“A fast-paced, stirring narrative about loss and unrequited love” set amid a destructive cicada swarm in West Virginia (Publishers Weekly). In a West Virginian town, a brood of Magicicadas emerges for the first time in seventeen years. The cicadas damage crops and trees, and swarm locals. Jessica, a former cop whose entire family was killed in a car crash two years earlier, is deputized during the crisis. At the same time, she is dealing with her feelings for her sister’s best friend, Natasha, a town council member—and the two-year anniversary of the car crash that killed her family is approaching. As all this descends, a sudden, devastating loss will change everything . . . “A bright, raw, original new voice in American fiction. Her prose is electric. And Summer of the Cicadas was a novel I couldn't put down.” —Thomas Christopher Greene, author of The Perfect Liar

Novel by Cole Lavalais, Inaugural Fellow, Kimbilio Center for Fiction.

It's 1987 and Joseph Pullman and his parents have just moved to Maritime, Maryland. This is white-picket-fence America, but for fifteen-year-old Joseph the threat of violence at home is as unrelenting as the punishment he receives at school, and his mother is slowly slipping away from reality. Joseph forms an uneasy friendship with the awkward Dean Gillespie and the boys occupy themselves burying animal corpses at the Killing Tree. This is the summer the cicadas are due to come out of their seventeen-year hibernation and Joseph becomes convinced that their arrival will bring his salvation. Meanwhile, Mother is gone and Joseph's father has retreated to his basement workshop. When a local boy goes missing and is finally found unconscious in the woods, Maritime is shaken. Then a second boy disappears and the residents of the town are forced to confront the secrets of the Pullmans' house.

NOMINATED FOR A BRAM STOKER AWARD FOR SUPERIOR ACHIEVEMENT IN A NOVEL 2018 - Belinda Alvarez has returned to Texas for the wedding of her best friend Veronica. The farm is the site of the urban legend, La Reina de Las Chicharras - The Queen of The Cicadas. In 1950s south Texas a farmworker- Milagros from San Luis Potosi, Mexico, is murdered. Her death is ignored by the town, but not the Aztec goddess of death, Mictecacíhuatl. The goddess hears the dying cries of Milagros and creates a plan for both to be physically reborn by feeding on vengeance and worship. Belinda and the new owner of the farmhouse - Hector, find themselves immersed in the legend and realize it is part of their fate as well. FLAME TREE PRESS is the new fiction imprint of Flame Tree Publishing. Launched in 2018 the list brings together brilliant new authors and the more established; the award winners, and exciting, original voices.

Now in paperback! Lily has read every Nancy Drew book in the library. She’s great at spying clues and keeping secrets. She has to be. She has secrets of her own that no one can ever find out. When summer brings lying, stealing Tinny Bridges to town, Lily must depend on her own wits to keep ahead of this sly newcomer. Tinny takes candy from the general store and blames Lily. She tries to steal Lily’s friends and even her father’s affection. Worst of all, she seems to know Lily’s secret. When Tinny goes missing, only Lily has an idea what happened to her. But for Lily, finding Tinny means confronting her hidden past. With its taut-pacing and lyrical writing, Andrea Beaty’s critically acclaimed mystery has been hailed as “the kind of satisfying read that summer is all about” (School Library Journal). Praise for Cicada Summer “One part memory, one part mystery, and a generous dose of atmosphere make this the kind of satisfying read that Summer Reading is all about.” —School Library Journal “Beaty weaves elements from Lily’s favorite Nancy Drew stories together with a moving picture of a child . . .” —Kirkus “Written with clarity and fine attention to craft, this accessible novel reveals the secret in Lily’s past just as she reaches out to solve the mystery.” —Booklist

Eloise doesn't speak, but can she see into the past? This exciting and atmospheric mystery from the author of the Chanters of Tremaris series explores themes of family, friendship, and grief. Something flickered at the top of the stairs. Eloise heard a voice call,I'm coming!, and a girl in a pale dress and a big sunhat came running, her fingertips slipping down the curve of the slim iron railing. Eloise went cold all over. She couldn't move, or breathe; her mouth was dry. At the bottom of the steps, the girl in the pale dress faltered, then stopped. For a fraction of a second she stood motionless, as if she were listening. Then all at once she turned and stared straight at Eloise. And suddenly the foyer was empty. The ghostly girl was gone. When Eloise's get-rich-quick dad moves them back to his home town to turn the derelict family mansion into a convention center, Eloise feels an immediate bond with the old house. She begins spending all her time there, ignoring her strange grandmother and avoiding the friendly boy next door. Then Eloise meets a "ghost girl" who may or may not be from the house's past, and events take a strange—and ultimately dangerous—turn. Beautifully written, poignant, and gripping, this is a charming and atmospheric story of personal growth, overcoming grief, and the true nature of friendship and family.

Cecily Cicada is a cicada who lives underneath the sassafras tree on Huidekoper Street in Washington, D.C., anxiously awaiting the time when she can come above ground.

A moving novel of unconditional love and the freedom of letting go, this story follows the haunting journey of a single mother from South Carolina who discovers she's pregnant again. When single mother Priscilla Lynn Macy learns she's having another child unexpectedly, she packs the family into the car to escape. Eight-year-old Janie Doe and Rainey Dae, her seventeen-year-old sister with special needs, embark on the last family vacation they'll ever take with Poppy and Grandma Mona in the back seat. The trip seems aimless until Janie realizes they are searching for the father who left them years ago. When they can't find him, they make their way to Forest Pines, SC. Priscilla hasn't been to her family home in many years and finds it a mixed blessing of hope, buried secrets, and family ghosts. Through eyes of innocence, Janie learns the hard realities of life and the difficult choices grownups make. And she must face disturbing truths about the people she loves in order to carry them in the moments that matter most. Part road trip, part mystery, and completely unexpected, Saving Cicadas picks you up in one place and puts you down someplace else entirely. It's an eloquent reminder that life is a miracle—and even the smallest soul is a gift. Haunting contemporary southern fiction Includes discussion questions for book clubs Also by Nicole Seitz: The Inheritance of Beauty, A Hundred Years of Happiness, and Trouble the Water

WINNER OF THE CBCA PICTURE BOOK OF THE YEAR AWARD 2019 Cicada work in tall building. Data entry clerk. Seventeen year. No sick day. No mistake. Tok Tok Tok! Cicada works in an office, dutifully toiling day after day for unappreciative bosses and being bullied by his coworkers. But one day, cicada goes to the roof of the building, and something truly extraordinary happens ... A story for anyone who has ever felt unappreciated, overlooked or overworked, from Australia's most acclaimed picture book creator.

This lovely story about a child and their grandfather searching for cicadas is part of the award-winning narrative nonfiction Nature Storybooks series. In the summertime, Grandpa and I go cicada-watching. We put our camping gear into my wagon and walk down to the local reserve. Last year we saw five Green Grocers, three Yellow Mondays and one Floury Baker. Can we find the rare Black Prince this year? This picture book brings together award winners Lesley Gibbes and Judy Watson to showcase the wonder and beauty of cicadas as well as highlight the common summer pastime of cicada-watching.