POLARIS: My next scary tale sets sail this Fall!

I am over the moon (or in this case, the stars!) to finally announce my next middle-grade novel! POLARIS is classic horror story. Six kids are the last survivors aboard a 19th century sailing ship. They are isolated, but they are not alone. A terrifying and invasive new species, brought back from the depths of the Amazon, is stalking them.

Oh my stars: I love this cover! It’s gorgeous but still communicates all the mystery—and menace—of the story.

Like a lot of horror, it’s dark and closed-in and cautionary. It is the 1830s, a golden age of sailing and discovery—but not all discoveries are good ones. The surviving adults have abandoned ship. Now all that’s left is a mismatched and inexperienced young crew—a cabin boy, a scientist’s assistant, two secretive Spaniards, a gunpowder-toting “powder monkey,” and a long-suffering “hold rat”—none of them older than 12. They are thousands of miles from home and can go only as fast as the fickle wind and treacherous seas will carry them.

Here’s the official announcement from Publishers Weekly:

Anamika Bhatnagar at Scholastic has acquired North American rights to two middle grade books by Michael Northrop. The first, Polaris, pitched as The Thing on a 19th-century sailing ship, follows a voyage of discovery that goes horribly wrong, leaving only a handful of ship’s boys (two of whom are secretly ship’s girls) onboard with a terrifying and virulent new species. Publication is slated for fall 2017…

And that’s it for now, but I’ll have more news and updates soon. I can’t wait until this fall, when I can finally share this fun, scary ride with the world!