The Weekly 411 (9/18/26)

Sept. 18, 2026 vol. 37

The Weekly 411 gathers all the links added to Kidlit411 each week. To receive this post by email, sign up for our email updates. Are you on Facebook? Join our Kidlit411 group for conversations and camaraderie. We can also be found on Instagram and Bluesky. This week's illustration is by Ana Ochoa.

Middle Grade Giveaway

We are pleased to host a giveaway of the middle grade nonfiction book, Wild Medicine: Inventing Ways to Save Endangered Animals, by Nora Nickum (Tilbury House) out now. Enter to win a copy via the widget below.

About the Book: How do scientists and veterinarians protect endangered animals from deadly disease outbreaks when the animals can't be brought in from the wild for treatment? They get creative! Discover how experts are using everything from peanut butter to darts to hidden cameras in order to treat creatures of all shapes and sizes. For rare and threatened animals like gorillas, bats, sunflower sea stars, Hawaiian monk seals, and Ethiopian wolves, creative inventions and wild medicine in deep jungles, high mountains, and deserted islands can be the missing puzzle pieces to save them from extinction.

About the Author: Nora Nickum leads the Seattle Aquarium’s conservation programs department and writes books for children about science and wildlife. She is the author of the middle grade nonfiction book Superpod: Saving the Endangered Orcas of the Pacific Northwest and several picture books, including Twelve Daring Grays: A Whale Migration Adventure, illustrated by Elly MacKay and This Book is Full of Holes, illustrated by Robert Meganck.

Middle Grade Giveaway

We are pleased to host a middle grade giveaway, The Influencer, by Daria Pipkin (Slow Horse Press). Enter to win a copy via the widget below.

˙© Julie Rabischung

About the Book: What if positive gossip could spread as easily as harmful gossip? Peer pressure is real, and thirteen-year-old Callie has found a way to use it for good. As the anonymous Influencer, she can give her classmates any reputation they want by spreading positive gossip. Pretty? Athletic? Funny? Kind? Good or bad, all it takes is a handful of people saying the same thing and—voilà!—everyone believes it. Sure, it’s fake, but as long as her words are helping and not hurting people, it’s all good… until the new girl shows up with a chip on her shoulder and threatens to expose Callie’s secret identity to the whole school, including her goofy little brother, who doesn’t know Callie’s been meddling with his social life since third grade.

Now, Callie is blackmailed to perform an impossible task: To prove her business is good, she must make sure every kid at school has a friend—whether they want the help or not. But some kids would rather be alone than have fake friends, and her brother is carrying his own secret of what went wrong with Callie’s last real friendship.

About the Author: Daria Pipkin reads and writes stories for all ages, often playing with unique styles and formats. To respect her readers’ tastes (particularly her younger readers’), she uses different pen names for different age groups. The Influencer is her second book published, even though she actually wrote it before her debut Young Adult Sci-Fi novel, What We Have Tamed, published as G.S. Harrington (Slow Horse Press, 2026). She lives in sunny New Mexico, where she can frequently be found somewhere outdoors with her husband and furry children. For book updates and monthly posts on writing and editing fiction, subscribe to her newsletter at https://substack.com/@gsharrington or find additional resources at her website: https://gsharrington.com/

The Influencers giveaway

Marketing & Creating a Platform

Marketing for Authors 101

Submissions: Agents & Editors

How Long Does it Take to Sell a Novel?

Why Do Publishers Close Imprints?

For Writers

Secrets of Suspense

How to Write With Style

If Your Protagonist Is Bored, You Can Bet Your Readers Are Too

Inspirational Things

Why It's Important to Finish What You Start