City of Secrets

Read the graphic novel that Caldecott medal-winning illustrator, Dan Santat, calls, "An edge-of-your-seat thriller!"

Ever Barnes is a shy orphan guarding a secret in an amazing puzzle box of a building.

Most of the young women who work at the building's Switchboard Operating Facility, which connects the whole city of Oskar, look the other way as Ever roams around in the shadows. But one of them, Lisa, keeps an eye on the boy. So does the head of the Switchboard, Madame Alexander . . . a rather sharp eye.

Enter Hannah, the spunky daughter of the building's owner. She thinks Ever needs a friend, even if he doesn't know it yet.

Good thing she does!

Lisa and Madame Alexander are each clearly up to something.

Ever is beset by a menacing band of rogues looking to unlock the secret he holds--at any cost.

And whatever is hidden deep in the Switchboard building will determine all of their futures.

On a journey that twists and turns as much as the mechanical building Ever Barnes calls home, he and his new friend Hannah have to find out what's really going on in this mysterious city of secrets . . . or else!
© Lauren Justice
Raised in California, Victoria Ying is an author and illustrator of beloved children's books. She realized that she had a true eye for detail when she fell in loves with comic books when she was a teenager. This interest in comics led her to a successful career in animation. Her credits include Tangled, Wreck it Ralph, Frozen, Paperman, Big Hero 6, and Moana. View titles by Victoria Ying
Praise for City of Secrets by Victoria Ying:

"An edge of your seat thriller!" —Dan Santat, Caldecott Medal–winning author-illustrator

"A unique Ghibli-esque city that reveals some of its many mysteries through an action-packed adventure." —Molly Knox Ostertag, author-illustrator of the Witch Boy trilogy

"Never a dull moment! City of Secrets is a wonderful world full of twists and turns, surprises and intrigue." —Amy Chu, author of Sea Sirens, Sky Island, the Ana and the Cosmic Race series, and the Poison Ivy: Cycle of Life and Death series

"Victoria Ying’s lively and spirited art takes young readers by the hand and plunges them into a steampunk fantasy world."  —Wendy Xu, co-creator of Mooncakes

"A delightful adventure set in an imaginative world built on gears, pistons, and brass . . . City of Secrets captivates the heart and imagination!" —Armand Baltazar, author-illustrator of Timeless: Diego and the Rangers of the Vastlantic

'Ying has constructed a thrilling genre-bender . . . full-color illustrations are cinematic in scope, spotlighting the nonstop action." —Kirkus Reviews

About

Read the graphic novel that Caldecott medal-winning illustrator, Dan Santat, calls, "An edge-of-your-seat thriller!"

Ever Barnes is a shy orphan guarding a secret in an amazing puzzle box of a building.

Most of the young women who work at the building's Switchboard Operating Facility, which connects the whole city of Oskar, look the other way as Ever roams around in the shadows. But one of them, Lisa, keeps an eye on the boy. So does the head of the Switchboard, Madame Alexander . . . a rather sharp eye.

Enter Hannah, the spunky daughter of the building's owner. She thinks Ever needs a friend, even if he doesn't know it yet.

Good thing she does!

Lisa and Madame Alexander are each clearly up to something.

Ever is beset by a menacing band of rogues looking to unlock the secret he holds--at any cost.

And whatever is hidden deep in the Switchboard building will determine all of their futures.

On a journey that twists and turns as much as the mechanical building Ever Barnes calls home, he and his new friend Hannah have to find out what's really going on in this mysterious city of secrets . . . or else!

Author

© Lauren Justice
Raised in California, Victoria Ying is an author and illustrator of beloved children's books. She realized that she had a true eye for detail when she fell in loves with comic books when she was a teenager. This interest in comics led her to a successful career in animation. Her credits include Tangled, Wreck it Ralph, Frozen, Paperman, Big Hero 6, and Moana. View titles by Victoria Ying

Praise

Praise for City of Secrets by Victoria Ying:

"An edge of your seat thriller!" —Dan Santat, Caldecott Medal–winning author-illustrator

"A unique Ghibli-esque city that reveals some of its many mysteries through an action-packed adventure." —Molly Knox Ostertag, author-illustrator of the Witch Boy trilogy

"Never a dull moment! City of Secrets is a wonderful world full of twists and turns, surprises and intrigue." —Amy Chu, author of Sea Sirens, Sky Island, the Ana and the Cosmic Race series, and the Poison Ivy: Cycle of Life and Death series

"Victoria Ying’s lively and spirited art takes young readers by the hand and plunges them into a steampunk fantasy world."  —Wendy Xu, co-creator of Mooncakes

"A delightful adventure set in an imaginative world built on gears, pistons, and brass . . . City of Secrets captivates the heart and imagination!" —Armand Baltazar, author-illustrator of Timeless: Diego and the Rangers of the Vastlantic

'Ying has constructed a thrilling genre-bender . . . full-color illustrations are cinematic in scope, spotlighting the nonstop action." —Kirkus Reviews

Reading with Purpose Summit Event

On Monday, June 10th, Penguin Random House Education and DK Learning co-hosted a Reading with Purpose Summit Event in collaboration with Molly Ness, PhD. The event took place at Penguin Random House’s NYC headquarters and included sessions featuring leading education experts and a lunchtime author panel. The in-person professional learning event was built to show

Read more

2024 Elementary School Collection

The Penguin Random House Education Elementary School Collection features outstanding fiction, nonfiction, and picture books from Penguin Young Reader’s, Random House Children’s, DK, and Grupo Editorial, as well as children’s publishers distributed by Penguin Random House. Explore online or download this valuable resource to discover great books in specific topic areas such as: Leveled Readers,

Read more

DK Learning Phonic Books Sampler Request

Thank you for your interest in DK Learning | Phonic Books. To download the DK Learning | Phonic Books sampler with four complete readers, please click here and complete the form. Once your information is successfully submitted, a link to download the sampler will be provided on the confirmation screen.   Click here to learn

Read more

PRH Education Translanguaging Collections

Translanguaging is a communicative practice of bilinguals and multilinguals, that is, it is a practice whereby bilinguals and multilinguals use their entire linguistic repertoire to communicate and make meaning (García, 2009; García, Ibarra Johnson, & Seltzer, 2017)   It is through that lens that we have partnered with teacher educators and bilingual education experts, Drs.

Read more