JACINTA PATTERSON

TIPTOE TINA, BALLERINA is ready for the spotlight, but her family is too distracted to be a good audience and her ballet slippers are missing. When all she can find are her tap shoes, will the show go on…or end in caTAPstrophe? Find out in this Kidlit Chuckle Challenge-winning #PB!

​

​

​

​

​

​

​

​

Rhyme

Literal Leigh’s diet has her feeling rather sluggish. When Mom tells her she is what she eats, Leigh is initially confused; she doesn’t eat slugs! But if Mom is right, picky Leigh needs to make some changes, so she plows ahead with a new mantra: I am what I eat! When her interpretation is a touch too literal, she’ll need to find a middle ground or risk certain doom.

Prince Olivier has two problems: (1) he is being haunted by a ghost named Antoine and (2) the queen blames him for all of Antoine’s antics. No matter how perfectly he behaves, he always gets in trouble. When the queen ships him off to charm school (they put the charm in Prince Charming!), Olivier decides that he has had enough. If he can’t exorcise Poltergeist Palace, he’ll need to find a different solution to his problem or face a lifetime of unjust punishments.

Fouad's tired of tummy troubles ruining all the best days at school & he really hates his nickname: THUNDERPANTS. He reinvents himself as Captain Thunderpants. When his classmates fall victim to their own nicknames, will he have what it takes to live up to his heroic handle?

When the little white pumpkin decides to buck tradition and dress up as something other than a ghost for Halloween, she encounters two problems: (1) peer pressure from the other pumpkins, who insist she was born to be a ghost and (2) difficulty finding a round white costume that transforms her into anything other than a little white pumpkin. If she doesn’t come up with a solution that checks all of her boxes, she’ll either miss out on her favorite holiday or be forced into conformity.

Matty has two hands and only one mitten. He can’t build a snowman, make an angel, or throw a snowball, but with enough ingenuity, he just may revolutionize the snow day formula. The Snowy Day meets Journey in MATTY’S MITTEN.

Baby A and her brothers are livin’ la vida loca; from skinny dipping to prenatal gymnastics, they are making the most of their time on the inside. But even though Mom’s belly has almost everything they need, Baby A still feels like something is missing: a voice of her own.

​

​

​

​

​

​

​

Rhyme

Much like the poem that inspired it, O, CLASS CLOWN! MY CLASS CLOWN! honors a fallen hero, but it does so in a much more playful and childlike way. Rather than lead a nation through war, the title character leads his classmates out of standardized testing; rather than die, he is apprehended and disciplined for his efforts. The story’s text celebrates the hero’s bravery and reflects his recruits’ determination to free him from his captors.

​

​

​

Rhyme

Callie, Scally, and Fritz are the fiercest pack of WereHouses in the neighborhood…at least until new residents install Rose the RoboHome, and the fearsome Fritz is consumed by sterile smart tech. The WereHouses must find a way to spring Fritz from cyberjail before RoboRose snuffs him out for good.

When Cinderella gets her happily-ever-after and leaves her best friend in the dust, Pumpkin must either accept the fracture or find a way to put the pieces back together. Fueled by revenge, Pumpkin embraces her villain era. Cinderella doesn’t know what’s coming to her; when midnight strikes, so does Pumpkin. If the friends don’t reconcile before twelve, the princess’s charmed life may be cursed forever.

When the garlic-loving, blood-hating Belladonna can no longer bear the weight of her secret double life, she must choose between a hunger strike (look out for hangry Belladonna!) and telling her friends the truth (perhaps losing them forever).

Iggy’s sister is a mad scientist with an octopus for a lab assistant, so he knows it will take something BIG to get her attention. After Victoria rejects his lab application, Iggy and his feline sidekick cook up a showstopping experiment designed to win her over. Unfortunately for everyone, things go horribly awry, and Iggy finds himself haunted by guilt (and a mutant cephalopod). Burdened by the knowledge of what he’s done, Iggy has to make a choice: does he come clean or does he play dirty?

In this sinister limerick-al story, A MONSTER has taken over one girl’s life, and all Mom and Dad have to say is that it’s “just a phase.”

​

​

​

​

​

​

​

​

​

​

Rhyme

Fahrenheit 451 x Extra Yarn

As beloved literary characters disappear into THE DUMP, the bookish narrator struggles to navigate an increasingly dreary landscape. When it all becomes too much to bear, he ventures in after them to uncover a vibrant surprise.

On the night before Christmas, one creature was stirring. While the rest of the family slept in quiet anticipation of a magical morning, someone pulled a Grinch and stole Christmas, right down to the last cookie crumb. At the end of his revels, he wrote a quick sorry-not-sorry apology, which comprises the full text of the story.

ARROKOTH is a snowman-shaped celestial object. In an homage to Christmas classics like Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer and Santa Claus Is Coming to Town, the story’s primary narrator speaks directly to the reader, recounting the tale of how ARROKOTH came to life and established a new Christmas tradition.

Miles’ words have a mind of their own; try as he might, he cannot contain them. A gift from Mom and Dad might help Miles take control over his words...or the gift might take control over Miles.

Miles and Mama are struggling; Miles is frustrated not to be meeting milestones, and Mama worries as she watches Miles melt down in the face of his frustrations…but that is not their story. They learn early on to run their own race, celebrating wins on Miles’ schedule and in Miles’ style. STILL WATERS follows their communication journey, from wordless gestures to unfiltered bursts of speech, with their no-words-needed connection always at the heart of the story.

Blaise loves being a dinosaur. He just doesn’t like running, roaring, herd life, or any of the available diets. Okay, maybe he doesn’t love being a dinosaur, but he does love his friends. Even so, Blaise is exhausted by how hard he has to work to fit in. When a restorative nap turns transformative, Blaise makes a startling discovery that changes everything—except how fiercely he loves his friends.

Spiderling Maeve the Brave lives for adventure until an ill-fated expedition robs her of her voice and her confidence. When Dad sends her to The Weaver Academy to rediscover her voice, Maeve meets Ariadne, a neurodivergent artist who shows Maeve the world—and herself—through a different lens. Their newfound friendship may be exactly what Maeve needs to find her voice again.

Cyril is a Coptic camel who finds himself facing a strange dilemma: he has a smell stuck in his nose! When his foxy fennec friend explains how she unsticks songs from her ears, Cyril realizes that he must discover the source of the smell if he hopes to shake it loose. Heading up the caravan, Cyril leads his Egyptian friends on an olfactory journey through the desert, past the Mediterranean Sea, and into the heart of Cairo.

Alice loves to wander down The Rabbit Hole with Dad in search of treasure. When a new treasure gives her the power to hold the past in her hands, she creates a nature-inspired time machine in THE SNAKESKIN SYCAMORE.

Starting kindergarten is hard. It’s even harder when your hero is leaving for college right before the Big Day. Confronted with this reality, Leo is beset by nightmares…but big brother Troy comes to the rescue one last time, reading his little brother fairy tales and myths to arm him against the monsters.

​

​

​

​

​

​

​

Rhyme

Did you know that experts think octopuses may dream? This gentle, lyrical bedtime story imagines what an octopus may dream of...in vivid technicolor!