Alby C. Williams

Kidlit For the Curious

About me
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a light skinned black person in jeans and a fuchsia bomber jacket leans against a yellow brick wall and looks slightly away from camera

Alby C. Williams hails from the land of snow and salt potatoes. They are a storyteller, poet and artist of dubious skill but endless enthusiasm. If you catch them in their spare time, you might mistake them for a cat based on the amount of yarn in their immediate vicinity, but don't be fooled---they're actually several pigeons in a trench coat.

a light skinned black person in a fuchsia bomber jacket smiles while standing in front of a yellow brick wall.

Where There Be Monsters
Where There Be Spies

a pocket watch on an old map. image courtesy Lissa_87 via Pixabay

For fans of AMARI AND THE NIGHT BROTHERS and THE MARVELLERS, Alby C. Williams' debut middle grade fantasy is a sweeping adventure filled with monsters, mysteries, and mischief.Eleven-year-old Glory Brown is desperate for adventure far from her family’s quaint, quiet life at The Light Inn. Generations of Browns have been stewards of this humble hotel, which acts as a sanctuary in the stretch of monster-filled land called the Seam. But Glory wants nothing more than to learn how to use her Moxie, a special magic only kids have, and to train to become a Spherinaut like her mother, exploring and documenting the perilous depths of the Outersphere.When a mysterious boy named Marcus appears one day on a top-secret mission for the Parliamentarium – the school for aspiring Spherinauts – Glory packs up her beloved books and sets off on a once-in-a-lifetime journey that will shuttle her across time and space…and reveal new dangers lurking in the worlds beyond the Seam.For there’s mischief afoot that’s threatening the balance between the worlds, its magic, and its monsters. And it’s up to Glory to find a solution before it’s too late.

a moody blue and pink children's book cover with silhouettes of monsters in the background. In the foreground, a black girl in a white blouse holds a book while a blue bird flies nearby. The cover reads WHERE THERE BE MONSTERS; the fate of a million worlds

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Monsters, magic, and mischief abound once more in the spellbinding sequel to WHERE THERE BE MONSTERS, perfect for fans of THE MARVELLERS and AMARI AND THE NIGHT BROTHERS.Glory Brown is finally set to start her training as a junior spherinaut at the Parliamentarium. Will she turn out to be an owl, a bee, a fox, or a magpie, like her mama? She's been waiting a lifetime for this adventure . . . and yet all she wants to do is make her family proud and try not to be homesick for the Seam and all its charm.As Glory struggles to find her place as the new kid—one with a lot of questions and a soft spot for monsters—she's also coping with the after-effects of Paxton's treachery, like the curse that still plagues her. In fact, the worlds of the Outersphere are all in the process of recovering—and Glory suspects they haven't seen the last of Paxton, either.When top secret spherinautical charts go missing, parcels are tampered with, and the pocket-orreries go haywire, the Parliamentarium of Junior Spherinauts plunges into chaos. Now, Glory, Marcus, and their new friends must work together to figure out who the thief is and if they have what it takes to save the worlds again.

a moody purple and pink children's book cover with a school and hexagonal stone pillars in the background. In the foreground, a black girl in a white dress and brown jacket holds a book while a blue bird sits on her shoulder. A black boy and a girl with go

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Flights of Foundry 2025

Middle Grade Escapades

A digital painting of a man in an orange shirt looking fed up while confetti falls around him

a graphic of a book titled WHERE THERE BE MONSTERS with two people's pictures. The graphic reads: Book Launch Tuesday, May 6th Lake City Books at 6:30 pm. Alby C. Williams in conversation with Laura Anne Bird

I'd love to visit your students! My presentation is appropriate for kids 9-12 and features helpful appearances by Penrose, the talking mongoose character from WHERE THERE BE MONSTERS.Topics includeTwo Truths and A Lie: students guess which fun fact about me is actually a lie, from where I've lived to my own school experiences.My Life's Journey: from failing out of school to becoming a civil engineer to my new career as a writer, kids learn that nothing learned is wasted, and that with failure comes an opportunity to learn, or even start over.Finding Your Voice: students learn about voice. What makes an author's voice, and what's special and unique about you?Tap the button to contact me for your school visit!

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