Rainbow Cakes on Book Covers

June 20, 2022 |

It’s been a minute, hasn’t it? I’ve had on my to-write list for a while a few things, one of which is a post reflecting on the fact this blog had its 14th birthday in April and how much has changed in both my life and in Kimberly’s lives since. I’ll get to it, but as a means of wading back into the world of book blogging for fun, how about a trend that is delicious and timely? I’m talking about rainbow cakes on book covers.

Find below a few book covers, all capital-R romance titles, featuring a delicious rainbow cake on the cover. I’ve done my best to find the designer information, and I’ve included the Amazon description for included titles so you can build yourself the tastiest reading list imaginable. Interestingly, all three books are out this year. I hope we’ll see more of this design incorporated into more books, too–it’s a perfect nod to queerness and sweetness, all at once.

Are there others that I’ve missed? Tell me about those delightful queer cakes in the comments below.

Queerly Beloved by Susie Dumond. Cover design by Sarah Horgan.

Amy, a semicloseted queer baker and bartender in mid-2010s Oklahoma, has spent a lifetime putting other people’s needs before her own. Until, that is, she’s fired from her job at a Christian bakery and turns her one-off gig subbing in for a bridesmaid into a full-time business, thanks to her baking talents, crafting skills, and years watching rom-coms and Say Yes to the Dress. Between her new gig and meeting Charley, the attractive engineer who’s just moved to Tulsa, suddenly Amy’s found something—and someone—she actually wants.

Her tight-knit group of chosen family is thrilled that Amy is becoming her authentic self. But when her deep desire to please kicks into overdrive, Amy’s precarious balancing act strains her relationships to the breaking point, and she must decide what it looks like to be true to herself—and if she has the courage to try.

Paris Daillencourt Is About to Crumble by Alexis Hall (10/18/22). Cover design by Elizabeth Turner Stokes.

Paris Daillencourt is a recipe for disaster. Despite his passion for baking, his cat, and his classics degree, constant self-doubt and second-guessing have left him a curdled, directionless mess. So when his roommate enters him in Bake Expectations, the nation’s favourite baking show, Paris is sure he’ll be the first one sent home.

But not only does he win week one’s challenge—he meets fellow contestant Tariq Hassan. Sure, he’s the competition, but he’s also cute and kind, with more confidence than Paris could ever hope to have. Still, neither his growing romance with Tariq nor his own impressive bakes can keep Paris’s fear of failure from spoiling his happiness. And when the show’s vicious fanbase confirms his worst anxieties, Paris’s confidence is torn apart quicker than tear-and-share bread.

But if Paris can find the strength to face his past, his future, and the chorus of hecklers that live in his brain, he’ll realize it’s the sweet things in life that he really deserves.

D’Vaughn and Kris Plan a Wedding by Chencia C. Higgins.

D’Vaughn and Kris have six weeks to plan their dream wedding.

Their whole relationship is fake.

Instant I Do could be Kris Zavala’s big break. She’s right on the cusp of really making it as an influencer, so a stint on reality TV is the perfect chance to elevate her brand. And $100,000 wouldn’t hurt, either.

D’Vaughn Miller is just trying to break out of her shell. She’s sort of neglected to come out to her mom for years, so a big splashy fake wedding is just the excuse she needs.

All they have to do is convince their friends and family they’re getting married in six weeks. If anyone guesses they’re not for real, they’re out. Selling their chemistry on camera is surprisingly easy, and it’s still there when no one else is watching, which is an unexpected bonus. Winning this competition is going to be a piece of wedding cake.

But each week of the competition brings new challenges, and soon the prize money’s not the only thing at stake. A reality show isn’t the best place to create a solid foundation, and their fake wedding might just derail their relationship before it even starts.

Hardcover to Paperback Makeovers: 7 YA Cover Changes to Consider

January 10, 2022 |

I love looking at the changes in cover designs between a hardcover YA book and its paperback edition. What compelled the publisher to make a change? Who does the book seek to reach now? I love to think about whether the book is now angled more (or less!) toward a teen readership. In some cases, the change is a real upgrade, while in others, it’s not. In yet other cases, the change in design leaves a big ole question mark.

For all that’s said about not judging a book by its cover, it’s actually a pretty powerful skill to have. You’re looking at so many elements to convey what a story is about, who it’s written for, and what books it might be similar to in order to have it reach potential readers. It’s art, after all, and considering the power of art to depict a story is not being superficial.

Authors have little to no say in their cover art, which makes the entire process more complex. How the story is marketed, its first impression to readers in stores and online, is pretty much out of their hands. And given how more and more marketing of books is online and less in-store, it’s no surprise design has taken into consideration how a cover will look when the size of a thumbnail.

Interestingly, there have been more cover redesigns in the last few months than in recent memory, and it’s hard not to wonder if slower mid-list sales of YA books because of the pandemic are causing panic for publishers, leading to trying to give a book a facelift in hopes of reaching audiences who may have literally missed it amidst a global upheaval.

Find below seven YA books that are getting new designs in paperback. Original hardcover designs are on the left, while the new paperback editions are on the right. I’d love to know which you prefer and why.

Descriptions of the books come from Amazon. Note that I have not indicated the cover designers or artists on any of these covers, as I’m not attempting to critique their work; often, they don’t have the final say, meaning that some of the choices I may highlight could have been out of their hands entirely.

New YA Paperback Book Cover Redesigns for Early 2022

A Taste for Love by Jennifer Yen

This cover redesign is one of my favorites because as much as I’m not really a fan of illustrated covers — they all sort of blend together for me — the change for A Taste for Love is far more accurate to what the book is about. The hardcover made me think about this being a cute dating-themed rom-com, but that’s not really the crux of the book. That’s there, but it’s a book about a teen baking contest, and the inevitable couple is in competition with one another. None of that is really present in the hardcover; it’s more apparent in the paperback, even though it, too, only conveys so much.

