New from Refe Tuma…
FRANCES and the
WEREWOLVES
of the BLACK FOREST
Winner of the 2024 Page Turner Award® for Best Middle-Grade Fiction and Bram Stoker Award® nominee
Welcome to the Black Forest. Here, we rescue ourselves.
Frances Stenzel’s first big experiment nearly destroyed her city and her dreams of being a scientist. So when a prestigious society invites her to their symposium, Frances sees it as a chance to redeem herself.
On the way there, her train is hijacked, and she and her friend Luca flee into the Black Forest. Seeking shelter with a group of orphans, Frances learns the rules of the woods: Never travel alone. Never make a sound. Because something hunts in the shadows. Something with glowing eyes and sharp teeth.
Frances is no stranger to monsters, but she quickly learns there are forces more terrifying than she ever imagined…and that the key to defeating them might lie in her own scientific discoveries. With new allies at her side, Frances must again face the horrifying—this time determined to stop evil and make a name for herself, once and for all.
Catch up on the Frances’s first adventure
She created a monster…
Now she has to stop it.
One day Frances Stenzel will be a world-famous inventor like her parents … if they’d only let her leave the house.
When Frances is left home yet again with only an infuriatingly clever robot named Hobbes for company, she enters her parents’ off-limits laboratory, determined to claim her freedom and prove her scientific mettle.
Instead, she accidentally awakens her great-grandfather’s secret and most terrible invention—an enormous monster who breaks out of the manor and disappears into the city below.
With her chimp, Fritz, and a reluctant Hobbes by her side, Frances sets off to find the monster, facing a persistent constable, angry locals, and unexpected friendship along the way. But with the trail going cold and the monster nowhere in sight, Frances is running out of time before her future science career, and her city, are doomed forever.
Praise for the France Stenzel series:
⭐️ “Bursting with wry humor and references to Frankenstein, Tuma’s idiosyncratic, utterly original tale moves at breakneck speed through a richly imagined landscape, accumulating vividly rendered characters and settings…while injecting considered discussions of modern themes such as gender roles and privilege.”
— Publisher’s Weekly (STARRED REVIEW)
“[Frances’s] memorable adventure, with strong echoes of Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein, plays out against a colorful background as she confronts who she is in a truly shocking finale. A fast-paced and remarkably original tale.”
— Kirkus Reviews
“A page-turning adventure with a lot of surprises along the way. Frances and the Monster is a joy to read!”
— New York Times bestselling author Margaret Peterson Haddix
“A captivating tale filled with monsters, marvels, and misadventures, Frances and the Monster is gripping, inventive, and deeply moving. Tuma’s middle-grade debut is a harrowing and heartfelt tribute to owning your scars and learning to turn them into stars.”
— Alysa Wishingrad, author of The Verdigris Pawn
“Frances is both a terror and a delight. The author clearly had a rollicking good time, and readers will, too.”
— The Horn Book
“This book has twists, turns, and surprises galore…And the ending, holy moly! No spoilers here, but this is the kind of book you'll want to talk about with a friend.”
— Ben Gartner, author of The Eye of Ra series
“A thrilling adventure that does not shy away from hard topics like grief, death, anxiety and what it truly means to find your place in this world. Refe Tuma proves that with friendship and love even death isn’t the end.”
— Ally Malinenko, author of Ghost Girl
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Exclusive behind the scenes details and giveaways, news, and musings on storytelling.
Experience the mischief and magic of the What the Dinosaurs Did picture book series by Refe & Susan Tuma. All three titles now available!
Plastic dinosaurs, real messes
Praise for the What the Dinosaurs Did series
What the Dinosaurs Did Last Night named a Bank Street College Best Children’s Book of the Year With Honors.
⭐️ “The authors may well have created a monster with this deliciously chaotic notion.”
— Kirkus (STARRED REVIEW)
“Hilarious, magical, and simply fabulous.”
— Amy Joyce, The Washington Post
“Filled with whimsy and imagination, this book will delight children of all ages.”
— School Library Journal
“One couple’s silly plan to thrill their kids went viral. A peek at their new book makes it obvious why.”
— Dawn Raffel, Reader’s Digest
