Cover Reveal: The Earthquake Machine

The Earthquake Machine by Mary Pauline Lowry has received some very rave reviews! But I, along with other reviewers, reached out to Mary to express our thoughts on the cover. I felt the original cover just didn’t target the YA crowd. It was holding the book back.

What amazed me is that not only did Mary listen and thank me for my input, but she actually acted on it! She “asked award-winning author/photographer/cover designer Suza Scalora to create a cover for The Earthquake Machine that's as lush, enchanted, and edgy as the novel itself.” Here it is folks:

THE EARTHQUAKE MACHINE BY MARY PAULINE LOWRY

The Earthquake Machine tells the story of 14 year-old Rhonda. On the outside, everything looks perfect in Rhonda's world but at home Rhonda has to deal with a manipulative father who keeps her mentally ill mother hooked on pharmaceuticals. The only reliable person in Rhonda's life is her family's Mexican yardman, Jess. But when the INS deports Jess back to his home state of Oaxaca, Rhonda is left alone with her increasingly painful family situation. Determined to find her friend Jess, Rhonda seizes an opportunity to run away during a camping trip with friends. She swims to the Mexican side of the Rio Grande and makes her way to the border town of Boquillas, Mexico. There a peyote-addled bartender convinces her she won't be safe traveling alone into the country's interior. So with the bartender's help, Rhonda cuts her hair and assumes the identity of a Mexican boy named Angel. She then sets off on a burro across the desert to look for Jess. Thus begins a wild adventure that explores the borders between the United States and Mexico, adolescence and adulthood, male and female, English and Spanish, and adult coming-of-age and Young Adult novels.

Here is the original cover: