Tag Archives: Anabeth Bostrup

Cover Reveal

Cover Reveal: How to Take a Risk by Rebecca Bendheim

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Today on the site I’m delighted to welcome back Rebecca Bendheim to reveal the cover of her second contemporary Middle Grade, How to Take a Risk, releasing February 9, 2027 from Viking Books for Young Readers! Here’s the story:

The summer before seventh grade, adrenaline junkie Reagan is excited to be with her summer best friend, Zander, and cross every item off of their annual “Risk List,” a list of dares to complete across their coastal Maine town. She’ll get a break from her family friends, Madi and Olive, and their new obsession with crushes and boys, and be able to focus on rock-jumping, hill-skateboarding, and camping out in the cemetery.

But when Zander asks Reagan to be his girlfriend, everything changes. What Reagan hoped would be a fun-filled summer like any other quickly becomes the most complicated of her life—especially when she realizes she doesn’t have a crush on Zander but on her friend Olive instead. How long can she stay Zander’s girlfriend when she knows her true feelings?

And just when things can’t get any more tangled for Reagan, her mom tells her that she’s pregnant, with Reagan’s new baby sister scheduled to arrive at the end of summer. Suddenly, buried feelings come to the surface, and Reagan turns to increasingly scary dares to avoid the emotions bubbling up inside.

But she can’t avoid these feelings forever. And maybe some changes are good. Maybe this summer is about discovering that the biggest risk of all is learning how to be herself.

And here’s the beautiful cover, designed by Anabeth Bostrup and Opal Roengchai with art by Dion MDB!

A white brunette tween in a red bathing suit and white T-shirt plunges into water after jumping from a huge rock. The water comes together like two hands holding, though you can't see who they belong to. The text says, How to Take a Risk, Rebecca Bendheim, "This is a glorious story of how a single summer can leave you wholly transformed." - Chanel Miller, Newbery Honor-Winning Author of Magnolia Wu Unfolds It All.

Buy it: Bookshop | Amazon | B&N | Oliver and Friends (Signed)

Rebecca Bendheim is the author of When You’re Brave Enough and a graduate of Vanderbilt University and Vermont College of Fine Arts. She types poems around the country with the Typewriter Rodeo poetry troupe and lives in Maine with her wife. She has bungee jumped, skydived, and swum with sharks, but the biggest risk she’s ever taken is putting her deepest emotions into books. Rebecca can be found on social media @RebeccaBendheim and on her website at rebeccabendheim.com

Cover Reveal

Exclusive Cover Reveal: When You’re Brave Enough by Rebecca Bendheim

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Today on the site I’m delighted to welcome Rebecca Bendheim, author of the upcoming lesbian Middle Grade When You’re Brave Enough, which releases April 7, 2026 from Viking Books for Young Readers! Here’s the story:

A heartfelt, gorgeously written debut middle grade novel about best friends, first crushes, and coming out—perfect for fans of Kyle Lukoff and Jake Maia Arlow.

Before she moved from Austin to Rhode Island, everybody knew Lacey as one half of an inseparable duo: Lacey-and-Grace, best friends since they were toddlers. Grace and her moms were practically family. But at school, being lumped together with overeager, worm-obsessed, crushes-on-everyone Grace meant Lacey never quite fit in—and that’s why at her new middle school, Lacey plans to reinvent herself. This time, she’s going to be cool. She’s going to be normal.

At first, everything seems to go as planned. Lacey makes new friends right away, she finds a rabbi to help her prepare for the bat mitzvah that got deprioritized by her parents in the chaos of the move, and she even gets cast in the lead role of the eighth-grade musical. Which is when things start to get stressful, because it turns out the students at her new school have a long-standing, unofficial tradition: No matter what the show is, in the final performance, the leads always kiss for real.

Lacey’s never kissed anyone before—she’s not even sure she’s ever had a crush. And in Bye, Bye, Birdie, there are a few different co-lead kiss possibilities for Lacey to choose from. There’s confident, cocky Andre. There’s sweet, friendly Jaden. And then there’s the other new girl at school: dryly funny, impossibly cool Violet.

But while her new friends and older sister create whiteboard wall charts and botched field trip schemes to help her decide, suddenly Lacey can’t stop thinking about Grace, who she was so sure she wanted to leave behind. When Grace comes back into her life, Lacey needs to decide if she’s brave enough to be who she really is, in front of the person who matters most.

And here’s the lovely cover, designed by Anabeth Bostrup and illustrated by Chantal Horeis!

Two white tween girls stand back to back in a field of greenery, one with dirty-blonde hair almost to her shoulders and glasses, wearing knee-length black shorts and a boxy green tank top, the other in a yellow-striped shirt with a long brown braid, who is looking back at the first girl. The background is split: an orange cityscape on the left, behind the first girl, and a light blue seascape with a lighthouse and sailboats on the right. The title, When You're Brave Enough, is written in bold white and pink letters down the right side.

Buy it: Bookshop | Amazon | Black Pearl Books | Book People | Barnes & Noble

Credit: Syd Fuller

Rebecca Bendheim is a middle school teacher, poet, and graduate of Vanderbilt and VCFA’s MFA program in writing for children and young adults, where she wrote her critical thesis on queer middle grade. She has performed her poetry on NPR, at Lambda Litfest, and as a member of Austin’s Typewriter Rodeo poetry troupe. Rebecca lives in Austin with her fianceé, a corgi-chihuahua mix puppy, and an orange cat and can be found on social media @RebeccaBendheim.