It came in the mail!!! My book jacket! From my delightful, kind editor, who sends me lovely things from time to time, and this week sent me this:

As beautiful as a newborn unicorn, yes?

Is it not the most gorgeous thing ever??? Click on it to make it larger so you appreciate it more fully. I’ll wait.

Okay, I’ll admit. I feel precisely the way about my cover as I felt about my babies when they were born. All I can see is perfection. I love it all — the tree on the spine, the colors of the words that bring to mind flames or warning signs, the different colors of text on the foggy, misty, blackened background, the way they captured my author photo and even the ISBN/UPC with branches, the quote from the lovely Cynthia Leitich Smith framed in the treetops, the school crest, EVERYTHING!

And what you cannot see is that it is textured, the whole thing, sort of gritty, like SAND (and if you know the story you just screamed along with me!), except for the branches and lettering and a few other bits which are slick and glossy like butterscotch candy wrappers.

It is divine. So, so lovely.

Thank you, a thousand thank yous to the genius Emily Osborne, my cover designer, and also to Alexander Jansson, who did the illustration on the front.

I’m so happy!