Author Tiffany D. Jackson is bringing her signature frights to a new age range with her middle grade debut Blood in the Water, set to release in July 2025 from Scholastic Press. The cover, by artist Eben Nwaokpani and designer Omou Barry, is revealed here for the first time.

Blood in the Water finds Brooklyn native Kaylani in a situation that many middle schoolers land in: being sent off to an unfamiliar locale for the summer. Rather than stay at home awaiting phone calls from her recently incarcerated father, Kaylani is sent by her family to spend the summer at Martha’s Vineyard with the hopes that a change in scenery and new company will keep her distracted from her grief. But when a teen is found dead in the water, Kaylani and her new cast of friends decide to investigate the death. Here, the cover shows the determined tween looking up at the reader from the water in front of the mansion where she’s staying.

For Jackson, writing for a middle grade audience was an exciting but unexpected shift in her career. Having previously penned YA novels and picture books, the author felt the pull towards middle grade when she realized that her YA work was finding its way onto tween bookshelves.

“I never wanted to step into the middle grade world,” Jackson said. “I didn’t think I had the skill for it. But I was excited to take on the challenge when I realized that a lot of middle grade readers were reading my books, and I was like, ‘Oh, maybe I should write something for y'all.’ ”

Jackson is known for bringing thought-provoking subject matter such as racism and Black girlhood as well as pulse-pounding storylines to her YA novels, and she worked with editor Aimee Friedman to fine-tune the intensity of her story to be right for younger readers.

“I kept saying, don’t be afraid to tell me I suck,” Jackson said. “I spoke to different middle grade authors to ask, ‘What do you do that’s different? What am I missing? Am I doing too much?’ It did sometimes feel that way. It was more dialing back exactly what I do already.”

Friedman found that despite Jackson’s hesitations, she “nailed the middle-grade voice right away.”

“I love how this book is a totally juicy, immersive, classic kind of murder mystery, but also feels contemporary and fresh,” Friedman said. “And the story also explores themes of race and class and history in really captivating ways.”

Blood in the Water pulls at personal strings for Jackson, who is intimately familiar with the novel’s Massachusetts setting as a frequent visitor since her college years. During the writing process, Jackson returned to Martha’s Vineyard in the summer of 2023, early in her pregnancy, this time looking at the idyllic isle with a different perspective.

“It’s really comforting in a lot of ways when you look into the history of Martha’s Vineyard,” Jackson said. “So many Black Americans travelled and started to buy land there, because it was really the first place where free slaves were welcomed. It was and continues to be a safe haven for Black excellence.”

Incorporating the island’s rich cultural history was an important aspect of the novel, but not one that Jackson wanted to harp on too much, “especially knowing the readers I was trying to reach, because I always like to respect my readers’ intelligence,” Jackson said.

“We wanted to make the reading experience aspirational, but also allow middle-grade readers to feel that this was a story for them,” Friedman said.

Despite the fact that Blood in the Water is centered around a murder, at its core, Jackson explores the importance of young readers remembering their innocence. The book’s young detective has hopes of becoming a lawyer, and her observant nature plays a significant role in helping unravel a crime, all qualities Jackson admires. But she also notes that Kaylani’s ambition can have a downside: “She’s so busy doing that, she doesn’t have fun any more. Being in the moment is a big part of this [book],” Jackson said. “The underlying theme is it’s okay to just be a kid. You’re not responsible for saving the world. It’s the idea of, how do you remain true to yourself and still youthful?”

Blood in the Water is for tween readers, but its central theme is one Jackson believes is “a lesson that we all can learn at at any age.”

Friedman views the middle grade debut with a similar perspective. “In the end, I think it’s the kind of book that tweens, teens, and adults will all love.”

Blood in the Water by Tiffany D. Jackson. Scholastic Press, $17.99, July 1, 2025,; ISBN 978-1-338-84991-2