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National Teddy Bear Day is celebrated on the 9th of September, and it’s a fantastic excuse to snuggle up to a favorite childhood friend or revisit the stories and characters of childhood. And while teddy bears are usually known as being cute, cuddly, and very wholesome, there are plenty of teddies that are far cooler than you may expect!

These bears of pop culture fame aren’t just fluffy friends for bedtime—they are going on adventures, battling monsters, or generally throwing off the shackles of their cutesy reputation to become a whole new kind of bear…

We’re excited to share the cover reveal of Hunters of the Lost City by Kali Wallace. Perfect for fans of Tamora Pierce and Shannon Hale, or anyone who longs for adventure, this page-turning middle-grade fantasy is packed with shocking twists, frightening monsters, and dark magic. (But trust us—it’s not just for middle-grade readers!)

Designed by Quirk’s senior designer, Ryan Hayes, and illustrated by Matt Saunders, just look at how beautiful this cover is!

Ryan Hayes said, “When creating the cover for Hunters of the Lost City, it was all about mood and atmosphere. The wonder and mystery (and a bit of the danger) that exists beyond the walls of Vittoria is so integral to the story and the characters that we focused Matt’s efforts there. The color of the town is a bit more drab while the mountains and sky beyond the walls is much more dreamy, magical, and inviting—almost calling to our characters to venture to them. ”

To celebrate the reveal, we asked author Kali Wallace to answer a couple of questions about the book and the cover.

Quirk Books: Thanks for joining us for a Q&A today, Kali! If you only had one tweet, how would you describe Hunters of the Lost City?

Kali Wallace: Octavia dreams of being a Hunter who protects the last town in existence from magical monsters, but when she meets a stranger who isn’t supposed to exist, she sets out on a journey that will force her to question everything she thought she knew about her home, her history, and her place in the world.

QB: What was your favorite part of writing Hunters of the Lost City?

KW: I enjoyed writing all parts of Hunters, but the most fun was definitely in creating the friendship—and mutual crush!—between Octavia and her new friend Sima. Some of the most fun to be had while writing is forcing characters to get to know each other while also sticking them in endless peril.

QB: The main character, Octavia, lives in the walled city of Vittoria. The city is protected against magical monsters by two important sets of people: Hunters and magical Crafters. Octavia wants to be a Hunter when she grows up. If you lived in Vittoria and could have one job, what would it be?

KW: To be honest, a big part of the reason I made Octavia’s family own a bakery is because being a baker is the job I see myself doing in most fantasy settings. I would not be great at fighting or casting spells or running into danger, but I can definitely make the pies that all those brave people will need to eat when they come back home.

QB: Now, back to this awesome cover! What is your favorite part of the cover? Without giving anything away, are there any clues hidden on the cover?

KW: I love everything about this cover. I think it’s ridiculously beautiful, and it captures the mood and feeling of the story so well. My absolute favorite part is the silhouettes of the monsters on the wall. But I also love that if you look closely at the mountains in the background, you might get a little hint about how the story ventures beyond those walls and monsters!

QB: One last question before we go… What book(s) are you currently reading?

KW: I am between novels right now, but the next one on my stack is Leigh Bardugo’s Crooked Kingdom—I want to finish the duology before I let myself watch the Netflix show! In the meantime, I have recently decided to read more short fiction, so I have been working my way through Ann and Jeff VanderMeer’s The Weird, a 1100-page anthology of weird fiction that spans over a century. As of now I’ve only made it as far as Ryunosuke Akutagawa’s “The Hell Screen,” so I have a good thousand pages left to go.

Interested in hearing more about Hunters of the Lost City? Sign up for our newsletter here!

Preorder Hunters of the Lost City here.

[Image by Nik Shuliahin on Unsplash]

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February 2020, A24 graced us viewers with an eerie and compelling teaser for David Lowery's The Green Knight, and after almost a year and a half of mass film postponements, Lowery’s promising (and loose) adaptation of Sir Gawain and the Green Knight is finally coming to theaters.

If you’ve never heard of this chivalric romance, you may have seen this teaser and the second trailer and thought, “Did Dev Patel just behead an Ent? Did that Ent just pluck up his head and trot away, cackling like the headless horseman?” You may be wondering if this Middle English poem also drops a halo-crown from thin air onto Gawain’s head before lighting his whole head on fire. Maybe you’ve never heard of ye old text and simply thought, “Does that Ent have an axe?” Yes and yes, sadly no, and definitely yes. The axe is important. The Ent is too.

Whether you’re a renaissance lit reader, you’re an Arthurian legend fan, or you just like a good adventure story with some action, mystery, magic, and drama, The Green Knight (and the sheer power of Dev Patel) is bound to leave viewers wanting more Gawain. Though Gawain is a major Arthurian knight and appears in quite a few tales and retellings, here’s a small handful to start with that give him the attention he deserves.   

[Photo by Sam Lion from Pexels]

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Memorial Day weekend is coming up and you know what that means: it’s a long weekend, friends! Three glorious days in a row to read, daydream, and soak up the sun. To celebrate this much needed break from our computer screens, we’ve gathered up some of our absolute favorite page turners – perfect for a three-day read in the park or at the beach. Let’s get to it!

[Photo by Gustavo Fring from Pexels]

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It’s National Honesty Day, friends! Here at Quirk Books, we love a character who’s delightfully (or painfully) honest. You can keep your long-buried family secrets and climactic reveals. We’ll take radical honesty any day of the week.

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Grishaverse fans rejoice! Tomorrow is the long-awaited release of Netflix’s Shadow and Bone adaptation, and we’re living for it. Whether you’re an OG Shadow and Bone trilogy fan, an adjacent Six of Crows duology fanatic, or a recent inductee after watching the cinematic trailers, noticing the great cast chemistry, or diving unawares into the more recent King of Scars duology, this weekend is going to be a blast of action-packed, heart-pounding, and potentially tear-jerking content.

But we all know lows can come after the highs, especially after binging all 8 episodes of what is predicted to be a rather addictive series, and you’re going to need something to fill that Shadow and Bone hole in your heart. You can re-read or catch up on Leigh Bardugo’s Grishaverse novels, or you can think of your favorite Grishaverse character and give one of these book recommendations a try.

(Apologies Baghra, Genya, Nikolai, Tamar, Tolya, etc. fans, but there are just too many great characters in this universe. We can get them next time with the release of a hopeful season 2!)