Exclusive Cover Reveal: WHERE THE WATER TAKES US by Alan Barillaro

There are a bunch of great picture book makers who got their start in animation (Jon Klassen, Vera Brosgol, and Cale Atkinson to name a few), but far fewer have made the leap from animation to middle grade fiction. In fact, I can’t think of any. Until today.

Alan Barillaro won an Academy Award for writing and directing the animated short, Piper (it’s available on Disney+ and it’s wonderful). He also worked on lots of other well-known Pixar films like Wall-E and The Incredibles. And soon, he’ll be adding middle grade author to his resume with the book Where the Water Takes Us.

Today, we get a first look at the cover for Where the Water Takes Us by Alan Barillaro, coming in July from Candlewick Press.

(Click to enlarge)

Here’s a little about the book, from the publisher:

Ava’s mom is about to have twins, and the pregnancy isn’t going well. All Ava wants to do is stay by her mother’s side, but instead she is sent away to stay with her grandparents. Normally, spending time at the lakeside cabin with Nonna and Nonno is wonderful, but everything is different now. While her mom’s hospital visits are getting serious back home, Ava grapples with anxiety. Summer storms rock the island, the electricity goes out at the cabin, and an annoyingly cheerful boy named Cody seems to pop up everywhere she goes, but Ava can’t be distracted from the feeling that something terrible, something irrevocable, is going to happen to her mom.

When a bird dies in front of her, Ava is sure it’s a sign that she is cursed—the last thing she, or her family, needs. But if a curse has been placed on her, there must be a way to break it. So Ava makes a deal: if she can take care of two orphaned bird eggs, she will have paid off her debt and her family will be all right.

With everyone she loves on the line, Ava will do everything in her power to make sure that her mom, her twin baby brothers, her birds, and even Cody all come through the summer safely.

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