Smiley Faces

Here’s something that’s cropping up a lot lately. The Smiley Face book. The first one I remember seeing was in a December post on The Book Design Review highlighting the jacket of Against Happiness. Those posted here are children’s books, and not quite the same idea (the smile on Against Happiness is actually an upside-down smile, and it’s done with the title text on a yellow background).
These three all happen to be on a white background. I haven’t been able to draw any plot parallels, at least from the CIP summaries. Jeremy Cabbage by David Elliott (Knopf March 2008 ), Big Mouth by Deborah Halverson (Delacorte June 2008 ), and Smiles to Go by Jerry Spinelli (Joanna Cotler May 2008 ) will all have been released within a couple of months of each other.

These book jackets lead me to think that the books are lighthearted in tone, but none of them really sound that way. I wonder what the authors think?

Jeremy Cabbage: While searching for a loving family, orphaned Jeremy becomes entangled in a conflict between his city’s arrogant and oppressive leader, the Baron von Strompie, and a group of outlandish people called the “cloons.” Ages 8-12.
Big Mouth: Fourteen-year-old Sherman Thuff, a student at the tomato-obsessed Del Heiny Junior High, has his hopes set on being a competitive eater, but when his training regimen begins to seriously interfere with his enjoyment of life and he even starts losing his friends, he decides he should rearrange his priorities. Ages 10+
Smiles to Go: Will Tuppence’s life has always been ruled by science and common sense but in ninth grade, shaken up by the discovery that protons decay, he begins to see the entire world differently and gains new perspective on his relationships with his little sister and two closest friends. Ages 10-14

Alternate Giver

A quick entry. There has always been a lot of talk about the cover of Lois Lowry’s The Giver (). The rumor was that Lowry insisted the old man image be on the cover. A post on the Girls Who Draw blog linked to an interesting alternate cover drawing/design (you’ll have to go to the post to see it, and do check out her senior thesis for others!). There’s also an alternate jacket to Brave New World - one that, unlike The Giver, has had lots of different jacket art over the years.
I’ve been reading some articles about book covers (this will come up in future posts), many of which have discussed jacket art as advertising, as have I in several of my posts. Would this alternate cover sell more copies of The Giver? Or does it matter when it is a book that has won major awards?

Nurk

I just stumbled across this book due out in June, Nurk by Ursula Vernon (Harcourt). There is something about the cover drawing that I find incredibly appealing… Anthropomorphic animals don’t always get me. But this little crew does.
I did some looking around and couldn’t find much - the author is also the illustrator. I assume it will be an illustrated book - but not a picture book. The target age is 8-12.
You can see more of Vernon’s artwork here and here (I love this fish). Great stuff! And see what appears to be the beginnings of her Nurk idea in this drawing dated 2002.

Nurk: Nurk, a sort-of brave shrew, packs up a few pairs of clean socks and sails off on an accidental adventure, guided by wisdom found in the journal of his famously brave and fierce grandmother, Lady Surka the warrior shrew.

Someone Else on Double Dipping

Well, I have to admit, I thought I was the first one to point out the whole double dipping thing. But I found a blog - The Rap Sheet - that pointed it out far sooner and took it further than I did. The first post, dated in 2006 - When Covers Are Two of a Kind - includes 8 pairs, analyzed for the different techniques used to make the same photo appear slightly different on two different jackets. Follow up posts with more examples appeared on the blog in March of this year in Repeat Offenders and Double Exposure.
I guess this occurs seldom on YA covers compared to books from the mainstream market. Or maybe there are just so many more covers to design….
On another note, I bring your attention to the new jackets on Chad Beckerman’s blog.

Inf-Luxe

With the surprising success of The Luxe by Anna Godbersen (HarperCollins) last year, there’s a spike in photographs of young women in 18th & 19th century costume - complete with big hair - on jackets of books for teens.
Maybe I just wasn’t paying attention, but historical fiction just wasn’t so, um, hip before this book. The Luxe is set in 1899 and has repeatedly been compared to The Gossip Girls.

