Wednesday, January 25, 2017

LET'S PRETEND WE NEVER MET by Melissa Walker / Author Interview


I am so thrilled to have Melissa Walker, author of the upcoming release, Let's Pretend We Never Met, on the blog today. Recently Harper Collins revealed the cover for her book, and it's adorable! Yes, I would totally pick up this book based on the cover alone. Melissa is here to talk about this adorable cover.

Melissa's Thoughts On the Cover


Photo credit: Jolene Siana

When my editor and I started talking about the cover for Let’s Pretend We Never Met, we agreed totally on what some of our favorite recent Middle Grade covers have been. A few examples are Rules for Stealing Stars by Corey Ann Haydu, Goodbye Stranger by Rebecca Stead and The Battle of Darcy Lane by Tara Altebrando (all books I love the insides of too, btw). 


With these images, I wrote this to my editor about what I was thinking: “Illustrated, somewhere between twee/cute and literary, feels right to me. Something with girls, somehow conveying both a friendship vibe and a hesitation/wedge…”

Looking back on those words, I think the illustrator, Lucy Truman (lucytruman.com), nailed it. I loved her sketches from the beginning. Here are a few versions where we hadn’t quite sorted out the colors. The first one is a rough sketch and the other two are with color schemes we were considering. They played with the font a little too, but we all decided we liked the original font best.


The girls—Mattie and Agnes—were always right on. Agnes, the blonde new friend next-door, is in her own kooky world, unconcerned what people think of her. Mattie, the brunette main character, is nervous, biting her lip. Worrying about being judged for her friendship with Agnes. This is all so well conveyed!

I wanted the colors to be more muted than the versions I saw, and so the art department at HarperCollins was completely wonderful and went back to do more. Finally we ended up with the final cover, with these colors that feel fun and bold and refined to me all at once. I love where we ended up, and I hope readers do too!


Thanks for hosting me!


ABOUT THE BOOK

By: Melissa Walker
Published by: Harper Collins
To Be Released on: June 13, 2017
Pre-Order from: Publisher | IndieBound | B&N | Amazon 

If it were up to Mattie Markham, there would be a law that said your family wasn’t allowed to move in the middle of the school year. After all, sixth grade is hard enough without wondering if you’ll be able to make new friends or worrying that the kids in Pennsylvania won’t like your North Carolina accent.

But when Mattie meets her next-door neighbor and classmate, she begins to think maybe she was silly to fear being the “new girl.” Agnes is like no one Mattie has ever met—she’s curious, hilarious, smart, and makes up the best games. If winter break is anything to go by, the rest of the school year should be a breeze.

Only it isn’t, because when vacation ends and school starts, Mattie realizes something: At school Agnes is known as the weird girl who no one likes. All Mattie wants is to fit in (okay, and maybe be a little popular too), but is that worth ending her friendship with Agnes?

BLURBS

“Mattie Markham is sweet and winning, very real, and a sixth-grade heroine. Add this book to your treasure shelf.” 
- Natalie Standiford, author of The Secret Tree

“A heartwarming and completely charming story about moving on, growing up, and being yourself.” 
- Sarah Mlynowski, New York Times bestselling author of the Whatever After series

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Melissa Walker is the author of Ashes to AshesUnbreak My HeartSmall Town SinnersLovestruck Summer, and the Violet on the Runway series. She lives in Brooklyn with her husband and daughter.

Author LINKS: Twitter | Website | Facebook 

I would be most content if my children grew up to be the kind of people who think decorating consists mostly of building enough bookshelves. ~ Anna Quindlen

Good children's literature appeals not only to
the child in the adult, but to the adult in the child.
~ Anonymous ~