We spotlight the authors of six of the season’s most promising children’s and YA debuts.
Zoulfa Katouh
Science and stories have always been twin threads running through Zoulfa Katouh’s life. Now a pharmacist working on cancer research and the debut author of the acclaimed novel As Long as the Lemon Trees Grow, set amid the Syrian revolution, Katouh has found a way to keep both sides of her heart engaged.
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Skyler Schrempp
Debut author Skyler Schrempp's experience in theater helped her to home in on the voice of her historical middle grade novel, Three Strike Summer, about a girl whose family loses their Dust Bowl farm during the Great Depression.
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Liza Ferneyhough
“It was a drawing I did of my grandmother’s teacup,” author-illustrator Liza Ferneyhough says, recalling the image that set her on the creative path of transforming a mental catalog of multicultural family memories into her debut picture book, Nana, Nenek & Nina.
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C.C. Harrington
Debut author C.C. Harrington has felt a strong draw toward animal stories since her childhood in the English countryside. Set in 1963, her middle grade novel Wildoak follows two viewpoints: those of 11-year-old Maggie Stevens and snow leopard cub Rumpus.
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Esme Symes-Smith
Born in Exeter, in the southwest of England, Esme Symes-Smith spent a great deal of time in Cornwall, which would later influence the setting of their debut novel, Sir Callie and the Champions of Helston, a middle grade fantasy in which a nonbinary would-be knight pushes back against gender stereotypes and restrictions.
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Jas Hammonds
You could say it was written in the stars for flight attendant–turned–author Jas Hammonds to write books. Their YA debut, We Deserve Monuments, showcases a multigenerational story about a Black family and their roots in the small town of Burrell, Ga.
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