thatcovergirl.com

Yesterday I featured Katie Kacvinsky’s cover for her debut novel, Awaken. Today, you get to hear her squeal about it for yourself.

TCG: With this being your first published YA novel, how much anticipation did you have towards the design of your cover? Did you ever have any ideas about what you thought AWAKEN’s cover should look like? Did you provide any concept input to Carol Chu?

KK: I was more excited than anything—as a writer, you don’t have much creative input on the cover art—it’s in the designer’s hands and you have to trust they know what they’re doing. My editor gushed about the design team at Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, and the cover designs I’d seen for their other YA books were artistic and unique. The only cover I imagined was to illustrate my character’s tattoo (a bird on the inside of her wrist), but I never shared my idea. I was more curious to see what the designers would come up with.

TCG: What was your very first reaction when you saw the final design? (or mockups, if you got to see those in the concept stage — how involved were you?)

KK: In all honesty, my very first reaction was: “Whew! They didn’t put Justin on the cover!!” For some reason, my greatest fear was that they’d try to illustrate Justin (my protagonist) and make him look like an uber-seductive soap opera star or like he belongs in the latest break-out boy band. I usually prefer covers that don’t illustrate the main characters. It’s always more fun to imagine them. My second reaction was: “Where did they come up with that??” We had initially talked about my cover featuring the silhouette of a girl and a guy’s face about to kiss, so this cover was not what I expected at all. I just stared at it and the more I stared, the more I loved every elelment—the juxtaposition between the flowers and the pixelated screen in the background, the trapped beauty, the scratchy font of the title. I loved it!!

TCG: There are so many wonderful things about Awaken’s cover that I love, but it’s the visual image of constrained beauty that gets me every time. How does this imagery relate to Awaken’s story? What’s your favorite part about the cover?

KK: I agree, my favorite part of the cover is the symbolic image of something beautiful and natural trapped and bottled up. I also like how it’s an old fashioned mason jar contrasted with a digital image. This cover represents so many messages in my book: technology taking over humanity, people living inside constrained lifestyles, the environment being taken for granted, the natural world slowly being replaced by an artificial one….It also represents my main characters. You’ll have to read it to see why.

TCG: As an author, what do you think is the most important message that a cover should relay? Should a cover be succinct to the novel’s message? Allude to something? Or should it just catch someone’s attention, no matter what it looks like?

KK: I think the cover should set up the story without giving too much away. A book cover tells a story in itself. It sets a tone or asks a question that invites you into the story. I also think it needs to stay true to the story’s message to attract the readers you want. AWAKEN is fairly dark, but it’s also hopeful and romantic and sensual. I hope my cover conveys that.

TCG: What are some of your favorite YA covers — and why?

KK: I like Sara Zarr’s book covers because the images make me question the story. I want to know what they mean—why the heart shaped cookie is bitten into, or why the petals in the flower are falling off. I love the cover of SHIVER, by Maggie Stiefvater. It’s the kind of book jacket that screams danger and mystery and romance and it’s gorgeous enough to hang on your wall when you’re finished reading it. I recently bought the book STOLEN, by Lucy Christopher because the cover drew me in. I like the simple image of something beautiful surrounded by complete darkness–very mysterious.

TCG: Are there any trends in YA cover art that you’ve seen lately that you’ve noticed and loved? Or, have you noticed an evolution in YA cover design in the past few years?

KK: With all of the draw to paranormal books, I notice a lot of black covers contrasted with stark white images and red coloring. To be honest, I’m getting sick of seeing that. Lots of pale faces and bloody red lips and girls that look more like water nymphs than actual people (maybe they are water nymphs, I don’t check to find out).

I would not be surprised if they actually are water nymphs. Anything else you’d like to add for your inquiring readers?

KK: I just have to say I’m so impressed with the creative process that goes into publishing a book. Between the author’s story, the vision of the editor, the creative images of designers, the marketing team—it really is a team effort that sells a book. And I think all these visions have to complement each other for it all to work. It’s an amazing process!

Thanks so much for the interview, Katie!

Tomorrow’s post will feature art director/designer Carol Chu’s thoughts and process on creating Awaken’s cover! Stay tuned.

