The Joshua Files finally reaches North America in July, with the publication of Invisible City by Walker Books for Young Readers.
We’re planning a few things to celebrate – a competition exclusively for new readers in the USA&Canada. But also, here finally is the book trailer featuring the Walker edition artwork.
I love all the foreign editions of Joshua, but this one is very special. It’s the first cover that reflects my own ideas of how the cover art might look, when I was first writing Invisible City (or as it was called back then, Todd Garcia: Boy Archaelogist – The Lost City).
The artwork may be more traditional ‘adventure-style’ than the amazing, ground-breaking, innovative, deadly-neon-slipcover of the UK, French, Spanish, Catalan, German and Hungarian editions. It draws on the style of influential artist Frederick Catherwood, who back in the 1840s visited the ruins with traveler John Lloyd Stephens and created those first, memorable images of the ruined Mayan cities, which were to stun readers in the developed world.
My friend Chris Maslanka, an eminent puzzlist (who devises fiendish puzzles for The Guardian and The Oxford Times – watch Chris and his evil twin Mikhail show readers how to crack the codes in the first three Joshua books) brought me four copies of the Polish edition of Invisible City, Archivum Josha – Niewidzialne Miasto, which I’ve been meaning to give to various Polish friends in Oxford. It made me very happy to hold these foreign editions in my hands, to know that readers in so many countries are reading them. An amazing thing really, doesn’t feel like it’s anything to do with me either. Rather wonderful!