“A poignant, necessary entry into the children’s literary canon, Root Magic brings to life the history and culture of Gullah people while highlighting the timeless plight of Black Americans. Add in a fun, magical adventure and you get everything I want in a book!” —Justina Ireland, New York Times bestselling author of Dread Nation Walter Dean Myers Honor Award for Outstanding Children's Literature! A Mythopoeic Fantasy Award winner! Debut author Eden Royce arrives with a wondrous story of love, bravery, friendship, and family, filled to the brim with magic great and small. It’s 1963, and things are changing for Jezebel Turner. Her beloved grandmother has just passed away. The local police deputy won’t stop harassing her family. With school integration arriving in South Carolina, Jez and her twin brother, Jay, are about to begin the school year with a bunch of new kids. But the biggest change comes when Jez and Jay turn eleven— and their uncle, Doc, tells them he’s going to train them in rootwork. Jez and Jay have always been fascinated by the African American folk magic that has been the legacy of their family for generations—especially the curious potions and powders Doc and Gran would make for the people on their island. But Jez soon finds out that her family’s true power goes far beyond small charms and elixirs…and not a moment too soon. Because when evil both natural and supernatural comes to show itself in town, it’s going to take every bit of the magic she has inside her to see her through.

From the award-winning author of Root Magic comes the story of a girl forced to spend the summer with a great-grandmother she’s never met—only to discover she runs a school for Southern conjure magic. If you ask Delphinia Baker, she’d tell you she has all the family she needs. Sure, her mom passed away when she was young, her dad is often away on deployment, but even though Del has never had anyone she can call her people, she has always had her grandmother—and that’s enough. Besides, having no roots just makes it that much easier when you have to move again. All of that changes, though, when Gramma falls ill and Del is sent to stay with her great-grandmother. Del has never even heard of Nana Rose, and she has no interest in spending the summer on an unbearably hot island off the South Carolina coast. And when Nana Rose starts talking about the school she runs dedicated to their family’s traditions—something called “conjure magic”—Del knows she’s in for a weird, awkward summer. That is, until the magic turns out to be real. Soon, Del is surrounded by teachers who call themselves witches, kids with strange abilities, creatures and ghosts who can speak to her. She has a hundred questions, but one more than any other: Why didn’t Gramma ever tell her about her family, the island, this magic? As Del sets out to find her place in a world she never knew existed, she also discovers a shadowy presence on the island—and comes to believe that it all might be connected.

The Walter Award Honor–winning author of Root Magic returns with a terrifying story in the Southern Gothic tradition, inspired by the hoodoo practice of hair burning. At night, Roddie still dreams of sitting at his mother’s feet while she braids his Afro down. But that’s a memory from before. Before his mom died in a tragic accident. Before he was taken in by an aunt he barely knows. Before his aunt brought him to Dogwood House, the creepiest place Roddie has ever seen. It was his family’s home for over a hundred years. Now the house—abandoned and rotting, draped in Spanish moss that reminds him too much of hair—is his home too. Aunt Angie has returned to South Carolina to take care of Roddie and reconnect with their family’s hoodoo roots. Roddie, however, can’t help but feel lost. His mom had never told him anything about hoodoo, Dogwood House, or their family. And as they set about fixing the house up, Roddie discovers that there is even more his mother never said. Like why she left home when she was seventeen, never to return. Or why she insisted Aunt Angie always wear her hair in locs. Or what she knew of the strange secrets hidden deep within Dogwood House—secrets that have awoken again, and are reaching out to Roddie…