If you paid a visit to The Story Siren or The Book Smugglers yesterday, you may have already spotted this lovely little gem: But let me tell you what makes this cover particularly interesting to me. I mean, besides the fact that yeah, it does make me want to read its summary: I love the … Continue reading »

Well, well, well. What do we have here? Oh, this little beauty. Yesterday, Making The Grade did a cover reveal for Trish Doller’s upcoming Where the Stars Still Shine. And it is quite shiny indeed! Today on TCG I have two lovely and insightful interviews with none other than the author herself, as well as her fabulous cover … Continue reading »

Have you ever found yourself sitting in a room and listening intently to a discussion, then have your attention completely derailed when you become fixated on an object? Unfortunately, it happens to me all the time. Fortunately, it happened when I saw the spine of Andrew Smith’s upcoming novel, Winger. Spines don’t often get a lot … Continue reading »

It’s not often that I photograph books here on the blog, but when I do, I feel like I’m giving each book its own little fashion show. This immediately reminds me of Mindy Kaling’s character on The Office being super annoying when she chants, “Fashion show at lunch!” Today I’m rolling out the red carpet … Continue reading »

Hear ye, hear ye! For those of you who thought I had dropped off the face of the planet, IN YOUR FACE!!! I actually haven’t, but things have been busy around these parts. But I’m back for the moment and I’ve got more YA covers for you to look at, of course. Y’know, like this one! … Continue reading »

Step 1: Check out the Bookmark Binge feature on a lovely new-to-me-blog, Young Adult Anonymous. Step 2: Stare a little longer at new-to-me cover for Rainbow Rowell’s Eleanor & Park. Step 2.5: Stare a little more. Step 3: Realize that this is the same author of Attachments, the same book that’s been given high praise from two … Continue reading »

What do you get when you cross big bold colors, 80′s retro typefaces and 8-bit graphics? You get the kinda face of a YA cover that’s a little hard to ignore: Ready Player One by Ernie Cline. When I first saw this cover, I initially thought to myself, “Man, I think I love this because I’m … Continue reading »

Hear ye, hear ye! No seriously, have y’all heard about the book, The Forsaken by Lisa M. Stasse? To be perfectly honest, when Courtney Summers told me about this cover art on Twitter, the first thing I thought was, “What?” The second thing I thought was, “That’s some crazybusiness.” And then when I finally decided to act … Continue reading »

My opinion of faces on covers hasn’t always been a positive one, and not much has managed to change my opinion over the past few years, either. It takes a certain type of cover with a certain type of face to grab my attention. Recently, that certain type of cover was Siobhan Vivian’s The List. The … Continue reading »

Yesterday’s post featured the beautiful illustrated hardcover and paperback artwork for Corey Whaley’s Where Things Come Back. Today, Corey was kind enough to stop by TCG for an interview! Welcome, Corey! TCG: I think there’s some sort of homing device that’s been implanted in my brain that immediately draws me to illustrated covers. WTCB’s hardcover … Continue reading »

If you paid a visit to The Story Siren or The Book Smugglers yesterday, you may have already spotted this lovely little gem: But let me tell you what makes this cover particularly interesting to me. I mean, besides the fact that yeah, it does make me want to read its summary: I love the … Continue reading »

Well, well, well. What do we have here? Oh, this little beauty. Yesterday, Making The Grade did a cover reveal for Trish Doller’s upcoming Where the Stars Still Shine. And it is quite shiny indeed! Today on TCG I have two lovely and insightful interviews with none other than the author herself, as well as her fabulous cover … Continue reading »

Oh wow. It’s been a minute, hasn’t it? I’m back, at least for this week, and I just wanted to spread some more Eleanor & Park love. As if I didn’t spread enough of it back in August of last year, right? If you’ve posted about E&P on Twitter and I haven’t gone all YAAAAY … Continue reading »

Have you ever found yourself sitting in a room and listening intently to a discussion, then have your attention completely derailed when you become fixated on an object? Unfortunately, it happens to me all the time. Fortunately, it happened when I saw the spine of Andrew Smith’s upcoming novel, Winger. Spines don’t often get a lot … Continue reading »