One of the things that I don’t like about the cover change, though, is that while we know the main characters are Asian, the use of a photo on the original cover featuring two Asian teens offers a clearer face for representation. There are so few Asian cover models, and that doesn’t translate as easily or neatly onto this paperback.

The font choice isn’t the same, but they are quite similar on both editions of the book. I love the use of multiple colors on the hardback, though the spacing between the title and the models left space that was filled with a tag line: “Can these star bakers win each other’s hearts.” That, I suppose, gets to the idea of a bake off, but it doesn’t connect with the image itself. The paperback ditches the tag line, and instead, fills the background space with an ombre color palate, along with images associated with baking.

I like both of these designs for different reasons, but I think the paperback gets the book a little better and sells it to readers in a more accurate way. The paperback for A Taste for Love hits shelves January 11.

Description:

To her friends, high school senior Liza Yang is nearly perfect. Smart, kind, and pretty, she dreams big and never shies away from a challenge. But to her mom, Liza is anything but. Compared to her older sister Jeannie, Liza is stubborn, rebellious, and worst of all, determined to push back against all of Mrs. Yang’s traditional values, especially when it comes to dating.

The one thing mother and daughter do agree on is their love of baking. Mrs. Yang is the owner of Houston’s popular Yin & Yang Bakery. With college just around the corner, Liza agrees to help out at the bakery’s annual junior competition to prove to her mom that she’s more than her rebellious tendencies once and for all. But when Liza arrives on the first day of the bake-off, she realizes there’s a catch: all of the contestants are young Asian American men her mother has handpicked for Liza to date.

The bachelorette situation Liza has found herself in is made even worse when she happens to be grudgingly attracted to one of the contestants:the stoic, impenetrable, annoyingly hot James Wong. As she battles against her feelings for James, and for her mother’s approval, Liza begins to realize there’s no tried and true recipe for love.

As Far As You’ll Take Me by Phil Stamper

Sometimes in looking at cover redesigns, your thoughts change. Initially, I was really confused by the change for As Far As You’ll Take Me, as the cover seemed to nail the idea of starting over, of having that fresh start, of being able to lean fully into who you are as a person. The character has an expression of hope, paired with a stance that seems like he’s eager to move onward.

But the paperback captures something that the hardcover doesn’t: the loneliness of starting over and the truth of what happens inside when everything on the outside might tell a different story. This is the crux of the book itself, and the singular boy in blue amid a crowd of similarly-colored characters on the paperback just gets that feeling.

What doesn’t work for me on the paperback, though, is the shoving of a blurb in an awkward space and in such a way that it actually crowds out the character at the center. The shadow is covered by the blurb-giver’s name, as are some of the words in the blurb itself. Maybe it’s a way of compensating for the light source being inconsistent? If you look, you’ll see the shadow falls behind the boy at the center, but other shadows of the characters around him fall in all different directions. If the blurb were gone, that might be more obvious, but also, if the blurb were gone, the feeling of this cover would be much stronger.

The font choices aren’t especially worth commenting on, as both are ones that have been used numerous times on YA book covers. The paperback font fits the feel, and the same goes for the choice on the hardcover. In both, the author’s name gets a little lost.

Both of these are decent covers, though I lean a little toward the paperback — with the caveat that the blurb placement is distracting and does a disservice to the art itself (yes, even with the shadow inconsistency).

As Far As You’ll Take Me hits shelves in paperback on March 29.

Description:

Marty arrives in London with nothing but his oboe and some savings from his summer job, but he’s excited to start his new life–where he’s no longer the closeted, shy kid who slips under the radar and is free to explore his sexuality without his parents’ disapproval.

From the outside, Marty’s life looks like a perfect fantasy: in the span of a few weeks, he’s made new friends, he’s getting closer with his first ever boyfriend, and he’s even traveling around Europe. But Marty knows he can’t keep up the facade. He hasn’t spoken to his parents since he arrived, he’s tearing through his meager savings, his homesickness and anxiety are getting worse and worse, and he hasn’t even come close to landing the job of his dreams. Will Marty be able to find a place that feels like home?

Blood Moon by Lucy Cuthew

I could not be sadder that Lucy Cuthew’s Blood Moon is getting a paperback makeover. The original cover is absolutely riveting and boundary pushing — this is a book about menstruation, and the design, which is a creek of menstrual blood and a hand gently opening the representation of a vagina, is incredible (as is that small string of a tampon). It’s a bold cover, too, with use of only white, red, and black, and that tiny trail of blue. The title placement is awesome, and even though I’m not a fan of a blurb, the placement doesn’t distract from the brilliant image on the cover.

The paperback is….really inoffensive. And that’s not necessarily a compliment so much as being surprised how toned down it is. The title bond is fine, but the multiple red hues of the moons don’t have the same sharpness that the red on the hardcover does. The shadow girls walking together hand-in-hand has real Moxie vibes, which isn’t necessarily bad but is also not really special.

And the thing that annoys me most on the paperback? The hashtag t-shirts that make no sense. Why are they broken up? A hashtag is a single line, but one meant to be separated out like they are here: #Its Only Blood and #No Shame. Ditch the hash tags and keep the slogans if that’s essential. The paperback ditches the blurb but adds a tagline, which reads “An unexpected period sent Frankie’s universe spinning, and then she took a stand.”

I get what the goal is of the paperback, but it’s a real downer after the hardcover and more, the hashtag thing is going to read as adults trying too hard to any teen.