After a major accident leaves her in a dire financial situation, Maxine Forest returns to live in her childhood home. The empty husk holds only the memories of her father's abuse and her mother's reticence to leave him: her parents are nowhere to be found. The cocoon of her past remains unchanged, yet wrapped in the ghostly remnants of her mother's whispered insistence that things could change. Escaping the sins of her parents should be easy enough for Max, but those sins are intrinsic to her genetic make-up, so escape is impossible-succumbing, and metamorphosis, are inevitable. "...equal parts beautiful and grotesque, with prose so alive it practically leaps off the page. Hauntings both familial and societal are deftly interwoven in this stylish and atmospheric Southern Gothic that feels truly contemporary-and the mystery behind safe box 236 will keep readers on the edge of their seats until the story's terrifying and shocking conclusion." -Catherine Yu, author of Direwood "Eden's voice from the very start of Hollow Tongue captivates you and does not let go until the end. This story moved in directions I didn't anticipate. I want more of this in horror!" -V. Castro, author of Bram Stoker-nominated The Queen of the Cicadas "In this transformative novella, Royce deftly explores what it means to revisit childhood trauma from an adult perspective. With an arresting voice, stunning prose, and atmosphere thick enough to taste, Hollow Tongue is Southern Gothic at its finest!" - Kelsea Yu, Shirley Jackson Award-nominated author of Bound Feet "...revolutionizes the haunted house genre by embedding beating hearts into its walls. Royce balances memory, trauma, guilt, morality and immediate danger with a touch as delicate as a butterfly's wing." -Suzan Palumbo, author of Skin Thief: Stories and Countess

Shirley Jackson and Nebula Award finalist author Eden Royce pens a Southern Gothic historical fantasy story of a contentious funeral in her adult fiction debut. Phee St. Margaret is a daughter of the Reconstruction, born to a family of free Black business owners in New Charleston. Coddled to within an inch of her life by a mother who refuses to let her daughter live a life other than the one she dictates, Phee yearns to demonstrate she's capable of more than simply marrying well. When word arrives that her Aunt Cleo, long estranged from the family, has passed away, Phee risks her mother's wrath to step up and accept the role of pomp—the highly honored duty of planning the funeral service. Traveling alone to the town of Horizon and her aunt's unsettling home, Phee soon discovers that visions and shadows beckon from every reflective surface, and that some secrets transcend the borders of life and death. At the Publisher's request, this title is being sold without Digital Rights Management Software (DRM) applied.

Y'all gather round for thirteen more tales of Southern Gothic horror: Boys find evil in their favorite sweet treat, a perfume shop that makes more than scents, a hurricane carries a mother's vengeance, a conjure woman lies dying, unable to name a successor... This is Gothic horror Southern style-shadowy rice fields, creatures that assume humanity at will-where even the most damaged and delicate have their power. Spook Lights II takes us again South with stories that are graceful in the telling, and beautifully edgy in their details. Humans and haints traverse historic land in search of magic and revenge, finding salvation and justice in unexpected ways; each tale unwinds magnificently in Royce's hands. -Linda D. Addison, award-winning author of "How to Recognize a Demon Has Become Your Friend"

Worlds of Possibility collects uplifting, happy and hopeful stories and poems, presented with beautiful full color illustrations. Come spend time with a cat who rides a rocket powered bike, visit a doctor who is a literal elephant, attend a lucha libre match where the wrestlers use magic, eat a magical cupcake, and so much more! This anthology contains 49 different stories and poems that celebrate wonder, joy, and diversity.

Pull up a rocking chair and sit a spell. Soak in these tales of Southern Gothic horror: A witchdoctor's niece tells him a life-altering secret, an investigator who keeps a 100% confession rate.... These are stories where the setting itself becomes a character-fog laced cemeteries, sulfur rich marshes-housing creatures that defy understanding and where the grotesque and macabre are celebrated. The true horror is in what you can't see...until it's sitting right next to you. Eden Royce delivers a sultry and spicy dose of Southern Gothic. The stories are rich in flavor and clever in metaphor, the horrors completely surreal or-far more unnerving-all too possible. She brings a refreshing perspective to the table that paranormal lovers are sure to enjoy. -B.D. Bruns, author ofThe Gothic Shift You can feel the warm thick air, the rich history and legends, the desperation of the impoverished, and the deep horror of the betrayed. -Roma Gray, author of Gray Shadows Under a Harvest Moon"