It’s not often that I photograph books here on the blog, but when I do, I feel like I’m giving each book its own little fashion show. This immediately reminds me of Mindy Kaling’s character on The Office being super annoying when she chants, “Fashion show at lunch!” Today I’m rolling out the red carpet … Continue reading »

Wow, it’s been a really long time since I spread some serious cover love here. This is about to be remedied. Because not only do I have some cover love for you, but I’m happy to announce that the aforementioned cover love revolves around some brotherly love, too! And that’s a lot of love. Ahh. I … Continue reading »

St. Louis is a beauty, no? I wasn’t quite sure where to put this post, to be honest. I normally talk cover art here at TCG, my Tumblr isn’t meant for holding more than 100 words, and I sure wasn’t going to start another new personal blog. So I decided to post here. Feel free … Continue reading »

I follow the lovely Regina Roff on Twitter, a talented designer and illustrator who also happens to be a fun person to follow. She’s also getting married this coming weekend (2 days!), and she posted a photo of her wedding shower greeting card, which I promptly retweeted: Oh who am I kidding, it is the best … Continue reading »

I love finding parents for YA cover babies. It’s like the fun version of genealogy, y’all! Except without trying to figure out which people were the crazy aunts and uncles. For example, if Haruki Murakami’s 1Q84 & Carrie Harris’ Bad Taste in Boys had a cryonically frozen teenage daughter, she’d look just like this!

I’m not even sure where to begin with this thing, to be honest. Here, let me just show off these two covers to momentarily distract you. Both of these UK covers were illustrated by the brilliant Debbie Powell. I blathered on about the loveliness of both the US and UK covers for E&P (and interviewed … Continue reading »

If you paid a visit to The Story Siren or The Book Smugglers yesterday, you may have already spotted this lovely little gem: But let me tell you what makes this cover particularly interesting to me. I mean, besides the fact that yeah, it does make me want to read its summary: I love the … Continue reading »

Well, well, well. What do we have here?

Oh, this little beauty.

Yesterday, Making The Grade did a cover reveal for Trish Doller’s upcoming Where the Stars Still Shine. And it is quite shiny indeed! Today on TCG I have two lovely and insightful interviews with none other than the author herself, as well as her fabulous cover designer, Regina Flath.

Let’s get this cover love show on the road, shall we?

TCG: First things first: Trish, what was your initial reaction to your cover? (Mine? “It’s so pretty.”)

TD: My initial reaction was a big, breathy wow. Because I knew which image they were going to use, I played around with it myself (I am one of those authors who makes her own fake covers), but all the fonts I tried were very simple and contemporary. So when I saw that gorgeous script I was stunned that it was more beautiful than I could have imagined. I think any changes to the cover have been minor, so it’s kind of exciting that what people are seeing now is almost exactly what I saw that very first time. 

What’s your favorite part of the cover? 

I have two favorite things about the cover. First, when we started discussing the cover of Where the Stars Still Shine, my editor sent me what she thought would be the perfect image. Only it turned out to be the photo that has since become the cover of Uses for Boys. Pretty, right? Well, we agreed that what we liked best about the cover was the fairy lights. So I did an image search and discovered a series of photos by a photographer who goes by Beth Retro. The green dress and fairy lights image was part of the series, and I fell for it hard and fast. And when I sent it to my editor, her reaction was similar to mine. I even sent her a couple of other concepts for good measure, but I think we were all pretty smitten by then.

And the second thing is the font. After I saw the cover the first time, I did a little exploring to find out the name of that font and, if I got it right, it’s called Aphrodite. Which felt very special to me because Where the Stars Still Shine takes place in a small town in Florida with a healthy Greek-American population that factors into the book. And since Aphrodite is the Greek goddess of love…well, I have no idea if my designer, Regina Flath, chose that font intentionally but knowing her it’s entirely possible.

So that makes it sound like the whole thing is my favorite, right? Exactly.

Yep, it sure does. And I’m so happy you feel that way. (In regards to your font question, that answer will actually be verified in Regina’s interview below!) 

I always hope that covers tell some sort of story — how does your cover art compare to the story within? 

The fairy lights are a small, but significant part of the story in that they represent the kind of friendship Callie has never experienced, as well as the power of light to chase away the darkness. And she’s had plenty of darkness in her life. The fairy lights are given to her as a gift–one of the first things she receives in her new home that belongs solely to her–so they’re pretty special.