This one’s all about the hardcover for me, but you can grab the paperback of Blood Moon on March 15.

Description:

After school one day, Frankie, a lover of physics and astronomy, has her first sexual experience with quiet and gorgeous Benjamin—and gets her period. It’s only blood, they agree. But soon a gruesome meme goes viral, turning an intimate, affectionate afternoon into something sordid, mortifying, and damaging. In the time it takes to swipe a screen, Frankie’s universe implodes. Who can she trust? Not Harriet, her suddenly cruel best friend, and certainly not Benjamin, the only one who knows about the incident. As the online shaming takes on a horrifying life of its own, Frankie begins to wonder: is her real life over?

Instructions for Dancing by Nicola Yoon

Off the bat, I want to say both of these covers are gorgeous and do a great job capturing the feel of the book. That said, I think my preference for the hardcover comes only because it’s a preference, not because of any design choices that don’t make sense or don’t feel like they offer insight into the book itself.

Both the hardcover and paperback have a gorgeous Black girl with tremendous hair, as well as a beautiful Black boy with stunning hair, and it’s clear on both dancing and love are at the heart of the story. The hardcover makes their facial expressions harder to read, but the shape of their bodies tells a story. The paperback turns closer to their facial expressions, which are serious, thoughtful, and also portray that they are digging each other.

The font choice for the book title on the hardcover is a little sweeter and more dance-y for me, where the one on the paperback feels understated.It doesn’t have the same flair or feel, and it doesn’t make use of script as part of the couple’s image (which I love on the hardcover). The color of the hardcover pops more, as does the use of pink flowers in the background. Both covers make use of a blurb, but in both cases, it’s pretty understated. Yoon’s name is much larger, as it should be, since she’s a well-established and beloved author.

The covers are both good, but I prefer the original. It just feels a lot swoonier than the paperback, which reads more intense (neither read is incorrect!). The paperback for Instructions for Dancing hits shelves May 3.

Description:

Evie Thomas doesn’t believe in love anymore. Especially after the strangest thing occurs one otherwise ordinary afternoon: She witnesses a couple kiss and is overcome with a vision of how their romance began . . . and how it will end. After all, even the greatest love stories end with a broken heart, eventually.

As Evie tries to understand why this is happening, she finds herself at La Brea Dance Studio, learning to waltz, fox-trot, and tango with a boy named X. X is everything that Evie is not: adventurous, passionate, daring. His philosophy is to say yes to everything–including entering a ballroom dance competition with a girl he’s only just met.

Falling for X is definitely not what Evie had in mind. If her visions of heartbreak have taught her anything, it’s that no one escapes love unscathed. But as she and X dance around and toward each other, Evie is forced to question all she thought she knew about life and love. In the end, is love worth the risk?

The Electric Kingdom by David Arnold

Aren’t both of these covers just stunning? They offer something really compelling visually, begging the reader to pause and take it all in. There’s a lot of layering and a thoughtful use of color on both. The hardcover gives us a disappearance of color through the hole at the center, while the paperback spotlights color in its use of font, as well as the image inside the helmet’s visual area. It’s clever, the way we go from color outside to color inside between the two.

It’s also clever that the girl with her blonde hair, red backpack, and black dog are on both covers.

But that paperback cover is a stunner. It definitely reads more adult to me than the hardcover does, likely because it’s reminiscent of a couple of other space-set books (The Martian and In The Quick come to mind). Though I’m a little distracted by the lack of consistency for the title font size — there’s no reason for the words Electric and Kingdom to be so disparate in size), it’s a much better font that the original, which does the same thing with size and also adds a strange element with the “o” in Kingdom, not seen in the O in Arnold’s name. The font size difference on the hardcover makes sense with the space needs but less so on the paperback.

That said, the color and composition of the paperback packs a punch. I wasn’t especially interested in the book with the original cover, but the new one makes me want to pick it up as soon as I can. I may need to wait, given it’s a book about a pandemic.

You can grab the paperback of The Electric Kingdom on February 1.

Description:

When a deadly Fly Flu sweeps the globe, it leaves a shell of the world that once was. Among the survivors are eighteen-year-old Nico and her dog, on a voyage devised by Nico’s father to find a mythical portal; a young artist named Kit, raised in an old abandoned cinema; and the enigmatic Deliverer, who lives Life after Life in an attempt to put the world back together. As swarms of infected Flies roam the earth, these few survivors navigate the woods of post-apocalyptic New England, meeting others along the way, each on their own quest to find life and love in a world gone dark. The Electric Kingdom is a sweeping exploration of art, storytelling, eternal life, and above all, a testament to the notion that even in an exterminated world, one person might find beauty in another.

The Initial Insult by Mindy McGinnis

I’m not going to spend too long with this cover redesign, other than to say it’s not great. I don’t understand the Cruella Deville look going on with the paperback, nor its use of electric, disjointed color tones. This is a loose retelling of a number of Edgar Allan Poe’s short stories, meaning that the book is dark, creepy, suspenseful, and a little weird. The hardcover nails this, while also offering a design that is timeless: it’s font-driven, and we know the shadow animal on the cover has something to do with the story (it does — it represents a zoo). The paperback makes its nod to Poe with the bricks in the background, but those are a little challenging to figure out if you don’t read the description or immediately know this is a Poe-inspired book. It definitely doesn’t read well on screens.

Both covers have a blurb, but in the tradition of newer YA paperback styles, the blurb on the new cover is tucked beneath the cover itself on a separate page. The green on it mirrors the green on the cover, whereas the blurb is integrated on the cover itself in the original.

