Amelia Moon and the Sundance Shadow (Adventures of Amelia Moon #1)

Gold Medal, 2026 Moonbeam Children's Book Awards

The necklace arrived on Amelia Moon's thirteenth birthday. So did the nightmares.

Every morning, she reads the letter her mother left behind. Every morning, she puts on the necklace her mother wore before her. Every night, something in the dark gets a little closer.

Thirteen-year-old Amelia has grown up in Sundance, Wyoming — a town where parents still warn their children about the Sundance Shadow, and nobody stays out after dark. All her mother left her was a letter and a necklace. No family. No explanations. Just a pendant that's recently started to feel warm against her skin — like it knows something she doesn't.

Then a faded photograph surfaces — one that connects her mother's necklace to a history Amelia was never told existed. And her best friend Veyla — who has never once in her life let a mystery stay unsolved — refuses to let Amelia look away.

The necklace wasn't just an heirloom. It was a key.

The Sundance Shadow is real. And it knows her name.

For readers who grew up with Percy Jackson and Harry Potter — and always wondered what magic looked like in the American West.

Book 1 of the Amelia Moon series.