The Weekly 411 (11/6/26)
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| © Olga Herrera |
Nov. 6, 2026 vol. 44
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 Olga Herrera.
Middle Grade Series Giveaway
We are thrilled to host a giveaway of the entire series of three middle grade novels by Isi Hendrix, Adia Kelbara and the Circle of Shamans (Storytide/ HarperCollins 2023), Adia Kelbara and the High Queen's Tomb (2025), and Adia Kelbara and the Dark Between (2026). Enter to win all 3 books in the widget below.
About Book 1: The first book in a fast-paced, witty, and bighearted debut Afrofantasy trilogy about a twelve-year-old apprenticing in the kitchens at the prestigious Academy of Shamans who must ally with a snarky goddess and a knife-wielding warrior to save her kingdom.
About Book 2: Adia Kelbara may have defeated the power-hungry god Olark and saved Zaria, but now she must face something even more terrifying: her first semester as a student at the Academy of Shamans. As her abilities are tested during orientation, a mysterious affliction causes everyone except for Adia and Thyme to pass out—and a reanimated corpse appears, with a horrifying message. Now it will be up to Adia to push her powers to their limit and journey to the tomb of the ancient High Queen in search of answers and a cure for the sleeping sickness besieging Zaria.
About Book 3: Power-hungry demon Olark has been banished to the realm of the dead…but Adia Kelbara’s troubles are far from over.
When a boy with godlike powers escapes a hidden prison and appears in Zaria, Adia’s world begins to unravel...literally. The powers he carries were stolen from Adia’s mentor, the Alusi Ginikawa, and now the once-powerful goddess is fading from existence. In an effort to help Gini, Adia uncovers a secret project turning humans into vessels for divine power and makes a desperate deal with the dark shamanic mastermind behind the experiments—her own Aunt Ife. But in trying to save someone she loves, Adia sets in motion a chain of events that endangers all of Zaria, unleashing a future where Olark is free once more—and stronger than ever. To set things right, Adia must journey to the mythical land of Imo Mmiri and harness the power of a god. But claiming this power means confronting the same corruption that once destroyed her family—and risking her friends' lives and her own soul to mend a fractured world.
About the Author: Isi Hendrix is a children’s book author who has been lucky enough to live and work all over the world, from the Himalayas to the Amazon rainforest, during her past life as an anthropologist. Now she’s based in her hometown of Brooklyn, New York, where she lives with a rotating roster of foster kittens and a stubborn refusal to accept that she is highly allergic to cats. Her debut novel, Adia Kelbara and the Circle of Shamans, received a starred review from ALA Booklist and was nominated for an NAACP Image Award.
Picture Book Giveaway
We are pleased to host a giveaway of the picture book, Funcles, by Yashika Mody, illustrated by Adriena Fong (Lantana Publishing), out now. Enter to win a copy via the widget below.
About the Book: Funcles is a warm and funny picture book that celebrates community, cultural tradition, and the many shapes family can take. When a school assignment asks for a family tree, one child knows he'll need more than one sheet...he has a gazillion uncles! There's Bus Uncle, Supermarket Uncle, Taxi Uncle, even Food Court Uncle. Everywhere he goes, there's someone looking out for him. But when Ma and Pa explain that none of these uncles are blood relatives, he's crushed, until he realizes something even better: these aren’t fake uncles…they're FUNcles! And they mean the world to him.
About the Author: Yashika Mody is a picture book author who lives in sunny Singapore with her husband, her two adorable kids, and her puppy. Inspired by her diverse upbringing as a Third Culture Kid, she loves writing funny and heartwarming books about culture, community, and family. Visit her at: www.yashikamodywriting.com and on Instagram @yashikiamwriting.
Dec. 3, Dec. 8, 8-9:30 pm ET Revision for Submission Getting your manuscript ready to submit in 2027? This two-part workshop, with presentations from veteran editors Emma Dryden, Eileen Robinson, & Harold Underdone is just for you!
In the first session, we’ll help you make sure your manuscript is ready to go, without needing to hire a copy-editor. We’ll share techniques that will enable you to stand in for a copy-editor, through character and setting checklists and tools, ways of changing how you read, and methods of hunting down problem words and phrases.
As a bonus, we’ll give you a checklist to help you line-edit your manuscript, the stage before this final round.
In the second session, we’ll share a flexible template to help you with your query letter. Each of us will then review a sample query letter. Eileen will look at a picture book query; Emma will go over a query for a novel; and Harold will cover a nonfiction query.
To wrap up, all three of us will comment on one query letter from a participant. Registered participants will have the opportunity to submit a query letter. We will choose one of those submitted for feedback live during this second session.
You’ll get an opportunity to submit yours in the run-up to the workshop. (Cost is $119, limited to 30 participants)
Marketing & Creating a Platform
If Publicity Doesn't Guarantee Book Sales, Why Should Authors Care About It?
Nov. 17, 3 p.m. ET What is The Shape of Your Story? The wonderful Susanna Leonard Hill is hosting a webinar! She doesn't do this very often, so don't miss it! You're probably familiar with the classic structure of picture books where a character has a problem, tries three times to solve it, and eventually succeeds in a satisfying way. But that is far from the only way to structure a picture book! In this webinar, we'll talk about 10 different ways to structure your story that may offer new and exciting options to better tell stories you've already written and give you a well of inspiration for writing new stories!
How I Built a List of 300 Dream Clients (for Illustrators looking for work)
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