Now other, perhaps meatier, historical fiction is being released with similar cover photography. The Red Necklace by Sally Gardner (Dial May 2008), set at the start of the French Revolution has this blonde beehive haired woman, very ornately dressed in light blue, set against a strangely dissonant drab green background. The little font title in a slash across her neck is a nice touch.
Bewitching Season by Marissa Doyle (Holt 2008 ) is set in 1837, sounds like a read-alike for The Luxe? Saving Juliet by Suzanne Selfors (Walker & Co. 2008 ) is set in modern day, but with a time travel twist back to the 16th century. Good anachronous hint with the bubble gum! And In Mozart’s Shadow by Carolyn Meyer (Harcourt 2008 ) is the only one here where you see the whole face, albeit it’s in shadow. And there are more! Not pictured here is the sequel to The Luxe, of course, due out in June. (And, the adult novel Mistress of the Revolution by Catherine Delors (Dutton 2008 ) which I first mentioned here as a YA - read about how this cover came about)

The Red Necklace: In the late eighteenth-century, Sido, the twelve-year-old daughter of a self-indulgent marquis, and Yann, a fourteen-year-old Gypsy orphan raised to perform in a magic show, face a common enemy at the start of the French Revolution.
Bewitching Season: In 1837, as seventeen-year-old twins, Persephone and Penelope, are starting their first London Season they find that their beloved governess, who has taught them everything they know about magic, has disappeared.
Saving Juliet: Seventeen-year-old Mimi Wallingford’s stage fright and fight with her mother on the closing night of Romeo and Juliet are nothing compared to the troubles she faces when she and her leading man are transported to Shakespeare’s Verona, where she decides to give the real Juliet a happy ending.
In Mozart’s Shadow: In eighteenth-century Europe, Anna “Nannerl” Mozart, a musician whose talent and dedication is overshadowed by that of her gifted younger brother, Wolfgang, struggles to win the notice of her father and patrons who might further her career, despite her gender.
The Luxe: In Manhattan in 1899, five teens of different social classes lead dangerously scandalous lives, despite the strict rules of society and the best-laid plans of parents and others.

“Golden Fuse Awards” 2007

For a different take on the best and worst (and a few other categories) book jackets of 2007, check out the Golden Fuse Awards on the School Library Journal website.
Different picks than I chose for my 10 Best of 2007 (Part 1, Part 2, and Final 4). We overlap on the duds though. I’m guessing that Ferret Island will come out in paperback with giant ferrets on the jacket….

Stingy with Color?

I can’t remember who said it (could have been a blog?), but somewhere I read a list of complaints about recent book covers. One complaint cited was “I’m sick of black & white book covers” (paraphrased). I had noticed a few of these and had briefly wondered whether it was a new thing, or just an ongoing occasional choice. I made a mental note to notice it more often.
Sure enough, I’ve seen a number of upcoming book jackets that use black and white photos. The technique/trend is a black and white photo - colored up a bit with a color title. Or sometimes, as in the case of Frances O’Roark Dowell’s new novel Shooting the Moon (Atheneum January 2008 - not shown here), a black and white photo ever so faintly colorized.
Perhaps, as with photos on any other book cover, the trick is in the choice of photo, and choice of cropping. I think that in the covers below, High Dive by Tammar Stein (Knopf June 2008 ) has the most interesting photo choice and cropping. The font and placement of the title fits too.
Not so sure about the others here. Little Audrey by Ruth White (Farrar Straus Giroux September 2008 ) is successful at setting the time period. The photo does look very 40s/50s. The font and color - and that little curly design add interest. It seems like the contrast is off in Where People Like Us Live by Patricia Cumbie (HarperTeen June 2008 ). The photo seems unattractively dark and muddy. And a modern photo(? doesn’t look like 1978 to me)?
On Rehab by Randi Reisfeld (Simon Pulse July 2008), we’ve got the classic cropping (in the middle of the girl’s face of course!). I like the color effect on the large font. But the darkness on the right seems strange and fuzzy.
As always, I wonder what the thinking is that leads to these designs. One caveat - none of the books pictured have been released yet, so there’s always the chance the design will change before people actually get them.

Some other new books fitting into this category and not pictured here are Bird Lake Moon by Kevin Henkes (Greenwillow May 2008), Dani Bennoni: Long May He Live by Bart Moeyaert (Front Street 2008). Passing fad or long lasting trend?

