stories by their covers |
It’s no secret that a lot of covers, particularly in YA lit, are heavily photography-driven. I’m not necessarily opposed to photography because I’m a fan of the medium to begin with. But let’s just be honest here, a bad photo is a bad photo. Sometimes you’ll find photography-based covers that don’t even resemble their MC, or feature a character in some awkward pose, or perhaps the cover art looks like a stock photo from 1992 (with a title’s typeface from the same year, to boot).
Every now and then, I’ll come across a cover (most of the time it’s photography-based) that makes me question whether it has anything to do with its story. Or, perhaps the cover just confuses me altogether. Take Ripple, for example:
Okay, yes, I get the title Ripple. I get the water, sure. It’s probably some sort of paranormal story with the amount of light to dark ratio. And you can bet my bottom dollar there is some kissing involved.
But other than that? I have no idea. In cases like these, I like to make up stories based on cover art. Therefore, here’s my own summary: Boy meets Girl at wedding reception neither Boy nor Girl wanted to go to in the first place. It’s hot as crap outside so Boy rolls up his sleeves. Boy convinces Girl to ditch wedding reception and play hide-and-seek near some creepy glowing water. Boy finds girl hiding behind tree. Boy and Girl stare at each other and fall in love. The end.
It’s a fun little game, really.
So my fun little game morphed into something else this week, as I was browsing images on Flickr late one evening. I came across the lovely Lauren Marek’s photography and simply couldn’t stop clicking on photo after photo after photo. Then I came across one particular photo that I couldn’t help but think: wow, this would be perfect for a contemporary YA cover.
So I made one.
So Alexis Jordan’s The Boy with the Blue Eyes has a pretty self-explanatory title and photo. But what is it about, you ask? I’ll gladly explain in my completely made up and ridiculously short summary!
Sam Overton is no ordinary teenage boy. Because he loves to knit hats. This particular hobby makes him extraordinary, especially when the cool knit hats match his eyes.
It’s FUN, isn’t it? I’ll definitely be coming up with more of these faketastic YA covers, but in the meantime, what do you think this story’s about? What is The Boy’s story?
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