Melody Press
Books for Kids & Teens
Melody Press features highly-acclaimed novels by emerging authors, focusing on titles for middle grade and young adult readers. All of our books for younger readers include free curriculum guides for teachers, parents, and librarians. Visit our Curriculum page for resources!
Books are listed in order of publication date
Books are listed in order of publication date
Coming Soon!
Ethan & God Written by Sandra Rice, Illustrated by Linda Swanekamp
Ethan is sick. It's scary in the hospital, especially when you know you might not ever go home again. But God is there to comfort Ethan and give him strength in his time of need.
A picture book featuring beautiful watercolor illustrations, Ethan and God gives a message of comfort and hope for terminally-ill children and their families.
Grades: PreK-2
Genre: Picture Book, Inspirational, Children's
A picture book featuring beautiful watercolor illustrations, Ethan and God gives a message of comfort and hope for terminally-ill children and their families.
Grades: PreK-2
Genre: Picture Book, Inspirational, Children's
Always, Jessie and Always, Tyler by Megan Cassidy
Always, Jessie: Jessie is an ambitious but lonely high school junior struggling with OSFED (Other Specified Feeding or Eating Disorder), a disorder which takes on various features of anorexia, bulimia, and exercise addiction. Burdened with pressures from school, peers, and the responsibility of caring for two younger sisters, Jessie tries to control the chaos through her disorder, but finds herself becoming even more isolated and depressed. After a life-threatening incident sends her to the hospital, Jessie’s family confronts her; she admits she has a problem and agrees to enter a residential treatment facility where she can begin to heal.
Always, Tyler: High school senior Tyler Ford seems to have it all—popularity, a doting girlfriend, and a wrestling career that could earn him free ride to the college of his choice. But after his school hosts an “Eating Disorder Awareness Week,” Tyler realizes he may have a problem. When the secrets hidden under Tyler’s perfect life are exposed, he struggles through therapy and wonders if getting better is worth risking everything.
Grades: 9-12
Genre: Contemporary, Young Adult
Note: These are companion novels and will include a free, downloadable curriculum guide
Always, Tyler: High school senior Tyler Ford seems to have it all—popularity, a doting girlfriend, and a wrestling career that could earn him free ride to the college of his choice. But after his school hosts an “Eating Disorder Awareness Week,” Tyler realizes he may have a problem. When the secrets hidden under Tyler’s perfect life are exposed, he struggles through therapy and wonders if getting better is worth risking everything.
Grades: 9-12
Genre: Contemporary, Young Adult
Note: These are companion novels and will include a free, downloadable curriculum guide
Now Available!
The Last Ghost
Christian Orland has died, and everyone in his life is trying to get over it. Everyone that is except for Woe, the sixteenth Fatality, who knows that she was assigned the wrong case when she stopped his heart. She resolves to solve how Christian's death ended up in her appointment book by teaming up with Alexi, another Death, and several ghosts of Christian's past.
Meanwhile, the other Deaths are working on a plan to get rid of the appointment books to change the very nature of death, and Woe's appointment book, the first book to have ever been tampered with, is key to their plan. As Woe grows closer to solving the mystery of Christian's death, and ignores her main responsibilities, free will comes closer to being lost forever.
Click HERE to read more about author Jamie Blake
Meanwhile, the other Deaths are working on a plan to get rid of the appointment books to change the very nature of death, and Woe's appointment book, the first book to have ever been tampered with, is key to their plan. As Woe grows closer to solving the mystery of Christian's death, and ignores her main responsibilities, free will comes closer to being lost forever.
Click HERE to read more about author Jamie Blake
Latium
The day the island was attacked, Danny handed his only weapon to his sister Lydia and told her to run. Three years later, she still blames herself for his death. Lydia's fragile, barely-rebuilt world shatters again when Danny's murderers return and she's shot in the back.
When she wakes, Lydia finds herself somewhere she's never been: high school. Yucca Mountain School is hidden deep underground and far from ordinary. The creepy headmaster who claims that her father is dead and the nurse obsessed with drawing her blood at every opportunity would have been bad enough, but when Lydia spots Danny, her brother--her dead brother--in an old school photo, she knows that something is very, very wrong.
Desperate to discover what happened to Danny, Lydia must do all she can to unlock the secrets of the school and the mysterious Latium Project before she ends up just like him.
