Today’s post is probably our most exciting post of the month. We are delighted to help Esme Symes-Smith reveal the cover of their debut middle grade, Sir Callie and the Champions of Helston, coming out on 1st November! This cover is designed by Michelle Cunningham, with art by Kate Sheridan, and it is truly gorgeous.
And not only do we have a cover for you today, but we also have a sneak preview of the book itself! Everyone wins today.
Once you’ve read all this, of course, you can preorder and also follow Esme on twitter!
Sir Callie and the Champions of Helston
by Esme Symes Smith
Rep: nonbinary mc, bi dads
Release date: 1st November 2022
Synopsis
“These heroes come in all shapes and skills—I cheered for them throughout their exciting journey.” —#1 New York Times bestselling author Tamora Pierce
In a magical medieval world filled with dragons, shape-shifters, and witches, a twelve-year-old nonbinary hopeful knight battles for the heart of their kingdom. A thrilling middle-grade series opener that explores identity and gender amid sword fights and magic, and proves anyone can be a hero.
When their ex-hero dad is summoned back to the royal capital of Helston to train a hopeless crown prince, Callie lunges at the opportunity to finally prove themself worthy to the kingdom’s “great and powerful.”
Except the intolerant great and powerful look at nonbinary Callie and only see girl. But Callie has always known exactly what they want to be, and they’re not about to let anything stand in their way.
Trapped in Helston’s rigid hierarchy where girls learn magic and boys train as knights, Callie discovers they aren’t alone—there’s Elowen, the chancellor’s brilliant daughter, whose unparalleled power is being stifled; Edwyn, Elowen’s twin brother desperate to win his father’s approval; and Willow, the crown prince who was never meant to be king.
In this start to an epic series packed with action, humor, and heart, Callie and their new friends quickly find themselves embedded in an ancient war—and their only hope to defeat the threats outside the kingdom lies in first defeating the bigotry within.
Cover artist: Kate Sheridan
Cover designer: Michelle Cunningham
Prologue
Clystwell
Calliden.
The name that is allegedly mine doesn’t fit me anymore. If it ever did. It’s all sharp corners and broken pieces from where Mama tried to jam it into me. It rips me apart from the inside out.
Bundled onto my bedroom’s windowsill, I can’t hear much of what my parents are talking about—arguing about—downstairs, but the shape of my name and all its accusations seeps right up through the floorboards. A list of transgressions that has grown every day from the moment Papa rode out to Helston to the moment he rode back home.
Not girl enough. Not good enough. Not trying hard enough.
It’s been three months of just me and Mama, and while it’s never good when Papa’s gone, it’s never been this bad before.
We’re unfixable, she and I. Neither of us is ever going to change for the other. Not willingly. I’m never going to fit the shape of the daughter she thinks I should be, and she’s never going to see me as anything else.
And if it comes to a fight, the grown-ups always win.
I pull my legs up and rest my chin on my knees.
Outside, wind ripples across the river’s surface, shattering the moon’s reflection. Clystwell, my home, is beautiful. Everyone says so. Tucked in the dip of the valley, surrounded by hills, we are protected. It’s a haven. A little piece of paradise.
I want to get out.
I need to get out before I give up and give in—losing the battle and myself.
I’m tired, and it scares me. In the darkest moments, I think maybe it would be easier to surrender and just let myself be crushed into the shape of Calliden. Sit still and be quiet. Swap my dreams for Mama’s. They’re more possible, anyway. It would be nice not to be on the fast road to failure.
Because girls don’t get to be knights. Even girls who aren’t girls. That’s all anyone sees when they look at me, so apparently that’s all that matters. It doesn’t matter what I am on the inside to anyone but me and Papa, and an ally who’s here maybe two weeks out of ten is hardly an ally at all.
Usually Papa’s homecoming is the best time ever. It marks a break from Mama’s ruthless campaign and reminds me of who I really am and what the world can be, even if it’s only temporary. He treats me like a kid, like myself, and we go out riding and fishing, and he shows me how to fight, and doesn’t force me into dresses, and doesn’t care if my hair is a mess. Usually, waiting for Papa to come home keeps me going all the way through his absence.
