My niece will be 10 in September. She has mentioned that she really likes Kelly Yang's Front Desk series. She mentioned several social justice type events the protagonist had to face. I would like to find another series in this genre to gift her for her birthday. Do you have any suggestions?
I queried this novel back in February. Sent out 20 at the time and received zero requests. The comps by themselves were awful. I would've rejected me based solely on that back then. It was an eye opener for me. Since then, I've switched to first person POV (after a year of bottling this request by an editor) and made the story much more epic. This is my first attempt to jump back into the world of querying, and I've been told this is a great place to get brutal feedback. I'm not sure on the comps. I have a growing list of books that I think mine can sit next to, including the two listed, Greenwild by Pari Thomas, or possibly Underwild by Shana Targosz.
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I am currently seeking representation for my middle grade epic fantasy, RADIANT, complete at 59,000 words. RADIANT combines the high states adventure found in Impossible Creatures by Katherine Rundell with the magic and lore of the seasons of Chronicles of Weatherwhy by Anna James.
Twelve-year-old Princess Lily has never heard someone sneeze. She doesn't even know the word fever. No one in the Spring Kingdom has ever experienced sickness, and if anything less than perfect happens—a broken bone or a cracked cell phone—Lily has the magical touch to fix it. So when green goo mysteriously oozes from her sister’s nose, Lily thinks she might be broken. She places her hands on her sister’s face hoping to fix her like she’s done a million times before, but this time…her sister collapses.
A plague inflicts the entire kingdom, and as usual, they all look to Lily. She’s their healer, but her power is gone. She’s never doubted her role in the kingdom until now. In a panic, Lily runs to her friends in the neighboring kingdoms, but soon finds all four crumbling from a curse of their own.
The Four Princesses encounter angry citizens, undead monsters, severe storms, man-eating plants, and even the death of one of their own, but the biggest threat they face as they hunt for a cure to the madness will be their own hearts. Lily learns a terrifying truth, that she is the cause of the curse upon her people, and she has four days to figure out why. Four days before she permanently loses her power. Four days before her sister dies. Four days until the kingdoms of Alluvia perish forever.
My eighteen years of teaching has gone from 4th grade to middle school, language arts to theatre arts. As a director, I’ve written many scripts. RADIANT started as one of those scripts, and has now gone through three separate successful runs. It has now evolved into a level that I don’t think I can pull off on stage!
Thank you for your time and consideration,
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First 300 words:
Dearest Princess Lily, my son is making a weird noise. Can you come fix him?
Uh…okay. This is not a text I expected this morning. Texts asking me to heal broken bones or fix cracked cell phones? That, I’m used to. This, however, is weird. She makes it sound like her son is a broken TV, which I actually fixed for her last week. I touched the shattered screen, my hand glowed and my body tingled then bam! Good as new. Now, I stare at this text, trying to figure out what it means, when my phone vibrates and more texts come through.
something gross just came out of Magnolia’s mouth
I think she’s broken
This is getting beyond weird.
“Do you have to go help those people?” my sister asks me, taking my focus away from my phone. Iris stands next to me on this rain soaked soccer field, and the disappointment is obvious in her voice.
I don’t know how to deal with this right now, so I set the phone on a bench where I can’t hear it vibrate. “Nah. You know how our people can get. Sometimes they can be a bit needy. Besides, nothing seems that serious right now.” How serious could a kid making a strange noise be? Kids make strange sounds all the time. I mean, I’m twelve-years-old and not really a kid anymore, but I still think it’s funny to make fart noises. “Remember that one time when your bone was sticking out?” I remind her. Now this was a much more serious accident and one that needed my power ASAP.