Today on Pop! Goes The Reader I feel incredibly lucky to have been asked to host the exclusive cover reveal for Heart Finds by Jaime Berry, which is scheduled to be published November 15th 2022 by Little, Brown Books for Young Readers. The book’s cover, designed by Karina Granda with accompanying artwork by Oriol Vidal, is a real gem, and eleven-year-old Mabel Cunningham sounds like a character after my own heart! I’m sincerely looking forward to reading Jaime’s sophomore middle grade release and I’m honoured I have the chance to share in such a special moment in the book’s journey to publication.
About Jaime Berry
Jaime Berry is a former NYC public school teacher who was born and raised in rural Oklahoma. She grew up with two sisters, many cats and dogs, a few roosters, a cantankerous horse, and a pig named Duke. Most of her stories take place in small towns and are about kids learning to be bold and brave in their own way as they find their place in the world. Jaime now lives in New Jersey with her husband, three sons, a guinea pig, and a dog. She is also the author of Hope Springs.
Finishing this book was a struggle. I’d had an idea for character, a girl who loved collecting, adored Antiques Roadshow, and didn’t quite fit in with her peers. I spent months drafting, but I couldn’t get the story to work. Then I came across a video of nursing home residents in Utah dancing to Michael Jackson’s “Thriller”. It was so joyful, and absurd in the best way, and brought me to tears. That little clip provided the thread I needed to tie my plot together, but it also helped me uncover what was missing — not just a scene, but a sense of joy and community, and the idea of finding light in unexpected places.
I planned on drafting a feel-good contemporary full of heart and humor about a special friendship between a young girl and her grandfather, both with a passion for collecting — especially items that have been tossed aside. But shortly after I had the opening chapters written, the pandemic turned my life, everyone’s life, upside down. The few hours a day I had to myself to write were taken over by three young kids at home trying to navigate virtual school and all the challenges of quarantining. My story shifted, and became more about dealing with change, the kind of change that alters your life and you along with it.
What do we do when something knocks us so completely off the path we thought we were meant to be on? Mabel, my 11-year-old main character, discovers that learning to adapt to big changes may be one of her greatest finds yet, but her journey to that realization is a little rocky. I think that’s what I was trying to say with Heart Finds — that it’s okay to at times be unlikeable and make mistakes, and that like Mabel, no matter how many times we stumble while finding a route to what our heart needs most, it’s possible to make some incredible finds along the way.
Cover design by Karina Granda, Cover art by Oriol Vidal
Title Heart Finds
Authors Jaime Berry
Target Audience Middle Grade
Publication Date November 15th 2022 by Little, Brown Books for Young Readers
Find It On Goodreads ● Amazon ● Chapters ● Barnes & Noble ● IndieBound
Eleven-year-old Mabel Cunningham is a quiet, loner who only feels free to be herself when she’s “extreme treasure hunting” with her grampa – much to her perfectionist mother’s disapproval. Nothing excites Mabel more than discovering a heart find, an item that calls to her heart, and the maybes that come along with it.
But when her friendships start to crumble and her grampa suffers a stroke, Mabel quickly learns that real-life maybes are harder to handle than imagined ones. Desperate to change things back to the way they were, Mabel devises a plan that she believes will fix everything. Except bringing her plan to fruition means lying to her grampa and disappointing her mother.
Will Mabel learn that letting go of the past doesn’t mean letting go of her grampa and that embracing the future might be her most important heart find yet?
