The inaugural Newton Children's Book Festival took place this past Saturday, December 14, 2024. Hundreds of families came out to the New Art Center in Newton, MA to meet over 60 children's book authors and illustrators.

The festival kicked off with a sold-out launch event on Monday, December 9 featuring New York Times bestselling author Tui T. Sutherland.

​I was honored to be Tui's conversation partner at the West Newton Cinema, and we had such a great time talking about fantasy, books, and reading, while answering questions from loads young Wings of Fire fans. 

The brainchild of literacy advocate, Mia Wenjen (Pragmatic Mom), the organizers pulled off a fabulous event. Newtonville Books was the official bookseller for the event and were so kind and wonderful. I had a great time talking with kids and parents and catching up (or meeting for the first time) with other local authors and kidlit creators. ​

​I'm thrilled to share that Kingdom of Dust, my West African-inspired middle grade fantasy, is a Junior Library Guild Gold Standard Selection! This is a huge honor and means that Kingdom of Dust now has an important boost in finding its readers. 

Junior Library Guild is a trusted organization that librarians and educators can use to find excellent books for their collections. On their website they state, "JLG titles are curated by our renowned editorial team who reads and reviews thousands of manuscript submissions each year (prior to publication) to choose the best, award-worthy books for our members. With nearly 95% of our selections going on to win awards, honors, starred reviews, and industry accolades, you can trust JLG to bring top-quality books to your library that will engage and appeal to your readers."

I'm honored that Kingdom of Dust will be included in the fall catalog of the Junior Library Guild and hopefully seen by lots of potential new readers!

I'm so excited that my forthcoming book Kingdom of Dust has a publication date! It will be released on 8/20/2024 by HarperCollins/Quill Tree Books.

I'm also excited for readers to see the amazing cover, illustrated once again by the fantastic Michael Machira Mwangi and designed by David Curtis.

I'm grateful to John Schu for hosting the cover reveal for me again. I loved the questions he asked me about A Comb of Wishes, and I can't wait to share my answers about this latest middle grade fantasy, Kingdom of Dust.

Look for the big reveal on Wednesday, October 11th on John's blog, Watch. Connect. Read.

If you haven't signed up for my newsletter, this is the perfect time. I'll be sending our a new edition soon and I'm eager to share behind the scenes details about my new book, as well as preorder links and other goodies.