I don’t like the paperback at all and think it’s a tremendous turnoff. It might be the thing that captures some readers, especially intrigued by the weird image of the person on it and its disjointed nature, but for me, that disjointedness makes me want to pass. The hardcover made me eager to see how they would treat the book’s sequel. The paperback’s design aesthetic is what carried over into the upcoming sequel, though.

You can pick up the paperback of The Initial Insult now. It came out January 4.

Description:

Tress Montor’s family used to mean something—until she didn’t have a family anymore. When her parents disappeared seven years ago while driving her best friend home, Tress lost everything. The entire town shuns her now that she lives with her drunken, one-eyed grandfather at what locals refer to as the “White Trash Zoo.”

Felicity Turnado has it all: looks, money, and a secret. One misstep could send her tumbling from the top of the social ladder, and she’s worked hard to make everyone forget that she was with the Montors the night they disappeared. Felicity has buried what she knows so deeply that she can’t even remember what it is . . . only that she can’t look at Tress without feeling shame and guilt.

But Tress has a plan. A Halloween costume party at an abandoned house provides the ideal situation for Tress to pry the truth from Felicity—brick by brick—as she slowly seals her former best friend into a coal chute. Tress will have her answers—or settle for revenge.

Attucks! / Unbeatable by Phillip Hoose

I almost never get to showcase YA nonfiction in cover redesigns because too often, how a nonfiction title is marketed or sold isn’t given the same level of attention as a paperback. But in the case of Phillip Hoose’s last nonfiction title, this cover redesign has a lot of incredible thought behind it, while offering a lot of the same exact elements as the original cover — peep the author name color on the hardcover and how it becomes the background for the paperback.

What’s most striking is what’s most obvious and likely what inspired the decision to make the change: the book’s title. Attucks! and Unbeatable could not be any different, despite the fact they represent the same thing: the 1955 championship basketball team, the Crispus Attucks tigers, who went from their Indianapolis high school court to win a state championship basketball game during this highly racially segregated time. The team was unbeatable, marking the first time an all-Black team won a racially-open US basketball championship.

While Attucks! makes sense in the context of the book as a title, one is going to immediately make sense to anyone browsing. The original title, though, is a little more challenging. The subtitle change isn’t as huge a change, but it, too, is worth noting: we get the explanation of the book title with Attucks!, the subtitle for Unbeatable offers what’s inside the book (the how of the story).

Though the coach isn’t in the image on the paperback, the team member raising his arm up with the index finger pointing makes the exact same shape for the image as the original. Again, a really clever way to keep the original while giving it a stronger sense of teen appeal.

The paperback makeover is excellent, building from the strongest aspects of the original hardcover. The title change, while always challenging for marketing, cataloging, and reader advisory purposes, is a smart one, as it will make this book more clearly “for” the readers its intended to reach.

You can grab Unbeatable on February 22.

Description:

By winning the state high school basketball championship in 1955, ten teens from an Indianapolis school meant to be the centerpiece of racially segregated education in the state shattered the myth of their inferiority. Their brilliant coach had fashioned an unbeatable team from a group of boys born in the South and raised in poverty. Anchored by the astonishing Oscar Robertson, a future college and NBA star, the Crispus Attucks Tigers went down in history as the first state champions from Indianapolis and the first all-black team in U.S. history to win a racially open championship tournament―an integration they had forced with their on-court prowess.

From native Hoosier and award-winning author Phillip Hoose comes this true story of a team up against impossible odds, making a difference when it mattered most.

Scene Inside a Scene YA Covers

August 16, 2021 |

Cover design never fails to fascinate me. We really and truly DO judge books based on their covers, and I don’t think this is a bad thing at all. It’s a marketing tool, a way to bring readers to a book when there are hundreds from which to choose. In YA, this holds especially true, and book covers can be a useful means of reader advisory as well. Covers that have the same “feel” can make great read alikes.

A trend I’ve seen popping up is one I really like and forces me to pause to take it in. It’s the scene within a scene. You have what looks like one image when you take it in as a whole, but as you look deeper, you find an additional scene within it. It’s compelling and offers a way to pack in a lot more information about the book’s contents. It’s a bit like the YA montage cover, but instead of playing outward, it plays itself inward.

I’ve pulled together some great examples of the scene inside a scene YA cover design. Designer credits are included where found, and descriptions all come from Goodreads. Know of other recent covers that fit the trend? I’d love to hear about them!

Amelia Unabridged by Ashley Schumacher

Cover design by Kerri Resnick, Illustration by Beatriz Naranjalidad

I’m a big fan of the bookstore scene within the girl we see in the foreground. The juxtaposition of the larger girl on the outside’s expression with what is (I assume) her expression on the interior scene is clever.

Eighteen-year-old Amelia Griffin is obsessed with the famous Orman Chronicles, written by the young and reclusive prodigy N. E. Endsley. They’re the books that brought her and her best friend Jenna together after Amelia’s father left and her family imploded. So when Amelia and Jenna get the opportunity to attend a book festival with Endsley in attendance, Amelia is ecstatic. It’s the perfect way to start off their last summer before college.

In a heartbeat, everything goes horribly wrong. When Jenna gets a chance to meet the author and Amelia doesn’t, the two have a blowout fight like they’ve never experienced. And before Amelia has a chance to mend things, Jenna is killed in a freak car accident. Grief-stricken, and without her best friend to guide her, Amelia questions everything she had planned for the future.

When a mysterious, rare edition of the Orman Chronicles arrives, Amelia is convinced that it somehow came from Jenna. Tracking the book to an obscure but enchanting bookstore in Michigan, Amelia is shocked to find herself face-to-face with the enigmatic and handsome N. E. Endsley himself, the reason for Amelia’s and Jenna’s fight and perhaps the clue to what Jenna wanted to tell her all along.

