My Fighting Family Paperback: Please Judge My Book By Its Cover Reveal

Book cover reveals are sort of like Super Bowl commercials in that anybody good or lucky enough at snooping around the internet can usually find the info in question before it officially goes public. So if you searched my book on the right library, bookstore or audiobook site, you might already have seen thumbnails of my memoir’s new, redesigned cover.

But the official, official cover reveal was slated for right now, three months ahead of Paperback Publication Day. If you missed the image at the top of the page, here it is again in a different colour.

So yes, please, judge this book by its cover because the designer, Lisa Jager, did another incredible job.

Little-known fact about me: I love maps. So to see an inset map that includes both Toronto, the big city people recognize, and Mississauga, the fast-expanding suburb where I grew up, makes me happier than you can imagine.

But then there’s another inset map!

This one pictures Chicago, home base for my parents and grandparents, and Evanston, where I warmed the bench for back-to-back Big Ten champion football teams. Charles Woodson, Peyton Manning, Keyshawn Johnson… I witnessed their brilliance from my spot on the bench.

So of course the new cover also includes an old photo of my the uniform I once wore while patrolling the sidelines at Dyche Stadium, which became Ryan Field, which is now the sexiest new stadium in college football.

The lower left corner features a photo of 15-year-old Morgan. If it weren’t cropped so tight you’d see my dad on my right, and the rest of my Uncle Ken’s backyard behind us. But you can see my baseball cap and the crew-neck collar of my short-sleeved shirt.

If you reach the halfway point in my memoir, you’ll have learned of how I acquired that exact outfit, inside a broader story about fatherhood, within an even bigger lesson about gentrification, and the value of our dollars and dignity. That section of the memoir chronicles a trip to the clothing store, but its also about how, if we’re lucky, our parents equip us to deal with the challenges that life throws at you when you’re Black, because you’re Black.

So there you go. A look at the front cover, and a glance at the story behind the story.

Three months until it hits stores for real. Seems like a long time, but it passes fast. Between now and then I’m looking forward to meeting more readers, introducing more people to their next favourite book, and, hopefully, doing a proper press run.

Ninety-two days and counting down quickly

Re-launch mode: activated.

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