Kekla Magoon (she/her/hers)

Kekla Magoon is the New York Times bestselling author of the Alfie Hazard and the Spy Cats series and many other novels and nonfiction books for children and teens, including THE SECRET LIBRARY, THE SEASON OF STYX MALONE, and CHESTER KEENE CRACKS THE CODE. Her latest book is A SPY IN THE EMBASSY from the Alfie Hazard series. She has been a National Book Award finalist, an Edgar Award nominee, and an NAACP Image Award winner, among other recognitions. She lives in Vermont.

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Awards: NAACP Image Award, Coretta Scott King Honor, Michael L. Printz Award Honor, Margaret A. Edwards Award, Boston Globe-Horn Book Award, John Steptoe Award, Edgar Allen Poe Award Nominee; National Book Award Finalist, Walter Dean Myers Award Honor

Communities: LGBTQ+, African American, Mixed Race

Books:

Alfie Hazard and the Spy Cats: a Spy in the Embassy

Children
Candlewick Press (MA)
February 2027
ISBN 9781536240894
Hardcover, 0 pages

Bringing her talents to a younger audience, the award-winning Kekla Magoon kicks off a fun chapter book series about a ten-year-old boy enlisted as a spy—along with his two savvy cats. Alfie Hazard is thrilled when his big sister, Mika, comes home from college to live with their family at the embassy in Washington, DC. Usually her visits mean endless games, lots of laughter, and spontaneous late-night dance parties, but this time there’s something strange about the way Mika is acting. Bonnie and Baxter, Alfie’s talented cats, detect a suspicious smell on her shoes, and she’s spending an unusual amount of time locked in her bedroom closet. Mika definitely has a secret, and Alfie and the cats are determined to get to the bottom if it. When Alfie’s mom, the ambassador, tells the family that some classified documents have been stolen, it’s up to Alfie, Bonnie, and Baxter to investigate! Surely Mika couldn’t be the spy . . . or could she? Engagingly illustrated in black-and-white and featuring two fabulous cat characters, this series will appeal to fans of young chapter books like Ivy + Bean, Jasmine Toguchi, and Judy Moody—and may have kids dreaming about what their own furry companions are up to. More/less

The Secret Library

Children
Candlewick Press
May 2024
ISBN 9781536230888
Hardcover, 385 pages

An instant New York Times bestseller! Travel through time with National Book Award Finalist Kekla Magoon in a page-turning fantasy adventure about family secrets and finding the courage to plot your own life story. Since Grandpa died, Dally's days are dull and restricted. She's eleven and a half years old, and her exacting single mother is already preparing her to take over the family business. Starved for adventure and release, Dally rescues a mysterious envelope from her mother's clutches, an envelope Grandpa had earmarked for her. The map she finds inside leads straight to an ancient vault, a library of secrets where each book is a portal to a precise moment in time. As Dally "checks out" adventure after adventure--including an exhilarating outing with pirates--she begins to dive deep into her family's hidden history. Soon she's visiting every day to escape the demands of the present. But the library has secrets of its own, intentions that would shape her life as surely as her mother's meticulous plans. What will Dally choose? Equal parts mystery and adventure--with a biracial child puzzling out her identity alongside the legacy of the past--this masterful middle-grade fantasy rivets with crackling prose, playful plot twists, and timeless themes. A satisfying choice for fans of Kindred and When You Reach Me. More/less