Jenn Reese

Jenn Reese writes speculative fiction for preteen audiences, joining outward adventure to a character's discovery of inward truth. Every Bird a Prince follows seventh grader Eren Evers, a devoted cyclist who feels most at ease in the woods. After she helps an injured magical bird, she takes on the defense of a forest kingdom threatened by the Frostfangs, even as friendship pressures and questions about attraction unsettle her school life. Henry Holt Books for Young Readers published the middle-grade fantasy in 2022. The book received an Andre Norton Nebula Award nomination recognizing middle-grade and teen fiction, and its bird kingdom gives physical form to Eren's struggle with doubt and belonging. Reese is also the author of A Game of Fox & Squirrels and the Above World trilogy, works that similarly place young protagonists in situations where courage depends on understanding themselves as well as confronting danger. In Every Bird a Prince, woodland magic, bike trails, friendship, and asexual identity develop together rather than occupying separate storylines.