New Book: Yaya & Boo On the Go!

A cover reveal and a plea to pre-order!

So, about the cover of my new book Let’s Find Yaya & Boo On the Go!, I want to show you a little bit of what went into it. I worked closely with Paige Graff, the designer at Quirk. We had about 2.5 million emails passed back and forth for this cover. Paige also was the magic behind the covers for Find Momo Everywhere and Yaya & Boo At Home!

First, can I ask you for a huuuuuuge favour? I have a goal I need you to help me reach with this book. I want to hit a record amount of pre-sales. Typically I reach roughly 1,500 pre-orders. Can you help me hit 2,000 pre-orders? I know it’s a big ask, but it would really go a long way. Every pre-order counts! This book will be the perfect gift for anyone who has kids, especially if those kids love dogs and/or big vehicles (so, like, every kid). So far, 46 of you amazing people have pre-ordered. I’ll keep you posted on how it’s going. If you can’t pre-order it, a share/like/comment also goes a long long way, and it’s free for you.

Pre-orders matter. You’ve probably heard it so often from your favourite author. Leave a comment if there’s another book you’re looking forward to this year! Children’s book or other. Would love to support some more fellow authors and make some new friends on here.

Ok, back to the cover! First, I knew I wanted to put some hats on the dogs to better express the theme of the book: cars and planes and things that go! And because it’s cute, obviously.

And hats off (pun intended) to Richard Scarry for being an inspiration for this book. I was obsessed with Cars and Trucks and Things That Go when I was a little fart. I would spend hours looking through the details of each scene. It made me want to approach this book from a storytelling perspective, where the scenes are telling a bit of a story about the vehicle it captures.

Here are some outtakes from the book’s cover:

Boo, winking in a hard hat. Could have been a Home Depot ad. The final image was cut out and placed on a red/orange backdrop because COLOUR! (COLOR!)

An outtake of Yaya’s helmet shot, this hat didn’t fit perfectly, but we made it work. Though it didn’t end up being used on the cover, I think he looked pretty cute.

This is a crop of one of the final seek-and-find images inside the book! Teasing what’s inside the book is a new approach. Thanks to Halfmoon Bay Fire Department for lending me your biggest/prettiest truck. The flames!

Another little teaser of the school bus scene. Thanks to Southlands Farm in Vancouver for lending me your school bus! And your ducklings!

I just can’t with this little helmet found by my friend (amazing assistant and even better photographer) Pauline Holden.

My friend Jon’s helmet, a remote airplane I bought to match Mike Andrews’ plane (he built!), my friend Kyla’s firefighter boots, and a random traffic cone.

A few iterations on the cover, can you spot the final?

The final cover! Here it is! I’m so happy with it. Thanks Paige! Did you pre-order?

Ok, so we’re at 46 pre-orders. Let’s see if we can hit 2,000 by the release date in September. That’s only 1,954 to go. And thank you, to everyone who’s shown your support.

Love you!

Andrew, Yaya, & Boo

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PS. Stay tuned for a very big fun announcement coming next week. Can you guess what it is?