Donald Maass Literary Agency

Kirkus: Yoon Ha Lee’s first foray into the field is an absolute winner (not that I should have expected anything different, given the author’s awesome track record with the Ninefox Gambit books). Dragon Pearl is everything that I want in a sci-fi adventure story (for a reader of any age): it’s smart, fast-paced, and balanced nuanced world building with solid characterizations and exciting capers spanning different planets, space ships (and space ship battles), and supernatural twists. I especially loved the […]

School Library Journal: A brain aneurysm killed July Cooper, but it can’t destroy her bond with Dino DeLuca. July rises from the dead at the funeral home owned by Dino’s family, and though the two teens had been on the outs for the past year, they are drawn together as they attempt to conceal July’s reanimation. What ensues is messy. July’s body is slowly rotting, and the two trade barbed words while untangling why their friendship ended after Dino met […]

Publishers Weekly:  Bensen has created some larger-than-life characters, but the true star of the tale is Junction itself. The author’s creativity gambols across the planet along with his characters, and the journey is as much about the weird creatures as it is about the human drama.

Kirkus: Her arduous journey toward transfiguration—while also dissecting her strained relationships with both parents—makes this a valuable addition to the contemporary realistic fiction genre. The message that being kinder does not mean compromising who you are, but rather unveiling the better and more authentic version of one’s self, is admirable. A refreshing mean-girl transformation story akin to 10 Things I Hate About You.

Kirkus: Bear, then, offers plenty of big, bold, fascinating ideas in a narrative that culminates in a double showdown with a dazzling array of said thoughtful beings…. Impressive at the core. Readers who relished the Jacob’s Ladder trilogy will certainly enjoy this one.

World English Audio rights Anna Kashina’s SHADOWBLADE, to Michael Olah at Dreamscape Media, by Katie Shea Boutillier, for Jennie Goloboy.

French rights to New York Times bestselling author Anne Bishop’s WILD COUNTRY, a novel of the Others, to Bragelonne, by Robin Batet at the Anna Jarota Agency in association with Michael Curry for Jennifer Jackson. French rights to Hugo and Nebula award-winning author Nnedi Okorafor’s AKATA WITCH, to L’école des Loisirs, by Robin Batet at Anna Jarota Agency on behalf of Katie Shea Boutillier for Donald Maass. German rights to Robert McCammon’s BOY’S LIFE, to Luzifer, by Kathrin Nehm at […]

AudioFile: Narrator Yetide Badaki’s dynamic voice returns with this story of Sunny, an Igbo and American albino girl with the juju needed to save humanity. Badaki enlivens Sunny’s character with a bright American accent and gives her friends varied Nigerian- and American-sounding voices. Continuing on from AKATA WITCH, Sunny, Chichi, Orlu, and Sasha are growing as scholars, pushing the boundaries of the rules governing the magical Leopard People and coming full circle to challenge Sunny’s prophetic dream of the apocalypse at […]

Horn Book Magazine: Thirteen-year-old Min is feisty and clever, and she has a powerful secret: she’s a gumiho, a fox spirit disguised as a human. Min can shape-shift and use Charm (fox magic) to alter others’ perceptions and emotions. She enthusiastically wields these powers when she ditches her “dismal life” on the barren planet Jinju in order to track down her brother Jun, a Thousand Worlds Space Forces cadet who’s gone AWOL. Min’s epic adventure leads to run-ins with spaceport security […]

Congratulations to the DMLA authors who have made the Young Adult Library Services Association’s 2019 Best Fiction for Young Adults list: Elena Mendoza by Shaun David Hutchinson Dread Nation by Justina Ireland