Cold The Night, Fast the Wolves by Meg Long (January)

Cover design by Olga Grlic, illustration by Luisa Preissler

This one is a scene within a scene within a scene! Check out the wolf frame, with the girl’s face inside, then continue looking inward for a wolf and person running in a snowy wood. The waves of the wolf’s main on the outer image mirrors the waves in the girl’s hair, as well as the movement of the two running.

A captivating debut about survival, found family, and the bond between a girl and a wolf that delivers a fresh twist on classic survival stories and frontier myths.

After angering a local gangster, seventeen-year-old Sena Korhosen must flee with his prize fighting wolf, Iska, in tow. A team of scientists offer to pay her way off her frozen planet on one condition: she gets them to the finish line of the planet’s infamous sled race. Though Sena always swore she’d never race after it claimed both her mothers’ lives, it’s now her only option. But the tundra is a treacherous place, and as the race unfolds and their lives are threatened at every turn, Sena starts to question her own abilities. She must discover whether she’s strong enough to survive the wild – whether she and Iska together are strong enough to get them all out alive.

The Dead and the Dark by Courtney Gould

Cover designed by Kerri Resnick, illustrated by Peter Strain

Aside from the greater image of two girls made of smoke being chilling in and of itself, the solitary cabin amid the woods inside the image only adds to the atmosphere. The color palette here enhances the entire design.

The Dark has been waiting for far too long, and it won’t stay hidden any longer.

Something is wrong in Snakebite, Oregon. Teenagers are disappearing, some turning up dead, the weather isn’t normal, and all fingers seem to point to TV’s most popular ghost hunters who have just returned to town. Logan Ortiz-Woodley, daughter of TV’s ParaSpectors, has never been to Snakebite before, but the moment she and her dads arrive, she starts to get the feeling that there’s more secrets buried here than they originally let on.

Ashley Barton’s boyfriend was the first teen to go missing, and she’s felt his presence ever since. But now that the Ortiz-Woodleys are in town, his ghost is following her and the only person Ashley can trust is the mysterious Logan. When Ashley and Logan team up to figure out who—or what—is haunting Snakebite, their investigation reveals truths about the town, their families, and themselves that neither of them are ready for. As the danger intensifies, they realize that their growing feelings for each other could be a light in the darkness.

Each of Us a Desert by Mark Oshiro (paperback)

I can’t find the artist or designer responsible for the new paperback edition of Oshiro’s sophomore YA book and I wish I could. I really love the look going on here, and I think the way the original hardcover was woven into the new look is savvy. This design, even with its two people pictured on the cover, manages to feel more isolating than the original.

Xochital is destined to wander the desert alone, speaking her troubled village’s stories into its arid winds. Her only companions are the blessed stars above and enimagic lines of poetry magically strewn across dusty dunes.

Her one desire: to share her heart with a kindred spirit.

One night, Xo’s wish is granted—in the form of Emilia, the cold and beautiful daughter of the town’s murderous mayor. But when the two set out on a magical journey across the desert, they find their hearts could be a match… if only they can survive the nightmare-like terrors that arise when the sun goes down.

Full Flight by Ashley Schumacher (February)

Design by Kerri Resnick, illustration by Beatriz Naranjalidad (starting to look familiar?)

The marching band inside the girl in its super saturated color is so much fun. I’m also drawn in by the couple being mirrored in the shirt of the guy on the right — is it the same couple? One quirk, though: where is his other leg? The physical impossibility here is boggling my mind a bit. Her knee couldn’t be bent the way it is if his other leg is bent and parallel to the one we see.

Everyone else in the tiny town of Enfield, Texas calls fall football season, but for the forty-three members of the Fighting Enfield Marching Band, it’s contest season. And for new saxophonist Anna James, it’s her first chance to prove herself as the great musician she’s trying hard to be.

When she’s assigned a duet with mellophone player Weston Ryan, the boy her small-minded town thinks of as nothing but trouble, she’s equal parts thrilled and intimidated. But as he helps her with the duet, and she sees the smile he seems to save just for her, she can’t help but feel like she’s helping him with something too.

After her strict parents find out she’s been secretly seeing him and keep them apart, together they learn what it truly means to fight for something they love. With the marching contest nearing, and the two falling hard for one another, the unthinkable happens, and Anna is left grappling for a way forward without Weston.

Flyy Girls (series) by Ashley Woodfolk

All four of the books in this series use the same design technique and bold colors. I love that we get to know each of the four Flyy Girls with what’s collaged inside their silhouette.

Lux Lawson is on a spree. Ever since her dad left, she’s been kicked out of every school that would take her, and this is her last chance: Harlem’s Augusta Savage School of the Arts. If this doesn’t work, Lux is off to military school, no questions asked. That means no more acting out, no more fights, and definitely no boyfriends. Focus on her photography, and make nice friends. That’s the deal.

Enter the Flyy Girls, three students who have it all together. The type of girls Lux needs to be friends with to stay out of trouble. And after charming her way into the group, Lux feels she’s on the right track. But every group has their secrets, including Lux. And when the past starts catching up with her, can she keep her place as a Flyy Girl?

In this searing series opener, Lux takes center stage as she figures out just how hard it can be to start over.

With simply stated text and compelling characters, Flyy Girls is a series that’s perfect for readers of any level.

The Project by Courtney Summers

Cover design by Kerri Resnick, illustration by Marie Bergeron

It’s a scene from in the book and definitely adds a thriller vibe to the cover. It’s interesting to me how Summers’s books, for the most part, feature very prominent hair on the cover model.

Lo Denham is used to being on her own. After her parents died in a tragic car accident, her sister Bea joined the elusive community called The Unity Project, leaving Lo to fend for herself. Desperate not to lose the only family she has left, Lo has spent the last six years trying to reconnect with Bea, only to be met with radio silence.

