New dust jackets for fiction books

Dust jackets are essential for promoting plain-covered books; how else can a reader determine at first glance, what a book is about — and from there, decide whether or not to open it and sample a few of its pages? So my project this week was to create new jackets for books that were currently without. From left to right, here are Wings of Fire — Legends: Darkstalker by Tui T. Sutherland, Paint the Wind by Pam Muñoz Ryan, and The One and Only Ivan by Katherine Applegate. I used craft paper and added color-printouts of front-cover images from the publisher. The books’ titles and call numbers are recreated on each book’s spine, and plot summaries are pasted on the back.

‘Tristan Strong Punches a Hole in the Sky’

This latest offering from Rick Riordan Presents features gods and heroes of Western African mythology, alongside African-American folk legends. The author, Kwame Mbalia, has done a fantastic job assembling a cast of characters that this reader really cared about.

I sympathized with titular hero Tristan Strong, who has a lot of challenges to deal with.

When the story opens, Tristan has lost his best friend Eddie, who was killed in a bus accident. Tristan can’t help feel as though he should have been able to save Eddie, and he valiantly protects Eddie’s notebook of stories, the only thing of Eddie’s he has left.

Tristan is also dealing with the shame of having lost his first boxing match. This is a big deal because Tristan’s father was a renowned boxer, so Tristan has to deal with feelings of letting down the family legacy.

Divided skirt and tunic, repurposed from tablecloth and men’s shirt

My latest sewing project is a divided skirt repurposed from a tablecloth that I got from The Legacy crafting shop in Sebastopol. Being a cyclist, I like the freedom of wearing a divided skirt. But soon as I laid it out to take a photograph ... how quickly it became a cat bed!

With it is one of Jonathan’s shirts, repurposed as a tunic for me. I marked the shirt along cutting lines from a paneled blouse pattern that I like. Then I cut along the lines and resewed the shirt, matching hem and shoulder seams.

I added a length of lace along the collar, put a new pocket where the men’s shirt pocket used to be, and added a length of eyelet-lace trim along one of the front panel seams. The accent pocket is also from the tablecloth and the trim came from Legacy as well.

‘Home Girl’ by Alex Wheatle

Naomi, a teenage girl in the UK foster-care system, is placed with a temporary family, the Goldings. When she arrives at the Goldings’ home, Naomi is wary at first, especially of Tony, the father, because past experience has led Naomi to suspect men of wanting to sexually abuse her.

As her stay progresses, Naomi gradually comes to trust this new family; observing her become able to let down some of her barriers is one of the most moving aspects of this book.

Outside the household, on multiple fronts, this arrangement is bombarded with criticism. The reason is that Naomi is white and the Goldings are black ... and therefore any long-term stay would be “against official policy.” Tony’s father views the placement as “robbing” a black child of a stable home, and after foster-mother Colleen spends hours painstakingly braiding Naomi’s hair, another girl physically attacks Naomi because she decides that Naomi has appropriated a black hairstyle.

Altogether, Home Girl is a very moving book, which Young Adult readers might relate to. The author, Alex Wheatle, is known for inventing his own slang for use by his characters; his book Crongton Knights was a recipient of the Guardian Children’s Book Award.

I received a copy of this book through LibraryThing Early Reviewers

Sewing helper Starfire

Starfire has been “helping” me sew.