High Dive: With her mother stationed in Iraq as an Army nurse, Vanderbilt University student Arden Vogel, whose father was killed in a traffic accident a few years earlier, impulsively ends up on a tour of Europe with a group of college girls she meets on her way to attend to some family business in Sardinia.
Little Audrey: In 1948, eleven-year-old Audrey lives with her father, mother, and three younger sisters in Jewell Valley, a coal mining camp in Southwest Virginia, where her mother still mourns the death of a baby, her father goes on drinking binges on paydays, and Audrey tries to recover from the scarlet fever that has left her skinny and needing to wear glasses.
Where People Like Us Live: In 1978, when her restless father moves the family to Racine, Wisconsin, fourteen-year-old Libby quickly becomes friends with neighbor Angie, but there is something strange about Angie’s stepfather and when Libby learns the truth, she must make a very difficult choice.
Rehab:

Paper Towns Doubles

So here’s something unusual. John Green’s new book, Paper Towns, is coming out in October with two different covers. John gives no explanation on his blog, and I sure would like to know what led to this decision (or INdecision). One of John’s blog reading flock, Ben, makes an observation that is something to think about. He says, “Books cannot be judged by their covers, but I do think that covers may be judged by their book. Once I read Paper Towns, I’ll most likely have a favorite cover. However, until then, I will not. Does this seem like sound logic?”
Sounds logical to me.

Pink Book Buzz

Here are a couple of books for little girls about little girls who love pink - Pinkalicious by Elizabeth Kann and Pink by Nan Gregory…
I am a faithful reader of Roger Sutton’s blog (and all the interesting conversation sparked there). A couple of days ago, he wrote a post called “Code Pink.” Roger asks “Do girls who like this sort of thing appreciate the code, or do they roll their eyes and read despite it?” Then Lisa Chellman posted “Perpetuating Pink,” expressing her concern “As a librarian, I’m concerned by the color pink… What about books that are not as pink on the outside as they are on the inside?”
And I posted about pink books on Valentine’s Day. Yeah, pink is for that love stuff (eye roll).
Out of curiosity, I did a Google search on “pink book covers” and found lots of interesting stuff.
None of the above posts identified pink books with gay and lesbian books - and yet the term is often applied to them. Here’s a website called “Pinkbooks” which lists LGBTQ books for teens. And I guess I’ll have to start paying attention, because apparently diet books tend to be pink. Probably because women are the most obsessive dieters and we know how pink attracts women? Chicklit is pink too - it was often mentioned in book reviews (too many to link but here’s an example). Pink is really popular for “Bible covers.”
There were quotes from authors about the use of pink on their books, like this one from The New York Observer: ““I didn’t want any pink on the back of my book… I didn’t want pink on my book—not because of what other people would think, or how it would be judged or marketed: I didn’t want pink because I wouldn’t buy a book that was pink. That’s why I haven’t read any of the pink books….”
Watch out, if you read too many pink books, you just might turn pink.

Finally, here’s the real problem with pink books - “How judging a book by its ‘girlie’ cover is putting boys off reading” from the UK’s TimesOnline. Why do they keep doing this? Are publishers afraid that girls won’t know it’s for them if it isn’t pink or what?

Pinkalicious: A little girl who is obsessed with the color pink eats so many pink cupcakes that she herself turns pink.
Pink: Vivi loves the color pink. She is working and saving her money in order to buy a pink doll from the store. How does she feel when the doll is sold to someone else?

Nostalgia?

In my exploration of illustration on children’s and teen book jackets, I came across this jacket from Flux, The Shape of Water by Anne Spollen (2008). I had thought a lot about this particular jacket that also makes use of the tiny title trend. The illustration so reminded me of the 70s, when I was a teen myself, reminded me of some of the art from that time, some of the pieces I did myself when I was in art school. I liked this jacket a lot, but thought it was just nostalgia. Given my own pegging it to the 70s, I wondered about it’s success.
Brown is kind of an unusual color for a background (just based on my memory banks, not any hard evidence). That made it different, too.
This morning, I read this blog entry from Andrew Karre at the Flux Blog, which reminded me of all the above. It will be interesting to watch where this book goes, with an eye to how teens are feeling about the book’s advertisement, it’s cover.