When Lo’s given the perfect opportunity to gain access to Bea’s reclusive life, she thinks they’re finally going to be reunited. But it’s difficult to find someone who doesn’t want to be found, and as Lo delves deeper into The Project and its charismatic leader, she begins to realize that there’s more at risk than just her relationship with Bea: her very life might be in danger.

As she uncovers more questions than answers at each turn, everything Lo thought she knew about herself, her sister, and the world is upended. One thing doesn’t change, though, and that’s what keeps her going: Bea needs her, and Lo will do anything to save her.

A Sitting in St James by Rita Williams-Garcia

Besides being one of my favorite books of 2021, this is also one of my favorite cover designs. It brilliantly captures the story, filling the silhouette with scenes from the book. This is a story on a plantation and the person made of nature on the foreground is one of the key figures — and in my mind, most fascinating — in the book.

This astonishing novel about the interwoven lives of those bound to a plantation in antebellum America is an epic masterwork—empathetic, brutal, and entirely human.

1860, Louisiana. After serving as mistress of Le Petit Cottage for more than six decades, Madame Sylvie Guilbert has decided, in spite of her family’s indifference, to sit for a portrait.

But there are other important stories to be told on the Guilbert plantation. Stories that span generations, from the big house to out in the fields, of routine horrors, secrets buried as deep as the family fortune, and the tangled bonds of descendants and enslaved.

Sunkissed by Kasie West

Sunglasses on YA book covers was such a thing for a long time. This design takes it a step further with the image of a cabin in the woods beside a lake, giving a nice idea of the lightness of the story and its setting. Unlike a couple of the covers above, the cabin here doesn’t feel scary.

Will the stars align?

Avery has always used music as an escape. But after her best friend betrays her, even her perfectly curated playlists can’t help her forget what happened. To make matters worse, her parents have dragged her and her social-media-obsessed sister to a remote family camp for two months of “fun.” Just when Avery is ready to give up on the summer altogether, she meets Brooks—mysterious, frustratingly charming Brooks—who just happens to be on staff—which means he’s off-limits.

What starts as a disaster turns into . . . something else. As the outside world falls away, Avery embarks on a journey of self-discovery. And when Brooks offers her the chance of a lifetime, she must figure out how far is she willing to go to find out what she wants and who she wants to be.

Time Will Tell by Barry Lyga

Designed and illustrated by Chris Koehler and Jenny Kimura

The design for Lyga’s latest book is fabulous. I love the hourglass and how we know this’ll be a twisty thriller from it. But add to that the scene of the teens looking downward toward the falling sand — which turns into a knife — and it has everything you’d need to know about the story. The book’s partially set in 1986 and I think that is reflected in the way the cover also feels like an 80s teen mystery.

Four teens have dug up the time capsule that their parents buried in 1986 and never bothered to recover. But in addition to the expected ephemera of mixtapes, Walkmans, photographs, letters, toys, and assorted junk, Elayah, Liam, Marcie, and Jorja discover something sinister: a hunting knife stained with blood and wrapped with a note. “I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to kill anyone.”

As the action dramatically alternates between the present day and 1986, the mystery unfolds and the sins of the past echo into today. The teens haven’t just unearthed a time capsule: they’ve also dug up pain and secrets that someone–maybe one of their own parents–is willing to kill for.

2021 Repeating Titles 2021 Repeating Titles 2021 Repeating Titles

January 25, 2021 |

Remember a couple of years ago there was a trend for book cover design where the title repeated itself over and over? If I were a big GIF user, I’d insert the one from Twin Peaks saying “It’s happening again.” Because in 2021, the repeating title trend carries on after a small break for 2020.

Obviously, not every 2021 book cover has yet to be shared, so chances are we may see more leaning into this trend. I’ve included adult and YA book titles that have crossed my screen — if you can think of other 2021 repeating titles, I’d love to hear about them in the comments. Descriptions come from Goodreads.

Against White Feminism by Rafia Zakaria (8/17)

Elite white women have branded feminism, promising an apolitical individual empowerment along with sexual liberation and satisfaction, LGBTQ inclusion, and racial solidarity. As Rafia Zakaria expertly argues, those promises have been proven empty and white feminists have leant on their racial privilege and sense of cultural superiority. Drawing on her own experiences as an American Muslim woman, as well as an attorney working on behalf of immigrant women, Zakaria champions a reconstruction of feminism that forges true solidarity by bringing Black and brown voices and goals to the fore.

Ranging from the savior complex of British feminist imperialists to the condescension of the white feminist–led “development industrial complex” and the conflation of sexual liberation as the “sum total of empowerment,” Zakaria presents an eye-opening indictment of how whiteness has contributed to a feminist movement that solely serves the interests of upper middle-class white women.

The Brittanys by Brittany Ackerman (6/15)

They’re not the most popular freshmen at their Florida prep school, but at least everyone knows their name(s). The Brittanys.

Brittany Rosenberg: drives her golf cart around her subdivision to meet boys.

Brittany Gottlieb: insists you can’t lose your virginity if you haven’t gotten your period. (She heard it somewhere!)

Brittany Tomassi: is from New York.

Brittany Jensen: once threw her tampon into a stranger’s swimming pool. A brash, bold, unapologetic tomboy. And the greatest person in the whole wide world.

At least as far as the fifth Brittany–our narrator–is concerned. Even within their friend group, she and Jensen are a duo: with their matching JanSport backpacks, Tiffany chokers, and Victoria’s Secret push-up bras, they are unstoppable. And now that they’re finally growing up, they’re going to do everything: dye their hair, attend no-parent parties, try pot . . . maybe even lose their virginities. 2004 is totally going to be their year!