We’ve had a few cover discussions over email and Twitter — and I know you’ve got strong opinions like I do. What kind of cover grabs your attention? What do you think can make or break a cover? 

My favorite covers tend to be those with illustrations and interesting typography. I think it’s one thing that adult fiction does so well that we’re only just starting to see echoed in young adult fiction and I’d love to see it used more often. Maybe even on one of my books.

Have you ever had any cover discussions with teenagers to garner their thoughts?

I lead a teen book club that meets once a month and we talked about covers at one of our meetings. The general consensus among the five high school-aged girls was that they don’t like kissing covers, they are tired of girls in gowns, and they like illustration. One girl in the group says she doesn’t really care all that much what’s on the cover, though, while another said sometimes she wishes all covers were plain and that the flap copy was what you relied on to decide whether or not to buy a book. One of the group’s favorite covers was Me and Earl and the Dying Girl. I love that one, too! 

Excellent choice. What are some of your favorite covers — and why?

I completely swooned over the cover of Fingerprints of You by Kristen-Paige Madonia. I suspect it’s because I love tattoo art, but it’s so lovely. Another of my favorites is The Sharp Time by Mary O’Connell. The photographer, Metin Demiralay, does such cool things with color and I secretly wanted one of his photos on the cover of Where the Stars Still Shine. Maybe on the next book, huh? And I love the American cover of Love and Other Perishable Items by Laura Buzo.

And now, for the designer herself! Welcome, Regina!

TCG: What was your design process like for STARS? Did you start out with a summary, or were you able to read the book prior to the concept phase?

RF: With STARS I only had the summary to work from, but since the author and editor had an image they wanted to work with already, it was easy for me to come up with the type design based on the short summary.

Trish gave me a little insight on where the cover image came from, but said she was floored by the type design you incorporated on the cover. How do you pick your type for your designs? What’s that process like? Do you have favorite typographers, foundries? 

The font used on the cover is Aphrodite Slim Pro. The type choice for my designs is informed by the genre of the book and the overall feel of the story. For STARS I knew we wanted something really beautiful. I chose Aphrodite because I knew I could use the serif glyphs to interlock the letters and words and make everything feel really integrated and romantic. Normally the process is much more involved, where I’ll sit for a few hours on myfonts.com scrolling through fonts by keyword based on what I want the feel of the design to be. Sometimes I’ll start with a keyword like “romantic” but other times I know I’ll want a serif, a sans serif, or a modern face and I’ll search using those terms. My favorite typographers tend to be known for their hand lettering, like Jessica Hische or Mike Perry. (Shout out to Mike Perry who taught a workshop I took in college! Whee!) 

Thanks for two new typographers to add to my list, Regina! Also, whoa, where did my last half hour go? Surely not to staring at their websites…

What’s one of the biggest misconceptions you feel the general reading world has about cover design? 

Oh this question is close to my heart. Overall people seem to think that the designer who creates the cover always has the final say in what a cover looks like. For example, if people generally don’t like a cover or think the cover ‘looks like everything else’ that might not necessarily be because the designer chose to offend. A million different people in a million different departments (editorial, marketing, sales, book buyers, book sellers, etc) all have a certain amount of approval and input on a cover design. If a designer is lucky (like I was in the case of STARS) her vision for the cover will pretty much be what she intended it to be. More often than not, a designer needs to incorporate many different types of input to make sure all the departments are satisfied that a cover is the best it can be for the market it is in. At the end of the day, cover design is commercial design but a really good cover design will make you forget that fact.

Who, or what, inspires you? 

I get inspiration from almost everywhere. My interests outside of design are really varied, but they all inform my work. For instance, I’m an herbalist, which means I make a lot of my own medicines or body care products. While that seems to have nothing to do with design, the process of seeking out plants that others might overlook and using them for powerful medicines is a lot like seeking out imagery and feelings in a story and using them to make powerful imagery or type choices on a cover design. The same goes for my interest in alchemic and esoteric philosophies; the idea of taking something base and turning it into gold is a lot like the process of design where the designer has to distill a whole novel into one image.

