Last Saturday, I was invited to Andersen Press’ Blogger Brunch to hear about their upcoming YA releases for 2018. Over the summer, I did a week of work experience at Andersen Press, and so it was so lovely to be invited back as a blogger, and I had a really great morning! We started the morning with some delicious brunch and a chat, and I met Louise, blogger at Book Murmation – we have been chatting on Twitter for a few months now, so it was really lovely to finally meet her! Harriet, Charlie, and Chloe from Andersen Press then gave us a presentation, going through each of the novels being released over the course of the year!
The first book is Rebound by Kwame Alexander, out in April this year. This is a prequel to the book The Crossover, also by Kwame Alexander, and what I find so interesting about this book is that it is told in the form of poetry. The story is about jazz and basketball, with each and every part told as a poem, which I think is really cool! We also watched a video from Kwame Alexander, who couldn’t be at the event with us, which was really interesting, and it was lovely to see all the work he does in schools in the UK. After that, we heard about Mud by Emily Thomas, out in July 2018. Told in the form of a diary, Mud is about a girl, living on a barge with her family, who has to cope with the many strains and grievances she and her family come under. Emily herself gave us some in depth insight into this book, and I was utterly transfixed by her storytelling. I was particularly excited to the cover of this book the screen, as in the summer, during my work experience, I sat in on a meeting where they were discussing the cover design for Mud, so it was really interesting to see the final result! Shadows by Meaghan McIsaac is the sequel to Movers, and has actually been out since the start of this month! The first book is set in a world where refugees are flooding in from the future, and in this novel, the protagonist has been thrown into the future – I will not go into too much detail (to avoid spoilers), but it sounds like a really action-packed, exciting read!