January has to be one of best months in the book calendar, because we get to look forward to all the new titles that are coming out from some of the biggest names in young adult fiction.
Local Produce
New
Australian YA is always something to get excited about, and 2012 is
shaping up to be a very good year.
Leanne Hall’s Queen of the Night picks up six months after This is Shyness left off, and will be out at the end of Feb.
Kiss Chasey is the working title for Fiona Wood’s upcoming book set in the Victorian Alps. Prime Minister’s Literary Award winner Cath Crowley also has a new release for 2012, with The Howling Boy, a love story told from two points of view.
Lili Wilkinson will introduce us to Penny, an aspiring journalist on a mission to tell a Pulitzer Prize-worthy story in Love-shy.
Garth Nix has a new title coming out in April, and while it’s not the follow up to the Old Kingdom series that everyone is waiting for, A Confusion of Princes looks like it will be an excellent sci-fi adventure.
International Tales
Rebecca Stead, who wrote the phenomenal
When You Reach Me will be releasing Liar &
Spy about a boy called Georges (though she’s keeping
tight-lipped about the rest of the story).
Book five in Cassandra Clare’s Mortal Instruments series is called City of Lost Souls and will be available in May.
July will see the release of Justine Larbalestier and Sarah Rees Brennan’s co-written Team Human, a book about why it sucks to date vampires.
Michael Grant fans have reason to rejoice, because not will the next book in the Gone series be out this year (entitled Fear), he also has a new sci-fi thriller series coming out starting with BZRK in March.
Darren Shan is also at it, and since he’s already explored vampires and demons, he’s now having a go at zombies with his new series Zom-B.
Who knows what other page-turners are on the horizon? One thing is certain, we won’t be without something to read in 2012!
Holly Harper
is a children’s bookseller at Readings Carlton. She also writes
books for younger readers under the name H.J. Harper.
Find out more about her books here and follow her on twitter - @hj_harper.