 As for visual inspiration, I love the work of Charmaine Olivia because she does ‘beautiful young woman’ in a way that is really other-worldly and interesting to me. I just found photographer @old_hag on instagram and am totally inspired by her work; she does these magical self portraits and shots of her home that are incredible. I also love Mike Mignola’s Hellboy comics both for art and content.

What is it about a cover that makes you want to pick up a book? What are 3 of your favorite pieces?

When I see a cover that challenges my ideas of how covers ‘should’ look, that makes me want to pick it up. Also, I’m a sucker for anything that looks remotely magical or has interesting use of special effects like spot UV. 

My most recent favorite covers are:

Thank you so much for stopping by TCG today, ladies! It’s only, what, a short 7 months until pub date, right? (SEVEN MONTHS. SHEESH.)

I’d also be remiss if I didn’t mention the blurb that will be on the cover. Because it’s by Melina Marchetta.

“Trish Doller writes strong, gutsy characters that you can’t help caring for and Callie is no exception. Her journey is heartbreaking and powerful.” — Melina Marchetta, Printz Award winning author of Jellicoe Road

For more Trish and Regina, you can find them both on Twitter, which is my favorite medium of communication to annoy them. Thanks again!

It’s not often that I photograph books here on the blog, but when I do, I feel like I’m giving each book its own little fashion show.

This immediately reminds me of Mindy Kaling’s character on The Office being super annoying when she chants, “Fashion show at lunch!”

Today I’m rolling out the red carpet for Antony John’s latest beauty (pubbed today!), Elemental. I was able to get my copy early (thank you, Antony!) while I was in St. Louis earlier this month visiting with Adele. Adele actually got her copy first, so I was excited to see the final finish and production work and immediately ran my hands over the raised title, took the jacket off to inspect the binding and spine like the book nerd I am. All in all, it really is a great, solid cover. And while those may not be the most flowery words I’ve used in regards to cover art, it doesn’t make me love the jacket any less.

*cue upbeat runway music*

Sorry for the rug pics. My poor office desk is currently buried underneath a crap-ton of remodeling tools.

But the best part of this post? Antony let me pick his brain about the jacket artwork!

TCG: So here we are again doing another cover interview for a completely different story. You won’t find any misfit band members anywhere in this story (as far as I’ve read, at least!). When it came to thinking about a cover for Elemental, what was the first thing that came to mind?

AJ: To be honest, I had no idea what kind of cover the novel should have. The only things I knew for sure were that I wanted it to feel both fantastical and cool, and also that the wildness of the Outer Banks ought to be evoked in some way. Apparently, Tony Sahara felt the same way!

Yes, Tony Sahara was definitely tracking with that same thought! And this is the same guy who designed Eona. (!!!) Were you able to see any thumbnails/comps before the final version? What was your gut reaction when you first saw the cover art?

Okay, so first off, let us all take a moment to observe the awesomeness that is Tony Sahara. I’ve often said that the authors I admire most are the ones whose work has a connecting thread, but in which everything also feels new and fresh. I think this description fits Tony perfectly. His work is instantly recognizable, but there’s never anything remotely lazy about his work. Indeed, the cover to Elemental was constructed by overlaying twenty separate elements (bad pun) – which, let’s be honest, is pretty amazing.

As for sketches, no, I didn’t see any. Ordinarily, I’d crave an early glimpse of the cover direction, but he nailed it so well, I’m rather pleased I didn’t see it earlier. There’s nothing quite like receiving a cover and issuing a few well-chosen (and joyful) expletives. Seriously, I was head-over-heels in love with this cover from the get-go.

I remember when you were on the Guys Read panel at the YALSA Lit Symposium, you had mentioned that Elemental was the book you wrote for teenage you. What kind of cover would Teenage Antony be drawn to?

This one. I’m not just saying that, either. As a teen, I found movie posters infinitely more arresting than book covers, because it felt like there was a gulf in design quality between the two. That gulf has disappeared now, and some book covers are truly iconic.

Put it this way: If teen-me was browsing the local bookstore, I would find Elemental irresistible (from the perspective of the cover, I mean). I hope other teen boys will too.

It’s nice knowing that nowadays there’s much less of a design gulf between movie posters and book covers. What kind of covers did you grow up around, and what movie posters were you drawn to?

