Scholastic to Launch New Series by #1 New York Times Bestselling and Award-Winning Author Maggie Stiefvater

NEW YORK, Feb. 2, 2012 /PRNewswire/ -- Scholastic, the global children's publishing, education and media company, announced today that it will publish a new four-book series by #1 New York Times bestselling author Maggie Stiefvater, whose Shiver trilogy has more than 1.7 million books in print and whose most recent novel The Scorpio Races was just named a Michael L. Printz Honor Book by the American Library Association. The Raven Boys (978-0-545-42492-9, $17.99 hardcover; 978-0-545-46979-1, $17.99 e-book; 978-0-545-46593-9, $39.99 audiobook; Ages 13 and up) will be published on September 18, 2012, to be followed by three additional novels in The Raven Cycle.

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Scholastic holds world rights to the series, and The Raven Boys will launch simultaneously in English September 2012 in the United States, United Kingdom, Australia, New Zealand, and Canada.

"When Entertainment Weekly called Maggie Stiefvater 'one of the finest YA novelists writing today,' it couldn't have been more on the mark. Maggie has an extraordinary ability to balance epic storytelling and deeply personal truths, exploring both the mythology that surrounds us and the myths we tell about ourselves. The Raven Boys is a remarkable next step in an already remarkable career," says David Levithan, Publisher and Editorial Director, Scholastic Press.

Author Maggie Stiefvater says, "I grew up on a diet of exceptional fantasy series for children—The Dark Is Rising, The Black Cauldron, A Wrinkle in Time, The Chronicles of Narnia — and I've always wanted to write one of those sprawling epic sagas built from intimate moments. I sat on a draft of The Raven Boys for a decade, but it wasn't until I had the tools I learned from writing the Shiver trilogy and The Scorpio Races that I knew how to do it."

Filled with mystery, romance, and the supernatural, The Raven Boys introduces readers to Richard "Dick" Campbell Gansey, III and Blue Sargent. Gansey has it all—family money, good looks, devoted friends—but he's looking for much more than that. He is on the hunt to find Glendower, a vanished Welsh king. Legend has it that the first person to find him will be granted a wish—either by seeing him open his eyes, or by cutting out his heart. Blue Sargent, the daughter of the town psychic in Henrietta, Virginia, has been told for as long as she can remember that if she ever kisses her true love, he will die. But she is too practical to believe in things like true love. Her policy is to stay away from the rich boys at the prestigious Aglionby Academy. The boys there—known as Raven Boys—can only mean trouble. When Gansey and his Raven Boy friends come into her life, Blue realizes how true this is. She never thought her fortune would be a problem. But now she's not so sure.

About Maggie Stiefvater

Maggie Stiefvater is a writer, artist, and musician and the New York Times bestselling author of Shiver, hailed by Publishers Weekly in a starred review as, "a lyrical tale," and by BookPage as, "beautifully written, even poetic at times, and a perfect indulgence for readers of all ages." There are more than 1.7 million copies of the trilogy in print. Since publication, rights to more than thirty-six foreign editions of Shiver have been licensed. Linger, the second book in the Shiver trilogy, debuted at #1 on the New York Times Bestseller list. The Scorpio Races, Stiefvater's latest novel, received five starred reviews and was named to the following best of the year lists for 2011: Publishers Weekly, School Library Journal, The Horn Book and Kirkus Reviews. In addition, The Scorpio Races was named a 2012 Michael L. Printz Honor Book by the American Library Association, a New York Times Notable Children's Book, and The New York Times Book Review raved, "[Stiefvater] not only steps out of the young adult fantasy box with The Scorpio Races but crushes it with pounding hooves....If The Scorpio Races sounds like nothing you've ever read, that's because it is." Stiefvater lives in Virginia with her husband and their two children. You can visit her online at www.maggiestiefvater.com and follow her on Twitter @mstiefvater. For more information, please visit: http://mediaroom.scholastic.com/maggiestiefvater

About Scholastic

Scholastic Corporation (NASDAQ: SCHL) is the world's largest publisher and distributor of children's books and a leader in educational technology and related services and children's media. Scholastic creates quality books, print and technology-based learning materials and programs, magazines, multi-media and other products that help children learn both at school and at home. The Company distributes its products and services worldwide through a variety of channels, including school-based book clubs and book fairs, retail stores, schools, libraries, onair, and online at www.scholastic.com.

SOURCE Scholastic Corporation