Zoraida, Córdova

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.