Give Me Your Best for a Mid-Grade Cover/Back that will Hook Readers!

Nancy Cadle Craddock

I write stories for children's magaines.
This is my first book.

Book cover and back (includes the spine) for a fiction book aimed at mid-grades but MUST hook adults that normally purchase books for children.

Graphics must look good on Amazon and Kindle. Will also be available as a paperback.

Title: Winsley Walker and Other Flying Objects

Size: 8 x 5

Book is written in a southern humorous style but definitely NOT silly.

Time: mid 1960's.
Setting: small community nestled in the West Virginia hills.

Main Character: Winsley Walker, a worrier, a thinker, good student. See attached photo for general idea of main character.

Homemade Airplane: SMALL and Wacky-looking. Color: Emerald Green. See photo below for a rough idea..

Synopsis:

From the 3:45 train that lumbers down the track every afternoon to home-cooked Sunday dinners after church, everything moves at a slow pace in Cross Lanes, West Virginia. That is, until a 1960’s You Can Build Anything catalog pokes its head out of Gramps’ mailbox. Expecting the rest of the family to be “on board” with his crazy notion, Gramps sends a check for the plans to build an airplane.
*Please italize: You Can Build Anything.

Considering Gramps’ past failures, his twelve-year-old granddaughter Winsley is outraged at the very thought and tries to talk him out of it. Worse, not only does Gramps intend to build an airplane, he plans to out-do the Waterman Whatsit, a plane build by Waldo Waterman in the early 1900’s. Waldo’s plane was designed just for one person. Gramps, on the other hand, is aiming for the “record books” by constructing the World’s Smallest Passenger Plane.

As bits of scrap metal, plastic tubing and other stuff begins to pile up on Gramps’ driveway, Winsley races to read what she can about the construction of airplanes. Armed with a little knowledge, she plans to sabotage Gramps’ plane before it rumbles across the back meadow, heading for the sky.

Time is short and Winsley grows more frantic as Gramps and her eight-year-old brother Billy scour the countryside in Gramps’ shiny turquoise car for needed items, going so far as thievery as a means to their end. In a panic, Winsley phones local police to report the stolen items – and the identity of the thieves. Unfortunately, Gramps is able to talk his way out of trouble, as usual.

Winsley continues to thwart the construction of Emerald Eyes, Gramps’ name for the plane but to no avail, and just when she thinks things can’t get any worse, Miss Hinkle, her brother’s teacher, embarrasses her in front of the entire sixth grade class by announcing that everyone in Cross Lanes is laughing their heads off about the airplane - and her crackpot grandfather. Embarrassed and hurt, Winsley becomes angry. Now, it’s personal.

Determined to prove not only Hinkle wrong, but all of Cross Lanes as well, Winsley is mortified when the completed plane merely hops along the ground instead of soaring skyward.

Relying on all she learned, Winsley fixes the problem. Finally, Gramps, Billy and Winsley take off and zoom through the air high above Hinkle, Winsley’s classmates and a tiny West Virginia town full of former doubters. They even make a victory lap around the shiny gold dome on the capitol building over in Charleston. Sheer joy!

However, their happiness is short-lived. A bumpy landing leaves Billy injured, Gramps with a slight concussion and Winsley barely able to save them all as the 3:45 train smashes Gramps’ beloved plane to smithereens.

In the days that follow, Winsley’s frazzled parents, after having nearly lost both their children to Gramps’ latest wild and dangerous escapade, move the family thirty miles down the road out of harm’s way. Suddenly, Winsley’s life becomes much too boring and hum-drum. That is, until a flash of turquoise and chrome screeches to a stop in front of the house across the street - whose yard, glory hallelujah – sports a big “For Sale” sign!

Back Cover Blurb (1):

Twelve-year-old Winsley Walker lives next door to her grandparents. Although this may sound like fun to most kids, to Winsley it means regularly having to choose between being a partner-in-crime with her wacky grandfather and mischievous younger brother Billy, or doing what she knows is right. But on the day Gramps decides to build the World’s Smallest Passenger Plane, Winsley has no choice. Unless she can prevent the unthinkable, lives are at stake. Maybe even her own.