Except Jensen’s interests may be diverging from her friends’. And within our narrator’s own family–in the lives of her exhausted mother and beloved, genius older brother–life-changing events may be taking shape. Events that only years later, looking back, she has the perspective to see.

Girlhood by Melissa Febos (3/30)

In her powerful new book, critically acclaimed author Melissa Febos examines the narratives women are told about what it means to be female and what it takes to free oneself from them.

When her body began to change at eleven years old, Febos understood immediately that her meaning to other people had changed with it. By her teens, she defined herself based on these perceptions and by the romantic relationships she threw herself into headlong. Over time, Febos increasingly questioned the stories she’d been told about herself and the habits and defenses she’d developed over years of trying to meet others’ expectations. The values she and so many other women had learned in girlhood did not prioritize their personal safety, happiness, or freedom, and she set out to reframe those values and beliefs.

Blending investigative reporting, memoir, and scholarship, Febos charts how she and others like her have reimagined relationships and made room for the anger, grief, power, and pleasure women have long been taught to deny.
Written with Febos’ characteristic precision, lyricism, and insight, Girlhood is a philosophical treatise, an anthem for women, and a searing study of the transitions into and away from girlhood, toward a chosen self.

Making Hearts by Jack Getze

Interrupting the Soria family’s Christmas Eve feast, childish teenager Emily requires the hospital emergency room for an apparent attack of appendicitis. But a blunt nurse explains the truth: Emily is giving birth. The seventeen-year-old has tricked her mind and body into believing she isn’t pregnant, when—in a rare but not unheard-of occurrence—the baby is full term and already being born.

A life-affirming, feel-good story of love, family and the special way Christmas can inspire, Making Hearts introduces a character readers will strongly care about and root for. Noelle wins the hearts of all with her loving enthusiasm for life, her wit, and by personally defeating the villain’s lowdown scheme in an astonishing climax readers will never forget.

Muted by Tami Charles (2/2)

For seventeen-year-old Denver, music is everything. Writing, performing, and her ultimate goal: escaping her very small, very white hometown.

So Denver is more than ready on the day she and her best friends Dali and Shak sing their way into the orbit of the biggest R&B star in the world, Sean “Mercury” Ellis. Merc gives them everything: parties, perks, wild nights — plus hours and hours in the recording studio. Even the painful sacrifices and the lies the girls have to tell are all worth it.

Until they’re not.

Denver begins to realize that she’s trapped in Merc’s world, struggling to hold on to her own voice. As the dream turns into a nightmare, she must make a choice: lose her big break, or get broken.

Inspired by true events, Muted is a fearless exploration of the dark side of the music industry, the business of exploitation, how a girl’s dreams can be used against her — and what it takes to fight back.

Raceless: In Search of Family, Identity, and the Truth About Where I Belong by Georgina Lawton (February 23)

Raised in sleepy English suburbia, Georgina Lawton was no stranger to homogeneity. Her parents were white; her friends were white; there was no reason for her to think she was any different. But over time her brown skin and dark, kinky hair frequently made her a target of prejudice. In Georgina’s insistently color-blind household, with no acknowledgement of her difference or access to black culture, she lacked the coordinates to make sense of who she was.

It was only after her father’s death that Georgina began to unravel the truth about her parentage—and the racial identity that she had been denied. She fled from England and the turmoil of her home-life to live in black communities around the globe—the US, the UK, Nicaragua, Cuba, the Dominican Republic, South Africa, and Morocco—and to explore her identity and what it meant to live in and navigate the world as a black woman. She spoke with psychologists, sociologists, experts in genetic testing, and other individuals whose experiences of racial identity have been fraught or questioned in the hopes of understanding how, exactly, we identify ourselves.

Raceless is an exploration of a fundamental question: what constitutes our sense of self? Drawing on her personal experiences and the stories of others, Lawton grapples with difficult questions about love, shame, grief, and prejudice, and reveals the nuanced and emotional journey of forming one’s identity.

White Magic by Elissa Washuta (4/27)

Throughout her life, Elissa Washuta has been surrounded by cheap facsimiles of Native spiritual tools and occult trends, “starter witch kits” of sage, rose quartz, and tarot cards packaged together in paper and plastic. Following a decade of abuse, addiction, PTSD, and heavy-duty drug treatment for a misdiagnosis of bipolar disorder, she felt drawn to the real spirits and powers her dispossessed and discarded ancestors knew, while she undertook necessary work to find love and meaning. In this collection of intertwined essays, she writes about land, heartbreak, and colonization, about life without the escape hatch of intoxication, and about how she became a powerful witch. She interlaces stories from her forebears with cultural artifacts from her own life—Twin Peaks, the Oregon Trail II video game, a Claymation Satan, a YouTube video of Stevie Nicks and Lindsey Buckingham—to explore questions of cultural inheritance and the particular danger, as a Native woman, of relaxing into romantic love under colonial rule.

Cover Makeovers: Fall 2020 YA Edition

July 6, 2020 |

It’s makeover season!

Although it’s still summer here in the northern hemisphere and will be until September, publishers have been putting efforts behind promoting and sharing their fall 2020 YA books. There are so many great new books, as well as great previously-published books getting their paperback editions.

Many paperbacks look similar to the hardcover, but in a softer, cheaper, and more portable form. But as happens in YA quite a bit, a number of books get a new look in their paperback form. Be it for marketing purposes, for better highlighting the mood and tone of the book, or to get it on fresh reader radars who may have missed it before.

Let’s take a look at some of the YA books getting new looks in paperback in the coming season.

As always, the original hardcover is on the left, while the paperback is on the right.

