Rating: 8-12
NFNT Age Recommendation: Middle Grade (7-11), Tween (10-13) Creator Representation: Queer, Character Representation: African-American,
Miss Mary Mac introduces storytelling and creative writing in graphic novel form with chapters that cover writing as an art form, where ideas come from, creating strong images, motivation, inspiration, and the creative process. The reader is invited to consider their own experiences and how to find their interests and bring those both together to tell a story. The author provides examples from different perspectives and brings their words to life by pairing them with lavishly drawn figures by the artist. The details and shading throughout give each panel depth and draw the reader in to learn more. It also allows the reader to visualize themselves in places they may not have experience with themselves.
Michael Regina’s debut in 2021, The Sleepover, established him as a creator of thoughtful horror stories for a middle grade audience. His sophomore effort, Deepwater Creek, repeats this theme but with a new group of kids.
Echoes of October is built around a simple yet difficult question. The sort of question that children often ask and adults wish they could answer.
Mira and Rosie are perfectly capable of babysitting their little sister Peanut… usually. But their parents have been gone for a week now, longer than their expedition was supposed to last, and Peanut is, well, manifesting magical powers. Hiding them is beginning to be a problem.
Kara Orc is a doctor-in-training alongside Tucker Wolf at the Creature Clinic. Besides working with her competitive rival, Kara also has to contend with her mother, head doctor of the clinic. When a giant collapses outside their doors, no one can figure out what’s wrong with him; however, an unconscious human is discovered under his boot. Humans live in Fableland, which is outside of Myth Valley where the clinic is located, so they are rarely seen.
feeling with her family, best friend, and favorite teacher. But as she is confronted with new big feelings (e.g. a classmate coming between Cassie and her best friend, everyone telling her she’s too sensitive, she didn’t really win any prizes), Cassie can no longer rely on her usual methods to find her way back to the wonders of life. Eventually, she is able to put some of the advice she is given into practice and starts communicating her feelings to her friends and family and works to find balance between her feelings and theirs.
Jessie is skipping a grade. The problem is, their school only has one fourth-grade classroom. Evan and Jessie are close, but Evan fears that being in the same class will make it obvious that his little sister is, in some ways, smarter than he is. So while Jessie is looking forward to school starting, Evan is dreading it.
the big city of Guangzhou. The narrative is full of the relatable experiences of being the new fish out of water in town. There are many, many ups and downs to the experience, but Yinfan finally finds a friend who loves her for exactly how and who she is.
Armed with a flashlight and his knife (with a sharp point, serrated edge, and nail file), young Dave prepares to dive deeper and deeper (and deeper) into the watery abyss to find his missing mother…
that… quacks. The dreaded Moby Duck, a man made monster, ominously waddles to the center of the center volume in the Cryptid Kids series from Sara Goetter and Natalie Riess.