These two book covers are pretty representative of what book covers looked like in 1980s England. There’s something decidedly young about these covers, which reflects the fact that they were to be kept separate from adult literature. Edgy is most definitely not a part of these covers’ make up, which was problematic when you consider that at the same time I was seeing movie posters like Batman and Empire of the Sun. In the latter, the juxtaposition of the small boy holding a toy plane while a real plane crashes from the sky is a really powerful image. It seemed a shame to me that book covers couldn’t shoot for the same level of complexity – after all, we know very well that teens would pick up on it! (Random aside: Christian Bale went to my school, and was only allowed six weeks away to shoot this movie.)

I have always been a huge Hitchcock fan, and this poster is genius, in my opinion. Actually, the original Catch 22 book cover dates from around this time, and is also really striking.

I brought my book with me to work one day and my coworker stopped in to talk to me and saw it sitting on my desk. His exact words: “Ooooh. This looks interesting.” It’s this kind of reaction that I can only imagine any author would want. What draws me to Elemental‘s jacket is that title, front and center with that white-hot ball of energy behind it. It just makes you wonder, “What does that mean?” What’s your favorite part of the cover?

Actually, while I love both of the elements (oh man, there I go again!) that you mentioned, my favorite part is the way the stormy ocean is twisted as though the whole world is being manipulated and contorted. It has a freaky circus-mirror feel to it that I find really compelling.

Has this cover set the precedence for branding its following novels, since Elemental is the first in a trilogy? Because if so man I can’t wait to have all of those side by side!

I’m not sure how much I’m allowed to give away here, and because of that, I’m going to give away everything. Yes, it IS setting the precedent for branding, and I’ve already seen an early draft of the cover for book 2. It’s freaking amazing, and is going to elicit some VERY strong responses from readers, I think. I can’t really tell you much about it, other than to say it’s based around one of the elements, and features the setting of book 2. Tony has outdone himself yet again.

Excuse me for my lack of maturity/professionalism/ability to use normal words, but: *insert well-chosen joyful expletive* I’m even more excited to finish the book and see the next cover!

Thanks so much for stopping by the blog, Antony. I’m definitely looking forward to rolling out the red carpet for book 2!

Edit: The cover art is available on Tony Sahara’s website — get thee to wallpapering, folks!

I follow the lovely Regina Roff on Twitter, a talented designer and illustrator who also happens to be a fun person to follow. She’s also getting married this coming weekend (2 days!), and she posted a photo of her wedding shower greeting card, which I promptly retweeted: Oh who am I kidding, it is the best … Continue reading »

I love finding parents for YA cover babies. It’s like the fun version of genealogy, y’all! Except without trying to figure out which people were the crazy aunts and uncles. For example, if Haruki Murakami’s 1Q84 & Carrie Harris’ Bad Taste in Boys had a cryonically frozen teenage daughter, she’d look just like this!

If you’re a regular reader of this here li’l blog, you’ve probably noticed I’ve been absent as of late. Between coming back from Haiti, the holidays, and y’know, life in general, it’s been a bit busy. For example, this is where I am right now: (That’s Japan.) Just wanted to let you know I haven’t … Continue reading »

Here’s something fun I never thought I’d be able to ask about YA cover art: What’s black and white and red all over? (And looks like a Rorschach test?) I’ve had my eyes on this particular cover ever since Thea from The Book Smugglers posted it as on her radar. It’d be easy for me … Continue reading »

I think this particular interview calls for a drumroll, friends. After some cover fawning and a lovely interview with author Corey Whaley, it’s now my absolute pleasure to welcome to the blog Michael McCartney, the designer responsible for both covers for Where Things Come Back. TCG: Take us back to the drawing board — in … Continue reading »

Yesterday’s post featured the beautiful illustrated hardcover and paperback artwork for Corey Whaley’s Where Things Come Back. Today, Corey was kind enough to stop by TCG for an interview! Welcome, Corey! TCG: I think there’s some sort of homing device that’s been implanted in my brain that immediately draws me to illustrated covers. WTCB’s hardcover … Continue reading »

There are people who can pick out a prominent city skyline because that’s their hometown or their favorite place in the world. City skylines like Paris, Tokyo, Chicago, New York and San Francisco. We recognize Mickey’s silhouette because of his bubbly mouse ears, or Michael Jordan because of his dunk. And then there are people … Continue reading »

