Cover Reveal: Moonwalking

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Yes, I’m still alive! An editing project kept me extremely busy. But I’m here to reveal the cover of my good friend Lyn Miller-Lachmann’s upcoming middle grade novel in verse, Moonwalking, coauthored with Zetta Elliott (right). Lyn is represented by Jacqui Lipton. Feast your eyes, people!

 

The cover illustrator is David Cooper. Moonwalking will be publis will hed on April 12, 2022 by FSG Books for Young Readers/Macmillan. Here is a description:

For fans of Jason Reynolds and Jacqueline Woodson, this middle-grade novel-in-verse follows two boys in 1980s Brooklyn as they become friends for a season.

Punk rock-loving JJ Pankowski can’t seem to fit in at his new school in Greenpoint, Brooklyn, as one of the only white kids. Pie Velez, a math and history geek by day and graffiti artist by night is eager to follow in his idol, Jean-Michel Basquiat’s, footsteps. The boys stumble into an unlikely friendship, swapping notes on their love of music and art, which sees them through a difficult semester at school and at home. But a run-in with the cops threatens to unravel it all.

Moonwalking is a stunning exploration of class, cross-racial friendships, and two boys’ search for belonging in a city as tumultuous and beautiful as their hearts.

Pre-orders: https://us.macmillan.com/books/9780374314378

I will preorder a copy of Moonwalking for one person who comments. Where were you in the 80s (if you were alive back then)? Comment below to be entered in the drawing. Winner to be revealed next week!

Cover and author photos courtesy of Lyn Miller-Lachmann.

40 thoughts on “Cover Reveal: Moonwalking”

  2. A novel in verse–wow! The cover is stunning and I imagine the graphics appealing to middle graders. Thanks for sharing the cover reveal, L. Marie. 🙂

  5. This looks fantastic! I’ve read several (though from a cache of a mere handful of such out there) novels written in verse. When it works, it works. When it doesn’t – well – meh. I’m fully confident Lyn’s is one of those that works, as I’ve read a few of her other books and know the quality of her work! Congrats to her and Zetta!
    I was living in the Bay Area and weekends on pier 39 (before it got hugely commercial!) were replete with street dancers – especially young break dancing guys! (And mimes moonwalking!)

  7. I am SO glad to see this cover, and can’t wait for Lyn’s book! Me? I was working for the Stanley Kaplan test prep center in NYC during the 80’s, writing sample tests for the LSAT, GRE, and SAT!

    • I’m glad to see it too, Louise! And I also was gearing up for GRE and LSAT, though I decided against the latter when I gained employment as an editor. 😄

    • Thank you, Louise! You taught me so much about verse novels. The one I worked on with you is going out on submission in the fall, and I hope to have good news on it shortly thereafter. And I worked for Stanley H Kaplan as a part-time office manager until my full-time teaching position came through.

  8. In my teens in the early to
    mid-80s, before college, I was listening to a lot of mixed tapes in my Walkman on Saturday mornings in my room, gazing at The Beatles, Star Wars, and U2 posters plastered on the wall, with a stack of my favorite Cricket magazines by my frilly lamp! I wore Canal Street Jeans dyed boxer shorts or prairie skirts, a pink fringed the-dye vest that my sister brought back for me from London, and over that I wore a jean jacket embellished with Beatles and The Clash buttons, and I thought Annabella, the lead singer from Bow Wow Wow, was totally cool!

  9. In the 80’s I was in Washington, DC…attending Shaw Junior High School🖤

  10. Fabulous cover!

    In the 80’s, I graduated from W&M and watched Bjorg win Wimbledon for the 5th time before heading to law school at USC and getting married and . . .

    Wow! what a decade!

  11. I was in Stockton, California in the 80s, doing gymnastics class. Sounds like a great book!

  12. I know, love, and appreciate Zetta’s work and I am looking forward to getting to know Lyn’s voice too through this novel in verse. I would love to win a copy but either way, I’ll be adding it to our library.

  13. And yes, I was alive in the 80s😂. I lived in Suffolk County in Long Island. I played outside all day with my cousins. Ate freezie pops on the front porch. Had a big old boom box and blasted both hip hop and pop (mostly hip hop thoigh). Oh and I used to break dance. Guess I loved the 80s.

  14. What a great cover, and how kind you are, L. Marie, to take time out from your big editing project to promote this cool novel-in-verse! I was an old lady in the 80s … lol … okay, not old but in the 80s,I lived in the San Francisco Bay Area, got married, lived through the Loma Prieta earthquake, and got my B.A., in that order. Then I got out 😉 (Please don’t include me in the drawing, L. Marie. I have SO many books to read already!)

    • Wow! People on the West Coast has been through some traumatic experiences! (Even now, sadly.)
      How wonderful to have good books to read, Marie! 😄

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