Click HERE to read more about author Samantha Martin
When she wakes, Lydia finds herself somewhere she's never been: high school. Yucca Mountain School is hidden deep underground and far from ordinary. The creepy headmaster who claims that her father is dead and the nurse obsessed with drawing her blood at every opportunity would have been bad enough, but when Lydia spots Danny, her brother--her dead brother--in an old school photo, she knows that something is very, very wrong.
Desperate to discover what happened to Danny, Lydia must do all she can to unlock the secrets of the school and the mysterious Latium Project before she ends up just like him.
Click HERE to read more about author Samantha Martin
Sky's High Dreams
Skylar is only 12 years old, but she dreams big and loves bigger! Skylar was born with Schizencephaly, a rare birth defect that causes splits or slits in the brain or missing parts of the brain. But Skylar still has dreams just like you and me! Skylar’s dreams have taken her amazing places-- from New York City to the White House! She has played in the ocean, pet a dolphin, danced on stage, and more!
Read all about Skylar’s amazing, inspiring adventures!
This picture book helps teach young children about special needs, neurodiversity, and acceptance.
Proceeds from this book go to the Arkansas Children's Hospital.
Click HERE to read more about Skylar Overman!
Read all about Skylar’s amazing, inspiring adventures!
This picture book helps teach young children about special needs, neurodiversity, and acceptance.
Proceeds from this book go to the Arkansas Children's Hospital.
Click HERE to read more about Skylar Overman!
The Orion Medallion
Twelve-year-old Austin Ellers is convinced his day is ruined when he can't muster up the courage to ask his crush to the school dance. But, when he finds a secret interplanetary control room buried in the field behind his house and a woman named Kyra from the Universal Preservation Alliance asks for his help, he has to admit that his confidence problems look a little minor in comparison.
Kyra needs the medallion Austin's grandfather left him to fix a beacon on a distant planet and prevent intergalactic war from breaking out. Austin's not about to let some stranger run off with his beloved memento, but, when war-hungry, shapeshifter aliens known as Dethcors show up at his school to get him to surrender the medallion, he teams up with Kyra and heads into deep space to draw the aliens' attention away from his friends and family. Can the kid who has a hard time completing a sentence when talking to a girl really become the hero who saves the universe?
Click HERE to read more about author Matthew Franks!
Kyra needs the medallion Austin's grandfather left him to fix a beacon on a distant planet and prevent intergalactic war from breaking out. Austin's not about to let some stranger run off with his beloved memento, but, when war-hungry, shapeshifter aliens known as Dethcors show up at his school to get him to surrender the medallion, he teams up with Kyra and heads into deep space to draw the aliens' attention away from his friends and family. Can the kid who has a hard time completing a sentence when talking to a girl really become the hero who saves the universe?
Click HERE to read more about author Matthew Franks!
The Misadventures of Marvin Miller
Now Available on Amazon! Visit our Shop Page
When his friends seem to find girlfriends all at the same time, Marvin is left looking for a date with no prospects in sight. While desperately trying to find a girlfriend, Marvin and his friends stumble from one hilariously improbable situation to the next: accidentally setting a fire, causing a blackout, ruining a wedding, and creating chaos during the final basketball game of the summer season. It seems as if nothing can ever go right for Marvin, until he finally begins a relationship with a new African-American girl in town.
The problem is, not all of his friends approve.
Free Curriculum Guide Available June, 12th!
Read more about author Megan Cassidy HERE
When his friends seem to find girlfriends all at the same time, Marvin is left looking for a date with no prospects in sight. While desperately trying to find a girlfriend, Marvin and his friends stumble from one hilariously improbable situation to the next: accidentally setting a fire, causing a blackout, ruining a wedding, and creating chaos during the final basketball game of the summer season. It seems as if nothing can ever go right for Marvin, until he finally begins a relationship with a new African-American girl in town.
The problem is, not all of his friends approve.
Free Curriculum Guide Available June, 12th!
Read more about author Megan Cassidy HERE
Irma the Inventor & the Vampire Spiders
Now Available on Amazon! Visit our Shop Page!
How many kids do you know who can build robotic spiders out of scrap metal, develop a substance that’s stronger than steel, or crash a cyber-wizard's computer from an undetectable monitor? Well, that’s Irma. Still, all she really wants is to make some friends and blend in for once, but no matter how hard she tries, Irma always seems to stand out. This laugh-out-loud middle grade novel encourages readers to explore the STEM fields while never losing its sense of fun.
