Top Ten Tuesday: Indies Introduce
Today is an Indie Freebie and while I’m not super familiar with all the great books being released by independent publishers or independent bookstores, I do love supporting them and have great respect for these small companies sharing amazing titles to the world! If you’re not familiar, you’ve got to check out IndieBound, an initiative by the American Booksellers Association to connect readers to independent bookstores around the country.
On the website, you can find local independent bookstores near you, find out what independent booksellers are recommending, and so much more! Today, I’m sharing their Indies Introduce list – ten children’s and young adult titles by debut authors! (They also have an adults titles list too!) I love how much this organization champions books by all different publishers. They really want to share books with readers and isn’t that the most important part of the book world?!?! Check out these debut authors of children’s books and maybe grab them from an independent bookstore rather than a big box store – I’ve made it easy this week with links to Bookshop.org!
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Indies Introduce
Casting April by Wendy Lu
Sixth grader April Xue lives and breathes all things Broadway. When she builds up the courage to audition for the lead role in the school play, she thinks she’s knocked it out of the park — until she finds out that she’s been assigned to the stage crew. April is devastated—it seems like the curtain is closing on her dream of being an actor.
A day later, April overhears that the theater director, Ms. Rooney, decided not to cast her because she’s disabled. With the help of her best friend, a sneaky student reporter, and her spirited castmates, April learns to confront her own insecurities as a performer and proves to everyone (including Ms. Rooney) that she deserves a fair shot — all in time for opening night.
Flickerstate by F. A. Davidson
Norah Sullivan has just discovered she’s a navigator: a person who can manipulate probability. The same day Norah’s navigation manifests, she and her father are swarmed by flickerbeasts. When a flickerbeast bites you, your risk of death skyrockets. And pretty soon, her father gets sick.
Desperate to find a cure, Norah applies to the Academy of Navigation, where there are rumors of restricted information on beast bites hidden in research archives. Once on campus, Norah learns that only senior research assistants are allowed in the archives—and you can only become one by winning a team trial designed to push your navigation abilities to the brink.
She’ll need to rely on her roommates, as well as her peer mentor, the handsome Vik Souza, to win the competition. But trouble arises at every turn. There are tensions in the group, romantic complications, and unexplained student disappearances. As Norah gets deeper into the competition, she realizes not everything is as it seems, and the stakes are much higher than she ever could have imagined.
Fire to the Stars Morgan J. Watchorn
Every month, the kingdom of Florent braces for the Ignition: a solar event that turns ordinary humans into vicious dragon shifters. And anyone can be a dragon’s next victim.
Claire knows this all too well because the Ignition consumed her and her father, her town, and the life she thought she’d have. Now, she’s scraping by on her wits as part of a sisterhood of thieves—lying, stealing, her heart locked tight—until she tracks down a disgraced dragon slayer who may be the one person who can give her back the life she once had.
Abel has been shunned by the prestigious Slayers Guild for conducting research that’s too…unorthodox to condone. But there’s no one Claire trusts more than a rulebreaker, and that research might be the one thing that could help her. So when Abel reveals he is hunting again, Claire tries to hire him under false pretenses. Abel, however, is reluctant to accept a job from a criminal, no matter how charming she is. And yet…he really needs the money.
Together, Claire and Abel will race through Florent and uncover dangerous secrets in their quests for forgiveness—and survival. But that knowledge may cost them the very thing they’ve grown desperate to protect: each other.
The Ginghams by T. C. Kemper
When 12-year-old Joni Bird returns home from summer camp, it’s clear something strange is afoot in Olive Springs. May, her usually head-banging best friend, now wears her hair in a tight bun and calls playing the drums “unladylike.” The ice cream shop only serves vanilla ice cream. The women and girls of the neighborhood all sport big pearl earrings and crisp cotton dresses.
At the heart of it all? The creepy new family in the neighborhood with their soulless, carnival smiles and retro fashion sense: the Ginghams. Everyone they invite to their Thursday night book club re-emerges as dead-eyed, smiling, Gingham-approved “model citizens,” all thanks to Mr. Gingham’s lifestyle guide, The Pillars of Perfection―and something even more sinister hidden behind his basement door.
Through quick thinking and cunning, Joni and her friend Tyler set out to fight not only to get their friend May back, but to save their whole town from forever falling under the Ginghams’ control.
Just Ask Elsie by Ari Koontz
Elsie Parker is having a totally normal fifth grade year.
Fractions and conjunctions―check.
Stressing about middle school―check.
Body-positive puberty class at church that also covers feelings and identities―check.
Okay, maybe that last one isn’t so normal. It’s a little weird (and awkward) to spend her Sundays talking periods, B.O., and pimples. But Elsie’s also learning a lot more than she’s heard in her public-school health class ― like the difference between sex and gender, and what consent is, and what it might mean that she can’t stop blushing around a certain cute girl at her school.
When her puberty lessons become the school’s latest gossip, Elsie’s totally humiliated… until she finds an anonymous note in her locker from a classmate who wants to know more, and realizes that other kids might have embarrassing questions of their own.
Starting an underground advice board wasn’t exactly in her plans, but Elsie won’t pass up a chance to turn her reputation around ― or to share words and labels that have not-so-accidentally been left off their curriculum. But when the principal tries to shut down the unauthorized puberty talk, Elsie has to decide what she’s willing to risk to tell the truth to kids who really need to hear it.