Spontaneous by Aaron Starmer

I hadn’t realized Starmer’s book wasn’t in paperback yet, since the hardcover came out in 2016. Perhaps because the book is in development for adaptation. The new paperback will hit shelves September 8.

The original hardcover really pops. The yellow background with the orange title and clever burst of the “o” in the font. It’s not super surprising to see that the John Green blurb takes up more real estate than the title and author name, and in addition, there’s a tag line which reads “a novel about growing up . . . and blowing up.” The ice cream truck is central, and the girl in the image says so much with her body language. She’s over the truck, but she’s also tough.

In paperback, the ice cream truck is gone, as is whoever was standing beside the girl. Now she’s front and center, giving off the same vibe as in the hardcover. She’s tough and she’s over it, whatever “it” might be. The bubble is a clever little detail.

Missing from the paperback is the tag line, the standout color background, and clever font design for the title. The new color is more muted, as is the title. But the Green blurb is still present, though it blends into the background a bit more than before.

Either cover is fine. I’m not sure one is better than the other, nor does one draw me in more than the other as a reader. Perhaps the new cover is a hint at news of the adaptation coming soon?

Chicken Girl by Heather Smith

Chicken Girl! It reminds me a lot of Hot Dog Girl by Jennifer Dugan, of course, though rather than being a girl in a hot dog costume, it’s a girl in a chicken suit.

The hardcover doesn’t give any indication of that and, in fact, is kind of confusing all around. Is the girl actually a chicken? Does she raise chickens? The bright pink is fun, but the contrasting bright yellow feathers, as well as the black-on-yellow font for the book title and author name is a little challenging on the eyes (especially digitally).

In paperback, it’s a different story. We know exactly what the book is about: a girl who might be wearing a chicken costume, presumably for a job. The fact we don’t see a face of the girl is clever, especially paired with the tag line, which carried over from the hardcover: “Life can be a tough egg to crack.” The light pink with pastel yellow is much easier on the eyes. I love that the chicken head looks like it has an eye roll going on.

For me, this one is easy. The paperback is way more appealing and would make it pick it up. I suspect teens would feel similarly.

The paperback hits shelves September 8.

Everlost by Neal Shusterman (series)

Given the tremendous success in the last few years in Neal Shusterman’s career, it shouldn’t be any surprise one of his older series is getting a fresh look. It’s a good one, too!

Everlost looks perfectly creepy in hardcover, but it does feel like design that’s about a decade old. In no way is it bad, but it blends into so many other book covers of the time of its publication.

The paperback, on the other hand, feels fresh and contemporary. The cover also indicates it’s part of a trilogy, which is super helpful for readers and those who work with readers. Added to the paperback, in addition to a new — but still familiar — look, is that Shusterman is a New York Times bestseller. The title of the book gets a new font, with the second “e” getting a little special touch. Perhaps most noticeable is Shusterman’s name. What was once in the corner of the book is now front and center and takes up much more real estate.

I think both covers are effective and evocative, though the new paperback might edge out the original look a bit for me, if for no reason other than how fresh it feels.

You can grab Everlost in paperback September 8. All of the books in the trilogy will be getting the redesign, which is going to look so sharp on shelves.

Tithe by Holly Black (series)

Another series getting a whole new look is Holly Black’s “Modern Faerie Tale.” The originals, picked above, are dark and reminiscent of the YA fantasy which published around the same time (2004!). Think LJ Smith and the Vampire Diaries, among others. It’s really perfect for the series, and readers who are looking for dark fairy tales know what to pick up.

But the paperback design? It’s absolutely gorgeous. The books maintain the same feel, but they’ve been updated and modernized for today’s teen readers. The images pay homage to the classic covers, while also making clear these are still modern and relevant. Holly Black’s name is much larger now, and like with the Shusterman redesign, the series title is indicated on the front cover. The font is fresher, too.

For anyone with this series on your shelves at libraries or schools: this is your sign to update.

It’s not going to be surprising that I think the paperback redesign is a total win. The originals are great, but they’re of an era. The new looks are of this era.

The redesigned series will hit shelves October 20.

The Beauty of the Moment by Tanaz Bhathena

This cover redesign seems to be a classic of “what is the story about” variety. I love the hardcover. It’s eye-catching and unique. But what is it about? I love the brown model at the center, paired with the illustrated flora and fauna, as well as the swoopy script lettering of the title. There’s a tag line, too, which in digital rendering is super challenging to read: “Why fit in when you can stand out?” It’s a beautiful cover but it tells absolutely nothing of the story.

The paperback is a big change, though the illustrated girl definitely gives the same vibe about her as the model on the hardcover. It’s more clear that romance might be central to the story here, and even clearer is that the girl might not be entirely into it. It’s interesting that the background is of a skyline, which suggests an entirely different feel than the hardcover, featuring nature.

On paperback, the font is not noteworthy except for the thing that does make it noteworthy: it’s big! And rather than the author’s name being in all lower case letters, it’s now rendered in all uppercase. Both the title and author font stand out well on the muted-rainbow background.

The tag line has disappeared, but it’s been replaced with a blurb that explains the story so much better: “A titanium-strength love story.” In no way does the original suggest love story, but the paperback? Absolutely.

And interestingly, there’s a different cover for the Canadian edition of the book, which may be the inspiration for the new design in paperback:

This cover is a sheer delight. Look at the girl! Look at the boy who is trying so hard to be smooth with her! I love the elements of this one.

Both the paperback and hardcover are beautiful, but the paperback seems more true to the story itself. If only we had the choice of the Canadian edition because it’s especially good.

You can grab the paperback July 21.

What do you think? Which covers do you prefer? I’d love to hear your thoughts!