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STACKED

books

  • STACKED
  • About Us
  • Categories
    • Audiobooks
    • Book Lists
      • Debut YA Novels
      • Get Genrefied
      • On The Radar
    • Cover Designs
      • Cover Doubles
      • Cover Redesigns
      • Cover Trends
    • Feminism
      • Feminism For The Real World Anthology
      • Size Acceptance
    • In The Library
      • Challenges & Censorship
      • Collection Development
      • Discussion and Resource Guides
      • Readers Advisory
    • Professional Development
      • Book Awards
      • Conferences
    • The Publishing World
      • Data & Stats
    • Reading Life and Habits
    • Romance
    • Young Adult
  • Reviews + Features
    • About The Girls Series
    • Author Interviews
    • Contemporary YA Series
      • Contemporary Week 2012
      • Contemporary Week 2013
      • Contemporary Week 2014
    • Guest Posts
    • Link Round-Ups
      • Book Riot
    • Readers Advisory Week
    • Reviews
      • Adult
      • Audiobooks
      • Graphic Novels
      • Non-Fiction
      • Picture Books
      • YA Fiction
    • So You Want to Read YA Series
  • Review Policy

Setting Many Scenes: YA Montage Book Covers

July 5, 2021 |

It was Tirzah, covering the Book Riot YA newsletter for me during my leave, who finally put to words the YA book cover trend I kept seeing over and over. But more than putting words to the trend, her roundup of montages on YA book covers made me understand precisely why these covers seem to blend together for me. Illustrated covers have that impact on me to begin with, but when so many also utilize the montage effect, they are really difficult for me to distinguish.

I suspect I’m not alone, and I’m curious how this plays out for readers seeking a book they know only by cover (“It’s blue and has a couple on it,” could be so many recent titles).

Tirzah’s roundup in the YA newsletter is a great one, and while there will be some repeats below, her look includes one I’ve not added here.

I’ve limited to YA montage book covers for books published in 2020, 2021, and those that are on the docket for 2022. I’d love to know if you can think of others that fit the pattern. Drop ’em in the comments. Descriptions are from Goodreads, though I have read a few of these books.

As you’ll notice: not all of these are illustrated, either!

YA book covers featuring the montage | YA books | YA book covers | YA book cover design

 

Montages on YA Book Covers

 

Anything But Fine by Tobias Madden

This Australian YA has a fun montage to kick off this (alphabetical) list. I dig the color story here, too. The US cover for this one looks quite different. No designer or illustrator information could be found for the Aussie cover. 

Luca is ready to audition for the Australian Ballet School. All it takes to crush his dreams is one missed step . . . and a broken foot.

Jordan is the gorgeous rowing star and school captain of Luca’s new school. Everyone says he’s straight – but Luca’s not so sure . . .

As their unlikely bond grows stronger, Luca starts to wonder: who is he without ballet? And is he setting himself up for another heartbreak?

 

 

Better Than The Movies by Lynn Painter

How meta is this montage of montages? Genius. The cover illustration is by Liz Casal. 

Liz Buxbaum has always known that Wes Bennett was not boyfriend material. You would think that her next-door neighbor would be a prince candidate for her romantic comedy fantasies, but Wes has only proven himself to be a pain in the butt, ever since they were little. Wes was the kid who put a frog in her Barbie Dreamhouse, the monster who hid a lawn gnome’s severed head in her little homemade neighborhood book exchange.

Flash forward ten years from the Great Gnome Decapitation. It’s Liz’s senior year, a time meant to be rife with milestones perfect for any big screen, and she needs Wes’s help. See, Liz’s forever crush, Michael, has just moved back to town, and—horribly, annoyingly—he’s hitting it off with Wes. Meaning that if Liz wants Michael to finally notice her, and hopefully be her prom date, she needs Wes. He’s her in.

