The Last Cuentista is a sci-fi fantasy novel by Donna Barba Higuera. It tells the story of 12-year-old Petra, the only person aboard a spaceship of evacuees with memories of Earth. I was commissioned by Levine Querido to work on the book’s jacket and case.

I found some kinship with Petra’s situation in my task to capture the story’s spirit on the cover. How do I gather the memories on these pages and tell them using my voice? My work is often a tapestry of carefully arranged elements, which guided my approach to the book’s jacket art. I depicted Petra in a dream state, while elements of her transient life — the spaceship, the figures in her abuela’s stories, and the alien plant life in her new home planet — are caught in the tendrils of her desire to remember Earth. The cover’s mood is inspired by the official colors of Pleiades Corp., the company that evacuates Earth’s inhabitants, while also evoking the deep and unknowable reaches of space.

On the case is the object that sets the story in motion: Halley’s Comet crashing to earth in the form of a fire snake as told by her abuela. The serpent was originally an optional study that ended up on the case for being a pivotal image that the publishers liked a lot.

Donna, the author, wrote me a small note in the book’s acknowledgments, thanking me for a “magical cover art” that elicited gasps from her peers. As somebody who’s often drawn to a book by its cover, I’m honored to be part of that special experience when a book speaks volumes to a reader even before they’ve turned the first page.


Professional or Personal
Professional

Creative Discipline
Graphic Design
Illustration

Role in Project
For this project, I was commissioned to illustrate and design the jacket of the book. I worked directly with the editor of The Last Cuentista. The editor gave me the freedom to come up with concepts and direction for the artwork. I presented three different directions. One became the jacket and the other one became the case.

Project Credits
Author: Donna Barba Higuera
Editor: Nick Thomas
Publisher: Levine Querido