Panel: A Spectre-tacular Conversation: On Magic, Monsters, and Raising the Dead

Sarah Divine is an Adult Services Librarian II at Nova Southeastern University’s Alvin Sherman Library. She completed her undergraduate studies at Florida International University and earned a Master’s degree in Library and Information Science at the University of South Florida. She currently represents her library on the Boards of Directors of the Florida Library Association and the American Association of University Women NSU Professional Chapter. Sarah has worked in bookstores and libraries for over 13 years, and considers recommending books to be her personal librarian superpower.

Kat Cho is the international bestselling YA author of Wicked Fox and Vicious Spirits. She loves to incorporate her Korean heritage in her writing, especially if it involves describing food. She is the co-host of the Write or Die Podcast, a podcast that interviews authors about the struggles of getting published and maintaining an author career. In Vicious Spirits (G.P. Putnam’s Sons Books for Young Readers), the follow up to Wicked Fox, Miyoung and Jihoon are picking up the pieces of their broken lives following the deaths of Miyoung’s mother, Yena, and Jihoon’s grandmother. With the support of their friend Somin, and their frenemy, Junu, they might just have a shot at normalcy. But Miyoung is getting sicker by the day and her friends don’t know how to save her. With few options remaining, Junu has an idea but it might require the ultimate sacrifice and, let’s be honest, Junu isn’t known for his “generosity.” Meanwhile, the events at the end of Wicked Fox have upended the forces that govern life and death and there are supernatural entities lurking in the background that will stop at nothing to right their world. Kirkus praised it as an “enthralling sequel to Wicked Fox. . .Once again Cho artfully balances Korean-inspired folktales, K-drama motifs, emotionally complex characters, and unpredictable plot twists.”

Darcie Little Badger is an Earth scientist, writer, and fan of the weird, beautiful, and haunting. She is an enrolled member of the Lipan Apache Tribe of Texas. Rovina Cai is a freelance illustrator. Recently she has illustrated books by Patrick Ness and Margo Lanagan. Elatsoe (Levine Querido) is a story set in a slightly stranger America. It’s got homework, best friends, and pistachio ice cream. There are some differences. This America been shaped dramatically by the magic, monsters, knowledge, and legends of its peoples, those Indigenous and those not. Some of these forces are charmingly everyday, like the ability to make an orb of light appear or travel across the world through rings of fungi. But other forces are less charming and should never see the light of day. Our heroe, seventeen-year-old Elatsoe, “Ellie,” can raise the ghosts of dead animals, a skill passed down through generations of her Lipan Apache family. Her beloved cousin has just been murdered in a town that wants no prying eyes. But she is going to do more than pry. The picture-perfect facade of Willowbee masks gruesome secrets, and she will rely on her wits, skills, and friends to tear off the mask and protect her family. Publishers Weekly, in a starred review, called Elatsoe “Refreshing. Indigenous myths, modern-day technology, and the supernatural successfully blend to build a fast-paced murder mystery.”