I started to write my thoughts about the following sequence of images…but figured I’d just let the images tell the story. And voila:

It really is rare that I discover YA cover art on my own nowadays. Often it’s through someone tweeting “omg OMG COVER REVEAL LOOKZ” or Goodreads or someone simply emailing me a link. It’s also safe to say that the former methods of cover-share normally result in me pointing at my mouth and making gagging … Continue reading »

There are times when I’ve been to a gallery or art museum and I’ll stare at a piece of artwork that clears my head of all assumption. I’m just standing there, slack-jawed, leaning ever-so-slightly in to the point where I stumble just a little. I’m not just looking. I’m gawking. Whether it’s an overwhelming feeling … Continue reading »

Oh, publishers. Oh, film industry. You and your incessant need to market the mess out of something I love, leaving me filled with dread that this film will inevitably be merchandised into an oblivion. I leave the country for 10 measly days, road trip a couple more and this is what I come back to? … Continue reading »

I’m going on somewhat of a hiatus from blogging until December. But I thought I’d write a quick post featuring the striking cover for R.J. Palacio’s upcoming novel, Wonder. Many, many thanks to Erin for sending it to me. Internet is spotty and slow where I am. I’d write more, but I don’t even know if this … Continue reading »

It was only two weeks ago that I posted a fangirly glowing review of August’s cover art, chock-full of nothing but sparkly adjectives positive things to say about that intriguing upside-down cover. So you can only imagine my surprise when I woke up to a comment on that very post from the illustrator himself, Guy … Continue reading »

Riddle me this, Batman. What do you get when you mix talented photography, makeup artists, costume/set designers, and really weird direction? Ta-da. I have tried multiple times over the past ten minutes to come up with some coherent and non-rambly sentence that could adequately express my sincere confusion in regards to this cover. I keep … Continue reading »

Let’s just be honest here. When I saw the new facelift for The Rivals, I immediately did a double take. I wasn’t particularly sad that the Doberman cover had been replaced with, erm, a cute guy, but I was a bit thrown off. Where had my beloved branding gone, which had been set up nicely … Continue reading »

Growing up, I was a big fan of the X-Files. I read anything by Bruce Coville (Aliens Ate My Homework, anyone?) and checked out as many books about UFOs from the library as I possibly could. And I was used to alien book covers that looked like this: It’s almost so bad it’s good, right? … Continue reading »

You people are making this way too easy.

When this cover art first popped up in my inbox, my initial reaction was (verbatim): “What. WHAT IS HAPPENING.” This was aside from laughing, of course.

I don’t know about you, but when I think about relaxing in a tree (or falling asleep romantically in my boyfriend’s arms in a tree, for that matter), images like this one do not come to mind.

I also had many other reactions:

1. That looks incredibly awkward.
2. When she wakes up (if she doesn’t fall to her death), she’s going to have the world’s biggest mother of a backache.
3. Can you imagine directing that photo? “Do you feel uncomfortable yet? I need you to feel more uncomfortable. If you’re not uncomfortable then the picture isn’t going to turn out right.”
4. This cover feels like something Zooey Deschanel would have created à la one of her quirky characters à la one of her quirky movies.
5. SOMEONE PLEASE GET THAT GIRL A REAL PAIR OF PANTS.

Chronicle Books, you win The Most Awkward Cover Art award, hands down, no competition. And what’s more, you also win The Book I Most Want to Read in January 2012 award because this is what your innards are about:

GIRL MEETS BOY, a collection of “he said/she said” short stories examines the power of perception, enlisting writing duos to tell the same story from two gender opposite points of view.  Differences are clear in each controversial tale, but so are similarities, revealing the historic chasm might just be possible to bridge.

This anthology is not for the faint of heart.  Their hands free, each author — most YA stars in their own right — wrote candid, sometimes shocking accounts of love, longing, stereotypes and the hope for clarity common in the young adult realm.  These stories will have teens talking — about the book and about challenges of their own. (from Jill Corcoran Books)

A cover that makes me feel the need to blink several times in disbelief and yet excited to read the book? I feel like that deserves some kind of award, too.