Cover Reveal: The Enchanted Life of Valentina Mejía

Today, Musa Alexandra Alessandri is thrilled to share the cover reveal for her Middle Grade debut, The Enchanted Life of Valentina Mejía​! Scroll on to learn more about the book in Alessandra's own words!

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It's here!! Dana SanMar--the illustrator of Karla Valenti's Loteria, Elaine Dimopoulos' Turn the Tide, and Megan Shull's upcoming Billion Dollar Girl--has created the most perfect cover for The Enchanted Life of Valentina Mejía, my debut MG which releases from Atheneum/Simon & Schuster on February 21, 2023! 

​I'm thrilled to be able to share the cover with you! But first, here's a little about the book straight from Simon & Schuster:
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Encanto meets The Chronicles of Narnia in this middle grade fantasy adventure. To save their father’s life, a brother and sister must journey across a land full of mythical creatures and find the most powerful and dangerous of them all: the madremonte.
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Twelve-year-old Valentina wants to focus on drawing the real world around her and hopefully get into art school in Bogotá one day, but Papi has spent his life studying Colombia’s legendary creatures and searching for proof of their existence. So when Papi hears that a patasola—a vampire woman with one leg—has been sighted in the Andes, Valentina and her younger brother Julián get dragged along on another magical creature hunt.
While they’re in the Andes, a powerful earthquake hits. Valentina and Julián fall through the earth…and find an alternate Colombia where, to Valentina’s shock, all the legends are real.
To get home, Valentina and Julián must make a treacherous journey to reach this land’s ruler: the madremonte, mother and protector of the earth. She controls the only portal back to the human world—but she absolutely hates humans, and she’ll do anything to defend her land.

I'm so excited about this story, which is equal parts a love letter to Colombia and an ode to the magic and the stories I grew up with. It's a sibling story but also a cautionary tale about the dangers we're doing to our earth through deforestation, hunting, and pollution. The Enchanted Life of Valentina Mejía pays homage to Colombia’s incredible biodiversity, and while it’s a fantasy adventure, both the real and imaginary worlds include many of Colombia’s fauna and flora, some which are vulnerable and endangered. You'll find capybaras (or chugüiros) giant armadillos, sloths, Noble Leafwing Butterflies, Scarlet-thighed Dacnis, pink river dolphins, labios de mujer (Psychotria Elata), wax palms, hanging lobster claws, ceibas, and so many more.

You'll also find places that were directly inspired by many of Colombia's gorgeous and varied landscapes, like los llanos orientales, the Andes, the salt mines of Zipaquirá, Caño Cristales, the Amazon River, and so many others. 

​And of course, you'll be introduced to many of the legends that are whispered about through Colombia, including the madremonte. 

Without further ado, here’s the cover! 

Isn't it gorgeous?! Thank you, Dana, for creating this enchanting cover and to Debra Sfetsios-Conover for the beautiful jacket design!
 
Pre-order The Enchanted Life of Valentina Mejía today!
Add The Enchanted Life of Valentina Mejía to your Goodreads.

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Alexandra Alessandri is the award-winning author of The Enchanted Life of Valentina Mejía, Isabel and Her Colores Go to School, and Feliz New Year, Ava Gabriela!. The daughter of Colombian immigrants, she is also a former associate professor of English, a writer for Curriculum Associates, and a poet. Alexandra lives in Florida with her husband and son.
 

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