Sky Carver (Paperback or Softback)

Thomas Painter lives in a land where your name is your life. His father was a genius with a paintbrush, and everyone expects Thomas to be the same. But Thomas stinks at painting. His talent is carving; his genius flows through a knife. Now, with both parents gone and presumed dead, Thomas is still trapped in his father's shadow. Secretly, he has taken the name Carver, but he's not permitted to follow that path. Until a magic wand, dropped by a bemagicked raven girl, falls into his hands, revealing an unforseen raw talent and sending him down an unexpected path.

Accompanied by the raven girl, Carver sets off in search of a mage who can train him to use the wand. They befriend Fireboy, who helps them escape on his steamboat from a cruel baron. They become outcasts in a city of filthy canals and spewing workhouses, where mages are hunted and magic won't work. Finally, lured by one of his own father's paintings, Carver and his companions are trapped at the magic apparatus of the great mage Krimm. There, Carver must confront the images of his missing parents in order to overcome the enchantments of the mage, save his friends, and choose his own path.

Vermont author Dean Whitlock writes fantasy and science fiction for young and not-so-young adults. His stories have appeared in Asimov's, Fantasy & Science Fiction, and Aboriginal SF, as well as in anthologies in the US and abroad. His first two YA fantasy novels were published by Clarion Books, but now he publishes independently under the Boatman Press imprint. He began releasing his short stories and novels for e-readers and in print in 2015. An Air Force brat, Dean has lived in a dozen states and three foreign countries, a life of travel that gave him plenty of time to read in the car and now enriches his writing. You can find out more about Dean and his upcoming reprints and new titles at www.deanwhitlock.com.

A winner of both the Caldecott Medal and the Boston Globe-Horn Book Award, the late Trina Schart Hyman illustrated over 150 children and young adult books. She was the first art director of Cricket Magazine and was one of the first white American illustrators to incorporate black characters into her work regularly, as a matter of principle. Ms. Hyman died in 2004, shortly after completing the cover art for Sky Carver.

Artist and cover designer Maurizio Manzieri is a science fiction and fantasy illustrator dreaming his Universes in a small oasis in the heart of Turin, Italy. He has provided cover and interior illustrations for dozens of books and stories published in Europe and the U.S., many of which have been showcased in exhibits all around the world. He has won both the Chesley Award, presented by the Association of Fantasy and Science Fiction Artists, and the Best of Show Award at the World Science Fiction Convention. He has been a featured artist at numerous conventions and teaches digital art in workshops and classes there and in his home in Italy. A collection of his work, The Art of Maurizio Manzieri, was released in 2009 by publisher Vittorio Pavesio. You can find Maurizio's online portfolio at www.manzieri.com.