Member News is a monthly feature on the EasternPennPoints blog. We want to celebrate our Eastern PA SCBWI members’ good news and help spread the word far and wide. Send us your children’s book–related news—book deals, releases, awards, author or illustrator events (signings, launch parties, appearances), etc. If you’d like your news to be included in next month’s column, please e-mail Laura Parnum at epa-ara@scbwi.org before November 20.
Here’s some exciting news from our members this month:
Author Hallee Adelman has a new picture book, Way Past Worried, illustrated by Sandra de la Prada, which launched on October 1 (Albert Whitman & Company). In the same style as Hallee’s previous book, Way Past Mad, this book helps children deal with social anxiety: Brock is worried. Way past worried, with his heart thumping and his mind racing. Today is his friend Juan’s superhero party and he’s going all by himself. What if nobody plays with him? What if everyone laughs at him? Brock doesn’t feel like a superhero, but . . . what if he can save the day and find a way past worried all by himself? This engaging story speaks to kids’ emerging emotional intelligence skills and helps them learn to manage worry.
Alison Green Myers’s middle grade debut, A Bird Will Soar, has been picked up by Dutton in a two-book deal. This novel follows a boy named Axel and the unusual collection of adults in his makeshift family as they try to repair both a nearby eagles’ nest and their own home in the aftermath of a storm. Publication is set for fall 2021.
Lindsay Bandy’s debut novel, Nemesis and the Swan, released on October 27 from Blackstone Books. The book follows nineteen-year-old Helene, from her prison cell in revolutionary Paris, recalling the events that led her to choose between following in her parents’ unforgivable footsteps or abandoning the man she loves. Despite her world of privilege, Helene is inspired early on by the radical ideas of her progressive governess. Though her family tries to intervene, the seeds of revolution have already been planted in Helene’s heart, as are the seeds of love from an unlikely friendship with a young jeweler’s apprentice. Helene’s determination to find true love is as revolutionary as her attempt to unravel the truth behind a concealed murder that tore her family apart.
The Secret Life of the Sloth, written by Laurence Pringle and illustrated by Kate Garchinsky, is now available for preorder. A year in the life of a sloth is revealed in this stunningly illustrated nonfiction picture book, the latest in the popular The Secret Life series. Meet Perezoso, a brown-throated three-fingered sloth who lives in a rainforest habitat. Young readers will be fascinated as they learn all about her life—how she searches for food, keeps herself safe from prey, and gives birth to a baby. Kate’s gorgeous, realistic illustrations celebrate these intriguing creatures, and the story is filled with important facts and terms. The Secret Life of the Sloth will release in April 2021 from Boyd’s Mills Press.
If you have good news to share, please send it to epa-ara@scbwi.org to be included in next month’s Member News column.
EasternPennPoints 
Great thi gs are happening in eastern PA! Congrats to our newly published and about to be authors!!!
Congratulations on the great news, everyone!
I remember hearing a snippet of A Bird Will Soar and being blown away. Not surprised it’s been picked up. Congratulations to everyone on your milestones!