It doesn’t feel like that this time.
I’m too tired to fight anymore.
I’m too tired to hope that anything will make a difference.
The voices downstairs get louder, and I close my eyes.
“You need to tell her!” Mama shouts. “You are ruining her by indulging her. She is out of control, and I am at the end of my patience!”
Papa doesn’t shout. He never shouts. I wish he would, just once. I wish he would shout for me and fight for me. He’s the king’s champion, the best knight in the realm. Legendary. He’s faced dragons and led whole armies into victory, but this is a fight even he can’t win.
The stairs creak beneath the weight of Papa’s boots. He never got the chance to change after he arrived before Mama demanded her conversation.
I squeeze my knees and turn my face toward the window. I don’t want him to tell me that I need to get along with Mama and compromise with her and that we have to learn to live with each other. I don’t want to hear the tiredness in his voice, knowing that I caused it.
I wish I could jump out the window, saddle up my horse, Flo, and ride away as far and as fast as I can.
“Hey, kiddo.” Papa slips in and sits on the floor beside the window. He’s tall enough that his head’s the same height as mine, even from the floor.
“Hey.” I don’t look at him. I know what he’s going to say, and I don’t want to hear it.
“It’s really not getting better, huh?”
I shake my head.
Papa sighs, and I want to cry.
“Sorry,” I mumble. “I dunno—”
I stop when Papa looks at me, all wide-eyed and miserable. His dirty-blond hair is dirty for real from road dust, and there’s hair on his chin where usually there’s none. That means he’s been out in the field.
“Hey,” he says, “you have nothing to apologize for. Nothing at all.”
My lip wobbles. “Doesn’t feel like that.”
“Yeah. . . . What’re we going to do about this?”
I can’t work out whether he’s really asking or fake asking, and I just shrug, because what is there to do? I know what I want, but it hurts to want something knowing you’ll never get it. Besides, anything Papa starts now will just fall away once he leaves again. So what’s the point?
“Callie?”
My name—my real name—breaks me. No one calls me that. Mama won’t let them. It’s like my real self leaves with Papa, and I’m left with barely anything until he comes home. My chest tightens so hard I can’t breathe. I just want to let go and stop being disappointed and sad.
Papa’s arms wrap around me and squeeze. “I’m sorry, kiddo. I’m so sorry. We’re gonna fix this. I’m gonna fix this.”
I snuffle into his tunic. Luckily it’s dirty from the journey anyway, so tears and snot won’t make that much difference. “How?”
“We’re getting out of here. You and me.”
“Huh?” I pull back and wipe my face. “We’re going to Helston?” Helston—the royal capital—is the setting of all my biggest dreams.
But Papa shakes his head, expression hard. “No. I’m done with Helston. The only important thing is here—you. I’m not going back. It’s time we lived our own lives, Callie. On our terms only. What do you say?”
My mouth doesn’t move and my words don’t work. It feels like a biscuit being dangled in front of me, and I’m scared to reach out or even want it, certain it’ll be snatched away with a cruel laugh.
“Nicholas!” Mama’s voice pierces through the door, and we both wince together.
“Up to you,” Papa whispers. “Stay or go?”
I look around at my room, at the dresser with the brush that tears at my tangles and the ribbons that don’t suit me, at my wardrobe full of clothes made for someone else and the dolls it takes all my imagination to pretend are knights.
This is Calliden’s room, Calliden’s home.
There is nothing of me here.
“I want to go.”
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
After cutting their teeth on a steady diet of fanfiction in the South-West of England, Esme Symes-Smith wandered north to Wales for their degree in Literature and Creative Writing then promptly migrated to Missouri after meeting their wife on Tumblr.
Esme has been a ghost-writer, an editor, a frozen-yogurt seller, a caffeine dealer, and now wrangles pre-schoolers for a living.
They are nonbinary and have a severe tea problem.
Sir Callie and the Champions of Helston is their debut middle-grade novel, slated for Fall 2022 with the launch of Penguin Random House’s new imprint, Labyrinth Road, with a second book in the series coming later.
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