KCU Pitchfest 2023 Honorees!

1st place: Retrograde
by Elizabeth Pérez

Brought back together by the death of a childhood friend, a gang of former kid sleuths revisit the seemingly-simple mysteries of their childhoods, after realizing that they were never fully solved.

The once-close crew are now teens, and their classic group dynamic has changed dramatically since they parted ways. The newly reacquainted gang must find out what actually happened all those years ago, and more importantly figure out how to stop it from happening again. (YA)

2nd place: So Much Potential
by Deborah Tyson

School has never been easy for 11-year-old budding artist Daisy, who is adjusting to her mom’s recent marriage and new baby brother. With all the extra homework in 6th grade, she can’t keep up! Or maybe she would just rather retreat into her fantasy world or draw pictures. Nearing the end of the year, her teacher, parents, and even her friends are frustrated with Daisy – and she won’t pass her English class until she turns in her illustrated short story project.

“So Much Potential” is about Daisy’s struggles with undiagnosed ADHD and how it affects her schoolwork and relationships. It is about overcoming obstacles, learning to empathize with others, and self-actualization. (MG)

3rd place: Fiction Quest: Imagination Lost
by Daniel Allen Stevens

Fiction Quest is a mix of Stuntboy and Marvel’s, Spiderverse. It’s about an 11-year-old comic geek with slight anxiety issues, who finds out it’s up to him, to save all of Imagination, from a mysterious foe.

A devastating move from Long Island to Brooklyn leads to Jay making new friends on his block. Then an emotional outburst has Jay tap into power he’s unaware of, which transports the kids to a new world. It’s here where Jay and the lost kids find out that Jay is the Fiction Keeper and the protector of the Fictionverse (Worlds created with human imagination). Someone is stealing imagination and that could lead to the end of all worlds. The kids proceed to hop from world to world in an attempt to stop the imagination thief. (MG)

4th place (tied): Almost Asian
by Maggie Shang

In this semi-autobiographical YA graphic novel, Ava Song, a half Chinese, half white 18 year old girl leaves her family and home in Beijing to pursue her dream of studying illustration in America. However she quickly discovers her new peers, like her roommate Courtney Price, dismiss and doubt she’s Asian at all when she’s also half white and has tan skin. But she finds solace in her new friends Harlow Lim and Mengchun Hu. Together they create a new type of home and support Ava while she finds her artistic voice, and learns to embrace and stand up for her dual cultural identity. (YA)

4th place (tied): Noemi the Forest Witch
by Michelle Mullen

When a strange sickness threatens the forest she protects, 10-year-old witch Noemi suspects that the pollution in the nearby river might be the cause. She ventures out of her comfort zone with her crow companion, Corvin, to figure out how to stop it. With the help of Alix, a nonbinary kid from the city, Noemi must go toe-to-toe with an influential mega corporation whose leaders refuse to admit to poisoning the environment. Noemi must overcome her anxiety and find the courage to use her dwindling magic powers to save the forest before it’s too late.

NOEMI THE FOREST WITCH is written for ages 9-12 and features themes of environmentalism wrapped up in an adventure-filled story full of magical realism. (MG)

4th place (tied): What Now?
by Tak Toyoshima

Set in NYC’s Chinatown during the mid 1980’s, middle school student Osamu “Sam” Takahashi navigates through his transition out of childhood into his early teens facing challenges that seem even more perilous than the crime ridden streets he calls his playground.

Like most young teens, Sam wants more control over his life. But during a time when he is wanting more independence from parents, coping with the evolution of his friendships, experimenting with identity, drifting apart from his older brother, avoiding recruitment by Chinese gangs, experiencing his first date, learning his family history in Japan during WWII, and testing to get into one of the top high schools in the country, (inhale) control seems to be the last thing Sam has. (MG)

5th place: Wherever You Are
by Kieran Teare-Thomas

Dara’s sister Anya disappeared eight months ago, leaving Dara depressed and disconnected. Then, a door opens to another world where Anya might be found. As Dara searches the other world and evades a creature intent on cutting her connection to Earth, she struggles to engage in her life back at home, pushing away her friends and family. Time passes faster in the other world and when Dara finally finds her sibling, he has transitioned from female to male and started a new life. Dara must learn to accept that her loved one has changed, and to eventually let him go when the creature catches up to her and she must return to Earth permanently.

Wherever You Are is about searching for a lost sibling, coping with grief, and accepting change. (YA)