The Queen of the Spirit Wood by Sharon Choe
A kingdom on the brink of colonization.
Ten thousand nature spirits and deities seeking a vessel.
A genial nobleman and a grumpy prince uncovering the secrets at Court…
And the girl at the center of it all.
Mirae has a dangerous secret: She has faked her way into a job as a royal kitchen maid with the hope of sending money to her family. And life in the kitchens isn’t easy. The palace is in an uproar after a recent assassination attempt on the king, and Mirae nearly gets fired after inadvertently getting in the crosshairs of Jae, the prickly crown prince, during his investigation.
Her position gets even more precarious when a chance encounter with a witch in the mysterious spirit woods makes her the vessel of ten thousand spirits and deities. When her new powers spill out into the palace kitchens, Wonshik, a kind nobleman, lends a helping hand. Soon Mirae finds herself embroiled in a power struggle between the queen and Wonshik’s best friend, Prince Jae.
With the help of a fellow kitchen maid and a meddlesome ghost, Mirae must untangle the web of lies to find the traitor within the palace. But an encroaching threat from the empire to the east looms ever closer, and the palace is rife with lies and shadowy allegiances. Who can Mirae trust?
72 Hours of You by Darianne Schramm
72 hours before someone dies, Sydney Hoffman sees a pink clock over their head, counting down their final minutes. Seeing death’s status updates in real-time without being able to save anyone is . . . pretty much the worst. Which is why she never gets involved.
But then she meets Peter Beckett, her optimistic, book-obsessed, and (annoyingly) attractive new classmate. When he discovers what Sydney can do, he convinces her she doesn’t have to handle the countdowns alone. Together they make a plan to wander NYC, looking for pink clocks and helping strangers live their best final hours.
The more people they secretly help, the more Sydney believes she can let go of the memories that haunt her and hold on to Peter instead. But then the universe deals a devastating blow, forcing her to reckon with what it truly means to live your last 72 hours with no regrets.
In her tragically romantic debut, Darianne Schramm weaves a heartwarming, heart-wrenching, life-affirming love story you’ll laugh through, cry through, and absolutely never forget.
Sneaks by Amy Tern
Amazon | Bookshop.org
This hijinks-heavy mystery written in dual POV reads like Only Murders in the Building for tweens. Perfect for wannabe sleuths and nosy neighbors!
Valory has developed an unfortunate reputation as a thief—primarily because she steals things—though she has resolved to change her ways.
Rook is a total asparagus-eater (a.k.a. a good kid), but he likes to spy on his neighbors. Nobody’s perfect, right?
The twelve-year-olds form an unlikely alliance when they encounter suspicious behavior in an “empty” apartment across the alley from Rook’s house. While agoraphobia keeps home-schooled Rook trapped on his property, confident and street-smart Valory can roam the scene undetected. Their opposite personalities might, in fact, be key to their success.
But their amateur detective mission morphs into something more sinister when they realize the apartment next door could be connected to a recent kidnapping. When the sleuths realize they’re also being watched, the pressure is on to unmask the villain. . . before she snatches them, too.
Tom Burne Has Left the Chat by Sean Farrelly
A tragic death. A chance at a new life. Could one phone hold all the answers?
This wasn’t my phone. This was real. Tom had died today, literally died, and here I was, picking through the digital carrion like some sort of virtual vulture.
When micro-influencer Tom Burne takes his own life, he leaves behind his phone, its password, and a cryptic message that needs decoding.
Seventeen-year-old Jamie doesn’t intend to take the phone, but once he does, he knows it was meant for him. Fuelled by his own sense of isolation and the recent passing of his father, Jamie loses himself in uncovering the truth. The more he investigates the digital fragments contained within the phone, the deeper into Tom’s dark world he falls.
As his own grief resurfaces and with his mother pushing for them to move to a different country for a fresh start, Jamie has very little time to find out the harsh reality that led to Tom’s tragic end.
Can he clear Tom’s name before it is too late?
Where We Go at Night by Ikwo Ntekim
As far as seventeen-year-old Trixie Godfrey is concerned, her hometown of Woods Crossing would be perfect —if not for the dark world of fae and magic lurking in the shadows. Growing up, her grandfather, Pops, never allowed her to get close to them—those aberrations, Mama used to say.
But on graduation night, when Trixie sneaks home past curfew she witnesses Pops’ brutal murder in a moment so sudden, so inhuman she can no longer avoid the fae. Those without the Sight will blame wild animals, calling Pops’ death an accident, a tragedy, but Trixie knows the truth because she has the Sight. She spent years burying her “gift”, but she needs to revive it now.
Determined to get justice for Pops and rid Woods Crossing of its monsters, Trixie ventures into the intriguing but deceitful world of the fae—only to find herself caught in a power struggle between ancient families more terrible and crueler than hers could ever be. Or so she thinks….
Top Ten Tuesday was created by The Broke and the Bookish in June of 2010 and was moved to That Artsy Reader Girl in January of 2018. It was born of a love of lists, a love of books, and a desire to bring bookish friends together.
2 Comments
Pam @ Read! Bake! Create!
These all sound like fantastic reads!
Here’s my TTT for the week: https://readbakecreate.com/eight-thoughts-on-the-hardcover-app/
lydiaschoch
I love seeing indie authors thrive!