But as Liz and Wes scheme to get Liz her magical prom moment, she’s shocked to discover that she actually likes being around Wes. And as they continue to grow closer, she must reexamine everything she thought she knew about love—and rethink her own perception of what Happily Ever After should really look like.

 

 

Don’t Hate The Player by Alexis Nedd

A lot of the elements of this cover montage remind of the hardcover of Eric Smith’s Don’t Read The Comments. Like the previous cover on this list, the illustration is by Liz Casal. 

By day, Emilia is a field hockey star with a popular boyfriend and a mother obsessed with her academic future. But by night, she’s kicking virtual ass as the only female member of a highly competitive eSports team. Emilia has mastered the art of keeping her two worlds thriving, which hinges on them staying completely separate.

When a major eSports tournament comes to her city, Emilia is determined to prove herself to the male-dominated gaming community. But her perfectly balanced life is thrown for a loop when a member of a rival team—Jake—recognizes her . . .

From an exciting new talent, this sweet and charming YA romance will win the hearts of gamers and non-gamers alike.

 

Hello Now by Jenny Valentine

A photographic montage, this time featuring people jumping from a cliff over the sea, ending with just a single person in the last scene. Dana Li is the cover artist. 

Jude’s life is upended when his mother loses her job and moves them to a little town by the sea to live with Henry Lake–an eccentric old man with rooms to rent. Henry is odd, the town is dull, and worst of all, Jude feels out of place and alone.

So when Novo turns up in the house across the street, dressed all in black and looking unbearably handsome, Jude’s summer takes an immediate turn for the better. But Novo isn’t all that he seems to be–or maybe he’s more than Jude can possibly understand. Novo is a time traveler, someone who wakes up in different places and at different points in time with utter regularity. He knows that each Now is fleeting, that each moment is only worth the energy it expends on itself, and that each experience he has will be lost to him before long.

But Jude and Novo form a bond that shifts reality for both of them. Unlike anything he’s ever experienced, Jude begins to question what forever really means–only to find out that Novo knows that forever isn’t real. And when things go horribly wrong, he and Novo are faced with an impossible question that may change both of their lives irreparably–what is worth sacrificing for love?

 

Meet Cute Diary by Emery Lee

I dig the characters hanging out on top of the letters, as though they are seats. There’s less of a cohesive story here — maybe there’s not one at all — but the design certainly feels like a montage. Cover designed by Erin Fitzsimmons and illustrated by Mariana Ramírez.

Noah Ramirez thinks he’s an expert on romance. He has to be for his popular blog, the Meet Cute Diary, a collection of trans happily ever afters. There’s just one problem—all the stories are fake. What started as the fantasies of a trans boy afraid to step out of the closet has grown into a beacon of hope for trans readers across the globe.

When a troll exposes the blog as fiction, Noah’s world unravels. The only way to save the Diary is to convince everyone that the stories are true, but he doesn’t have any proof. Then Drew walks into Noah’s life, and the pieces fall into place: Drew is willing to fake-date Noah to save the Diary. But when Noah’s feelings grow beyond their staged romance, he realizes that dating in real life isn’t quite the same as finding love on the page.

In this charming novel by Emery Lee, Noah will have to choose between following his own rules for love or discovering that the most romantic endings are the ones that go off script.

 

The Night of Your Life by Lydia Sharp

The polaroid photos tell the story in a clever take on the montage. No cover designer found — this is turning into a major pet peeve of mine. If it’s on the inside flap of the book, it could be put right on the publisher’s information page for the book. 

JJ is having the worst prom ever… over and over again.

All year, JJ’s been looking forward to going to prom with his best friend, Lucy. It will be their last hurrah before graduation—a perfect night for all their friends to relax, have fun together, and celebrate making it through high school.

But nothing goes according to plan. When a near-car crash derails JJ before he even gets to prom and Lucy can’t figure out what happened to him, things spiral out of control. The best night of their lives quickly turns into the worst.

That is… until JJ wakes up the next day only to find that it’s prom night all over again.

