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Tomi Adeyemi Reveals Stunning Cover For Forthcoming 'Children of Virtue and Vengeance'

Tomi Adeyemi Reveals Stunning Cover For Forthcoming 'Children of Virtue and Vengeance'
By Sydney Scott · Updated April 8, 2019

Best-selling author Tomi Adeyemi’s Children of Virtue and Vengeance isn’t set to be released until December 3, but the author is giving ESSENCE an exclusive look at the stunning cover of her upcoming book.

Tomi Adeyemi Reveals Stunning Cover For Forthcoming ‘Children of Virtue and Vengeance’

Children of Virtue and Vengeance is the follow-up to 2018’s Children of Blood and Bone, one of last year’s biggest young adult fantasy novels.

The second novel in Adeyemi’s Legacy of Orïsha trilogy, Children of Virtue and Vengeance expands on the themes presented in the first book.

“What I’m really most excited about is groups. I love groups and [exploring] group dynamics,” Adeyemi told ESSENCE. “I just love being able to have more characters to play off with and explore different things with.”

“For me, as a human, Children of Blood and Bone was really painful. And it was…all my stories are going to be painful but Children of Blood and Bone was a lot of personal pain. With Children of Virtue and Vengeance, I got to step back.”

Finding the perfect cover for Children of Virtue and Vengeance was a long process for Adeyemi, whose love of art is clear through our lively conversation.

Tomi Adeyemi Reveals Stunning Cover For Forthcoming ‘Children of Virtue and Vengeance’
NEW YORK, NY – OCTOBER 11: Tomi Adeyemi attends the 2018 Girls Write Now celebrates Day of the Girl, hosted by DVF on October 11, 2018 in New York City. (Photo by Manny Carabel/Getty Images)

“The whole story of Children of Blood and Bone came from me seeing two pieces of Black art, eight months apart. They were basically the first pieces of black art I had ever seen in my life.”

Adeyemi said it was important that the cover of her book depict “black people and black women,” adding that it’s no mistake that [protagonist] Zélie’s hair goes from straight on the cover of Children of Blood and Bone to 4C on the cover of Children of Virtue and Vengeance.

Still, finding the right artist for the job wasn’t easy but Adeyemi eventually stumbled upon artist Sarah Jones, whose work the author calls “powerful.”

“I gave Macmillan a list of artists. And I said, ‘Sarah Jones is my top choice.’ And they contacted her,” Adeyemi said. “[Her work] was so black and it was so elegant, and it was so powerful, and it was so majestic, and that’s everything I wanted for Zélie.”