#middle grade

Books read in March 2022
BUSTER UNDERCOVER by Caleb Zane Huett
TIGER VS. NIGHTMARE by Emily Tetri
THE MUSHROOM AT THE END OF THE WORLD by Anna Lowenhaupt Tsing
FOUR THOUSAND WEEKS by Oliver Burkeman
CAMP by Kayla Miller
FIBBED by Elizabeth Agyemang
SLIP by Marika McCoola and Aatmaja Pandya
WHEN I GROW UP I WANT TO BE A LIST OF FURTHER POSSIBILITIES by Chen Chen
THE LESBIANA’S GUIDE TO CATHOLIC SCHOOL by Sonora Reyes

It’s been a while, so here are some book jackets I made in the past few years! Shoutout to all the authors, Ellen Oh (Dragon Egg Princess, Spirit Hunters), Jess Redman (The Miraculous), and Heather Fawcett (Ember and The Ice Dragons) for  these wonderful stories. 

(Also - I’m a lot more active on Twitter and Instagram these days! @mcrockefeller )

This is the cover illustration and interior I made for a reprint of Joseph Bruchac’s novels under the title The Legend of Skeleton Man. In the past I’ve avoided creating my own type for my covers- it’s definitely a weakness of mine- but last year I decided to take a stab at it and try to improve! The publisher ended up using a variation of this type design, so I’ll definitely be continuing to develop this important skill. Many thanks to Michelle Taormina, my wonderful AD over at Harper Collins!

Here are the front and back cover illustrations I made last year for “The Library of Ever” by Zeno Alexander. The publisher wanted this extreme camera angle and rainbow color palette- which really challenged me and put me out of my comfort zone! Many thanks to AD Ellen Duda at Macmillan. The book is out Now! 

Ilustración de portada para Amanda Black 4: La campana de jade, novela juvenil escrita por Juan Gómez-Jurado y Bárbara Montes (Penguin Random House).

Ilustración de portada para la novela “Taurus, Salvar la Tierra”, escrita por Santiago Díaz Cortés y ganadora del Premio de Narrativa Juvenil Jaén 2021. (Ed. Montena)

Cover illustration for the book “The Vanishing at the Very Small Castle - The Butter O'Bryan Mysteries vol.2”, written by Jackie French and published by Harper Collins Australia

THEY ARRIVED!!!! Senior thesis 1! The Fabric Merchant’s Son is about a boy, Purl, and his mother, the fabric merchant, as they travel through the mountains to visit family. On the way, Purl is tasked with making warm clothes for himself. He thinks about his sister at home—she loves to “borrow” his clothes—and decides to tailor his garment to suit both of them. 

Some fun book covers that I did a few years back!  I got to do all the lettering on these, and I used a brush pen.  It was fun!

I was thrilled to illustrate the cover for RISE OF THE DRAGON MOON, by Gabrielle Byrne and published by MacMillan, 8/2019. Thanks to Ellen Duda for the job!

Oh hey guys! The newest Ranger in Time comes out tomorrow! I wrote a blog post where you can read about the process of illustrating the cover. Check it out!

“When you’re given the choice between being right or being kind, choose kind.”

I thought I’d post this here as well just for those following me on this platform! 

I have recently been given the opportunity to create a graphic novel series, with the first book set to be published in 2023 by IDW, for an original story that I’ve been developing for a while now with my collaborative partner AJ O. Mason. 

KLOUD 9 is a queer space opera focusing on two Asian leads, and surrounded by a BIPOC cast of characters. This story is so special to me, and fills me with so much joy to be working on it. I’m so thankful for the comics medium, because through them, I think many creators have been able to carve space for characters and stories of all types, especially within the sci-fi genre that I feel is lacking in television and film. 

If anyone’s interested, I’ll continue to keep updating on this project here (and progress on KLOUD 9 can also be tracked on my other social media platforms!) 

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Check out more of my work on other platforms!

https://www.instagram.com/dommnics/

https://twitter.com/Dommnics

Monster Blood III is the sort of sequel you get when you start with a shoddy concept and then stretch it beyond any reasonable length. The Monster Blood books boast more sequels than any other in the original Goosebumps run, and it’s slightly baffling when you realize how none of them is particularly good. My theory is that the badass-sounding title and beautiful Tim Jacobus cover art of the first Monster Blood drove the book to best-seller status in spite of its weirdly bad plot. This brings us to this book. It was tedious. Andy and Evan, the one strong point of the first book, are stuck in a painfully stupid cycle in which they keep using Monster Blood in spite of its dire consequences. They have horrible ideas, and it’s hard to feel anything for them when things go awry. This time we add Kermit to the mix, who is a new kind of awful. There is nothing scary about green slime that keeps growing. It’s not even as gross as it could be. Also being a giant sounds fun, but that only happens for a relatively short section of the book. Most of it is Kermit being terrible to Evan and Andy. The ending could have been satisfying, but Stine has done similar twists and done them better. I also just didn’t care. Three books into a mini-franchise titled Monster Blood and we still have never seen a single monster from whom the blood supposedly originates. That, I believe, is the most unforgivable thing of all.

Score: 1

Check out my website blog my full review with memes, spoilers, and snark:

https://www.danstalter.com/monster-blood-iii/

Spellbound opening up to free subscription

Starting in December Spellbound, the children’s fantasy magazine, will open up to free subscriptions.  You can read about the decision behind the move and sign up for your free subscription here.

It’s been officially announced!
My middle-grade graphic novel Student Ambassador will be published by @ironcircuscomics and illustrated by Mexico’s 2017 National Young Graphic Novelist Award-winner @axureneas!! It will hopefully lead to a whole series!

This is a book I’ve been trying to get off the ground in one way or another since 1997. when I was a kid ambassador to Australia. Reality was a really nice package tour, but this book is the global adventure story I’d wished it had been.

I don’t know what was more exciting! The letter I got in 1996, which told me I was gonna be a student ambassador, or the e-mail I got earlier this year that told me this dream project inspired by it was going to happen!