Read more about author Kimbra Kasch HERE
How many kids do you know who can build robotic spiders out of scrap metal, develop a substance that’s stronger than steel, or crash a cyber-wizard's computer from an undetectable monitor? Well, that’s Irma. Still, all she really wants is to make some friends and blend in for once, but no matter how hard she tries, Irma always seems to stand out. This laugh-out-loud middle grade novel encourages readers to explore the STEM fields while never losing its sense of fun.
Read more about author Kimbra Kasch HERE
Threadwalkers
Now Available! Visit our Shop Page!
After her father's death in a plane crash, 16-year-old Miranda Woodward's life begins to unravel. On her sixteenth birthday, Miranda receives a mysterious gift: a small wooden box containing a needle and spool of gossamer golden thread, left behind by her father, which begins a chain of events that soon leave her life in chaos. When her mother vanishes into thin air, Miranda becomes desperate for answers. She follows clues to a meet a man known only as the Tailor, who reveals her father was part of an elite group of people known as Threadwalkers-- those with the ability to see and even travel through "snags" or "thin spots" in the fabric of spacetime. With her mother's life and her own existence on the line, Miranda must stop her past from being altered beyond repair, if only she can find a way to fix the snags before it’s too late.
Read more about author Joanna Volavka HERE
After her father's death in a plane crash, 16-year-old Miranda Woodward's life begins to unravel. On her sixteenth birthday, Miranda receives a mysterious gift: a small wooden box containing a needle and spool of gossamer golden thread, left behind by her father, which begins a chain of events that soon leave her life in chaos. When her mother vanishes into thin air, Miranda becomes desperate for answers. She follows clues to a meet a man known only as the Tailor, who reveals her father was part of an elite group of people known as Threadwalkers-- those with the ability to see and even travel through "snags" or "thin spots" in the fabric of spacetime. With her mother's life and her own existence on the line, Miranda must stop her past from being altered beyond repair, if only she can find a way to fix the snags before it’s too late.
Read more about author Joanna Volavka HERE
Freedom for Me: A Chinese Yankee
Winner of Skipping Stones Magazine’s 2018 Honor
Award for Multicultural Teen Books
Award for Multicultural Teen Books
Now Available! Visit our Shop Page!
As the Civil War rages, Thomas longs to fight for his country. He’s underage, but his brother, Robert, claims there’s another reason he can’t fight: there are no Chinese Yankees. When Thomas is assumed to be a slave because of his appearance, he’s determined to find a way to fight for the Union cause. Thomas finds that wearing the same uniform—even battling against the Rebels with his regiment—isn’t enough to shed the Chinese label from his Yankee status. His traditional Chinese queue ( long braid) is often the target of the boys’ attacks. But when Thomas befriends a runaway slave and the war moves toward a pivotal moment in Gettysburg, he begins to understand the true meaning of freedom in America. Freedom for Me is a historical middle grade novel based on the life of a real Chinese Yankee, one of only a handful of Chinese soldiers who served in the American Civil War.
Read more about author Stacie Haas HERE
Undercover Chefs
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Three unlikely friends join forces to win a baking competition and save their school’s culinary classroom. Isaac, a nationally-ranked runner; Jane, a shy artist; and J.C., a rebellious scooter rider—all have a secret passion for cooking. The promise of a cupcake contest lures them to an unusual classroom on the outskirts of campus. As they share friendship and a love for cooking, the pressures of the contest start to boil over—a recipe for disaster that could destroy their chances at winning! The heat is on, and Isaac, Jane and J.C. must figure out a way to salvage their cupcakes, save the culinary classroom from being demolished,
and protect their secrets before the judges cast their final votes.
Read more about author Erin Fry HERE
Three unlikely friends join forces to win a baking competition and save their school’s culinary classroom. Isaac, a nationally-ranked runner; Jane, a shy artist; and J.C., a rebellious scooter rider—all have a secret passion for cooking. The promise of a cupcake contest lures them to an unusual classroom on the outskirts of campus. As they share friendship and a love for cooking, the pressures of the contest start to boil over—a recipe for disaster that could destroy their chances at winning! The heat is on, and Isaac, Jane and J.C. must figure out a way to salvage their cupcakes, save the culinary classroom from being demolished,
and protect their secrets before the judges cast their final votes.
Read more about author Erin Fry HERE