“This Monster Panel Really Bites”: Kalynn Bayron, Roseanne Brown, Derrick Chow & Zoraida Córdova

Roseanne Brown was born in Kumasi, Ghana, and immigrated to central Maryland as a child, where she later graduated from eth University of Maryland and completed the Jiménez-Porter Writers’ House program. She was an assistant teacher, journalist, and editorial intern before writing her first two YA novels, A Song of Wraiths and Ruin – an instant New York Times bestseller – and A Psalm of Storms and Silence. For most kids, catching fireflies is a fun summer activity. For 12-year-old Serwa Boateng, the hero of Serwa Boateng’s Guide to Vampire Hunting (Rick Riordan Presents), it’s a matter of life and death. She knows that some fireflies are “adze,” shapeshifting vampires from the forests of Southeastern Ghana. They prey on the blood of innocents, possessing their minds and turning them into monsters. Slayers like Serwa and her parents have protected an unknowing public for generations, and she is the best slayer her age. But when an “obayifo,” a witch, destroys her childhood home, her parents leave Serwa with her hippie aunt in Nowheresville, Maryland, “for her own safety.” She must deal with mean girls and algebra now, but just as she starts to get the hang of this normal girl thing, an adze infiltrates her school. Seventh grade is hard enough without vampires.

Safon Floyd is executive editor at Callisto Media and host of the monthly Books, Bud, and BS book club.

Zoraida Córdova is the author of more than a dozen novels, most recently the Brooklyn Brujas series, The Vicious Deep trilogy, The Way to Rio Luna, and Star Wars: A Crash of Fate. She is the co-editor of the bestselling anthology Vampires Never Get Old and the co-host of the podcast Deadline City. Córdova was born in Guayaquil, Ecuador, and raised in Queens, New York. The title character of Valentina Salazar is not a Monster Hunter (Scholastic Press) is part of a family of protectors. The Salazars rescue the magical creatures who sometimes wander into our world, from grumpy unicorns and chupacabras to the occasional fire-breathing chipmunk. But when her dad dies during a rescue mission, her mother decides it’s time to retire. She moves the family to a little town in upstate New York and enrolls Val and her siblings in a real school for the first time. Even so, Valentina just can’t give up her calling, and when a mythical egg surfaces in a viral video she knows she must find it before it hatches and wreaks havoc. She must also ward off the dreaded monster hunters who will stop at nothing to destroy it – and threaten her family.

Derrick Chow is an author, illustrator, and comic creator. His short stories have been featured in several comic anthologies, and his illustrations appear in newspapers, magazines, and books across North America. Ravenous Things (Disney-Hyperion) is his first novel. Twelve-year-old Reggie Wong has a quick temper that gets him into trouble. At home, his mom struggles to get out of bed, and Reggie desperately needs his dad back – but his dad is dead. Enter the Conductor, a peculiar man who promises to grant Reggie’s wish to see his father just one more time. All he must do is climb aboard the man’s subway train, which leaves St. Patrick’s Station promptly at midnight. Desperate, Reggie accepts the offer, only to discover the train is full of other children who have lost a loved one. There, he meets Chantal, an annoyingly peppy girl, and Gareth, his arch-nemesis and bully since the fourth grade. As kids step off the train and into the arms of their lost family member, Reggie can’t believe his wish is about to come true. But all is not as it seems. The Conductor has a diabolical plan, and Reggie and his new friends must find a way out.

Kalynn Bayron is the bestselling author of the YA fantasy novels Cinderella Is Dead and This Poison Heart. She is a classically trained vocalist, and when she’s not writing, you can find her listening to Ella Fitzgerald on a loop, attending the theater, watching scary movies, and spending time with her kids. In The Vanquishers (Bloomsbury Children’s Books), we meet Malika “Boog” Wilson. She and her best friends have grown up idolizing the Vanquishers, a group of heroic vampire hunters who wiped out the last horde of the undead decades ago. These days, most people don’t take even the most basic vampire precautions – no garlic wreaths or early curfews – but Boog’s parents still follow the old rules, much to her embarrassment. Then a friend goes missing, and Boog doesn’t know what to think. Is the school counselor, Mr. Rupert, hiding something? Is it something more dangerous? Can it be that vampires might not have been vanquished after all? Boog is determined to save her friend. And while no one ever expected the Vanquishers to return, if their town needs protection from the undead, Boog knows who to call.