Monster Locker: Nine-Tail Trouble

What happens when a mischievous nine-tailed fox goes toe-to-toe with a colossal golem? What happens when Japanese and Jewish folklore collide? Pablo and his friends are about to find out, in this hilarious and action-packed graphic novel.

After their face-off with an angry Aztec earth goddess, Pablo, Maggie, and Takashi are living it up as their school’s resident monster-banishing trio. (It turns out that fighting drooling trolls and vicious kelpies gets you invited to all the best parties.) Lately, though, monsters are the least of Takashi’s problems. Wrestling with his parents’ divorce, his father’s impossibly high expectations, and his multicultural identity, he decides to summon a ＂helpful＂ monster: a shapeshifting nine-tailed fox called Kitsune.

The charming Kitsune gets straight to work solving problems for Takashi and his classmates, and before long, the entire school is under his spell. As the situation spirals out of control, Pablo and Maggie turn to an unexpected source to rescue their best friend. But is summoning a second monster a brilliant plan, or a recipe for disaster?

Jorge Aguirre is an author and two-time Emmy-nominated animation writer. He co-created and wrote the graphic novel series The Chronicles of Claudette. The New York Times called the first book in the series, Giants Beware, a ＂rollicking fun story.＂ It also received a starred review from Publishers Weekly and was a nominee for a Texas Bluebonnet Award. He wrote the book Call Me Iggy and the graphic novel series Monster Locker, with art by Andrés Vera Martínez. His animation work includes co-creating Disney Junior’s Goldie & Bear. He’s the head writer and co-EP for the PBS Kids/Fred Rogers Production show Alma’s Way. A Colombian-American born and raised in Columbus, Ohio, Jorge calls the great state of New Jersey home.

Andrés Vera Martínez is the co-creator and illustrator of the graphic novel series Monster Locker. He is also the co-author and illustrator of the graphic memoir Little White Duck: A Childhood in China and illustrator of Neal Shusterman’s Courage to Dream: Tales of Hope in the Holocaust. Andrés’s work has been recognized by the New York Times, School Library Journal, The Horn Book, NPR, the Society of Illustrators, Junior Library Guild, and Slate. Originally from Texas, Andrés now lives in New England with his family.