Creating a Cover: JUST ONE WAVE!

In JUST ONE WAVE, Liam and his family head to the beach to swim in the waves. But, PROBLEM! There’s not a wave in sight.

A couple days back, Mr. Schu revealed the cover for Just One Wave, the followup to Just One Flake. I’m here today to re-reveal it, and take you behind the scenes of how it was made.

The cover for this book took a lot of trial and error. I wanted the cover to show the problem of the story (no waves), while also calling back to the cover of Just One Flake in some way.

Here are some of the early ideas:

After some tests, and with great feedback from Abrams art director Heather Kelly, I started to zero in on a composition that felt right: a medium shot of Liam in the water, with the sun above the title mirroring the snowflake in Just One Flake.

But there were still more decisions: Liam’s expression and level of exasperation, his eyewear, his floatation device. This led to another round of tests:

Finally, we hit on the cover that made the final cut:

And if you look at the full jacket, you can spot a new character who plays an essential role in this story:

Just One Wave comes out on April 15th, 2025 and you can preorder a copy now!

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