About This Lesson
Join us for a SPECIAL MIDDLE-GRADE Author Showcase! Featuring:
Jen Calonita, author of ISLE OF EVER
Carina Finn, author of FEAST AND FAMINE: THE LAST GREAT HEIR
Victor Piñeiro, author of ISLAND OF FORGOTTEN GODS
We’ve got a FANTASTIC line-up of middle-grade fantasy and adventure authors for you on StoryMakers. Whether cursed treasure, pirates, and puzzle solving float your boat; dueling heirs, delicious pastries, and demon cats do it for you; or you fancy a can’t-put-downable adventure in Puerto Rico filled with ancient legends, mythological mysteries, and an encounter with the infamous Chupacabra — we’ve got a book for you!
Join Jen Calonita, author of FEAST AND FAMINE: THE LAST GREAT HEIR, Carina Finn, author of ISLE OF EVER, and Victor Pineiro, author of ISLAND OF FORGOTTEN GODS for a romp through their books, insight into their writing process, and Rocco’s Rapid-Fire Q&A!
About the Books
ISLE OF EVER
Two hundred years ago, an island disappeared. Benny has just two weeks to find it.
Everly “Benny” Benedict and her mom have always managed to get by, though they’re broke most of the time. But all that could change. Benny’s just learned she’s the sole heir to the vast fortune of Evelyn Terry, a mysterious ancestor from the 1800s!
There’s a catch, though. First Benny needs to play—and win—a game: following clues that are more than a century old, she must find her way to the tiny island Evelyn wrote about in her diary. It was somewhere off the shoreline of Evelyn’s home town, but according to legend, it vanished long ago and hasn’t appeared on maps for hundreds of years. Yet Benny has only a couple weeks to locate it. If she’s successful, she’ll collect the inheritance. But what if there’s more than a fortune at stake in this game? What if Benny has to break an ancient curse to win?
FEAST AND FAMINE: THE LAST GREAT HEIR
The female heirs of two opposing families must duel for guardianship of the land in this stunning fantasy adventure debut!
Merriment Feast’s life is one constant party, complete with dazzling gowns and delicious pastries. Everything is perfect…except for her aunt’s physically grueling training. Merri believes it’s her responsibility to protect her family’s traditions and the power they’ve held for generations.
Rue Famine knows that only Feasts benefit from Feast rule. As the heir of House Famine, she spends her days studying potion-making in an enormous, dusty library and learning how to use her magic to help others. Custom dictates that the heirs of Feast and Famine must duel on their thirteenth birthday. Only one family can rule the land of Fauret, and Merri and Rue have been raised as rivals.
But as the contest draws near and dangers escalate, their true enemy may be a shared one…
ISLAND OF FORGOTTEN GODS
From the author of Time Villains comes a new fantastical adventure about family, tradition, and seeing things for what they truly are.
Nico wants to be a famous film director. He’s pretty sure if he can make the right movie, and soon, his life will completely change. The catch? His parents are sending him to Puerto Rico for the summer to stay with his iconic, but old-school, Abuela Luciana, and his awesome, but unpredictable cousins. Still, the show must go on.
Until Nico and his cousins awaken a monster. A monster that looks an awful lot like the infamous Chupacabra. And it turns out this isn’t a chance encounter. The creature begins stalking them all over Puerto Rico, turning up on every dark corner, sandy beach, and moonlit night. To make matters worse, a shadowy cult enters the chase, intent on capturing them before the Chupacabra can.
Soon they are thrown into an adventure that brings them face-to-face with the ancient Taino people, even more ancient Taino gods, and the mysterious Chupacabra, who is somehow linked to everything. Nico keeps his camera rolling, hoping the epic documentary will catapult him to stardom. But in the end, it’s the island’s fate that hangs in the balance, as they face down the very gods that created Puerto Rico.
