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Cover Reveal of The Rule of Three by Author Heather Murphy Capps

I’m so excited to reveal the cover of my new book, THE RULE OF THREE (Lerner/Carolrhoda Books, August 6, 2024).

Guest post by Author Heather Murphy Capps from Lerner Publishing Group, 2024 Platinum Sponsor 

Cover artist Jethro Unom perfectly captured the essence of my main character Wyatt, who’s a baseball pitcher grappling with a lot of changes all at once, which every middle school reader can relate to. This is a time when so much is going on: adjusting to harder schoolwork, navigating friendships, and looking for more independence. 

When we meet Wyatt, he’s working on his three-part Plan for Life: 1) excel on the travel baseball team of his dreams; 2) play high school baseball; and 3) move on to college ball. But then he suddenly starts spewing smoke from his hands and feet every time he gets stressed out. The smoke response is the same thing he’s watched his father do his entire life; he just never thought he’d inherit the trait. The timing on developing his new trait couldn’t be worse, as unfortunately for biracial Wyatt, things at his mostly-white school have been pretty stressful lately—he’s been battling nearly constant thinly veiled racial insults. To make things worse, his best friend Dallas doesn’t seem to be willing to defend him from the worst of the bullies. When a rash act of anger gets him kicked off his baseball team, his Plan for Life is trashed. Angry and increasingly isolated, he decides to turn his smoke into a superpower to protect other students who are being mistreated by the mean kids. Whenever he catches a bully in the act, he spews smoke and scares them away.

Meanwhile, he discovers that this trait he and his father share stems from a troubling family history—one they must heal from in order to make sure their legacy of smoke stops with them.

I wrote THE RULE OF THREE because I wanted to explore two very different topics. The first is how our genes are affected by experiences our family goes through before we are even born—believe it or not, we can inherit health conditions that are the result of our grandparents and their grandparents’ experiences. 

The second was something that happened in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania in 1985. It was a shocking act of violence committed by city leaders on a single neighborhood. It’s a tough story, but one I felt needs to be told in a way that helps us remember the people who were affected—both the victims and the survivors. Our history isn’t always easy to swallow, but my hope is that the more we know about our past, the better equipped we are to make good decisions in the future.

I hope you love my cover as much as I do and that you’re curious enough to read Wyatt’s story. You can preorder books anywhere books are sold and expect them to be delivered by August 6, 2024. If you fill out this form and provide a copy of your preorder receipt, I’ll send you a cool preorder swag gift, including FOUR special edition baseball trading cards featuring Wyatt and the other important characters in his story: his best friend Dallas, his father Dominic, and Dominic’s best friend Yanna.

Heather Murphy Capps grew up in a small Minnesota town where the motto is “Cows, Colleges, and Contentment.” She spent fifteen years as a television news journalist before deciding to focus on her favorite kind of writing: books for kids involving history, social justice, science, mystery, and a touch of magic. A mixed-race author committed to diversity in publishing, she lives in Northern Virginia with her husband, two kids, two cats, and yes, even some cows, colleges, and contentment.

Heather Murphy Capps’s Website: http://heathermurphycapps.com

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/HMCWrites/

TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@hmcwritesbooks

X:  https://twitter.com/hmcwrites

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Frances Evans

Frances Díaz Evans is a Latina Author, Educator, Multicultural and Language Advocate. She holds a bachelor’s degree in business administration from Universidad del Este in Puerto Rico and a master’s degree in Spanish education from the College of Charleston in Charleston, South Carolina. She joined Multicultural Children’s Book Day in the early days advocating for multicultural books as a book reviewer, then as a co-host, and now she’s excited to take on the role of project manager. Frances can be reached at admin (at) multiculturalchildrensbookday.com