At first, JJ thinks he’s lucky to have unlimited chances at perfecting the night of his life. But each day ends badly for him and Lucy, no matter what he does. Can he find a way to get the perfect prom he’s always wanted and move forward into the rest of his life?

 

The Night When No One Had Sex by Kalena Miller — September 7, 2021

Here’s another prom-themed YA with a montage cover, though this one takes it in a very different direction. The colors and style here make it stand out a bit more, even though it does a really similar thing to the others. No designer information found.

It’s the night of senior prom, and eighteen-year-old Julia has made a pact with her friends. (Yes, that kind of pact.) They have secured a secluded cabin in the woods, one night without parental supervision, and plenty of condoms. But as soon as they leave the dance, the pact begins to unravel. Alex’s grandmother is undergoing emergency surgery, and he and his date rush to the hospital. Zoe’s trying to figure out how she feels about getting off the waitlist at Yale–and how to tell her girlfriend. Madison’s chronic illness flares, holding her back once again from being a normal teenager. And Julia’s fantasy-themed role play gets her locked in a closet. Alternating between each character’s perspective and their ridiculous group chat, The Night When No One Had Sex finds a group of friends navigating the tenuous transition into adulthood and embracing the uncertainty of life after high school.

 

The Quantum Weirdness of the Almost-Kiss by Amy Noelle Parks

The montage on this one flips around as you move down the cover, and the way that the title is built into boxes with space between them really gives your eye the ease in seeing how the relationship plays out. Cover design and art direction by Hana Nakamura. 

Caleb has always assumed that when she was ready for romance, Evie would choose him. Because he is her best friend, and he loves her, and he has almost kissed her 17 times… 

Seventeen-year-old Evie Beckham has never been interested in dating. She’s been fully occupied by her love of mathematics and her frequent battles with anxiety (and besides, she’s always found the idea of kissing to be a little bit icky). But with the help of her best friend and her therapist, Evie’s feeling braver. Maybe even brave enough to enter a prestigious physics competition and to say yes to the new boy who’s been flirting with her.

Caleb Covic knows Evie isn’t ready for romance but assumes that when she is, she will choose him. So Caleb is horrified when he is forced to witness Evie’s meet cute with a floppy-haired, mathematically gifted transfer student. Because Caleb knows the girl never falls for the funny best friend when there’s a mysterious stranger around, he decides to use an online forum to capture Evie’s interest. Now, he’s got Evie wondering if it’s possible to fall in love with a boy she’s never met.

 

Radha and Jai’s Recipe for Romance by Nisha Sharma — July 13, 2021

The colors and energy of this cover are electric. It screams fun, flirty, and delicious! Even though I’m not usually a fan of mixed fonts for titles, especially when the cover is already busy, it works here. Justine Poulter is the cover artist. 

Radha is on the verge of becoming one of the greatest Kathak dancers in the world . . . until a family betrayal costs her the biggest competition of her life. Now, she has left her Chicago home behind to follow her stage mom to New Jersey. At the Princeton Academy of the Arts, Radha is determined to leave performing in her past, and reinvent herself from scratch.

Jai is captain of the Bollywood Beats dance team, ranked first in his class, and an overachiever with no college plans. Tight family funds means medical school is a pipe dream, which is why he wants to make the most out of high school. When Radha enters his life, he realizes she’s the exact ingredient he needs for a show-stopping senior year.

With careful choreography, both Radha and Jai will need to face their fears (and their families) if they want a taste of a happily ever after.

 

Sunny G’s Series of Rash Decisions by Navdeep Singh Dhillon — February 8, 2022

Speaking of fun and energetic covers, this 2022 fits into the trend, too. I love the dancing, the skating, the enjoying a meal, and, of course, the motorcycle/moped ride going on. This is also a prom night rom-com, alongside a couple of other titles on this list. Illustrated by Salini Perera and designed by Jessica Jenkins. 

Sunny G’s brother left him one thing when he died: his notebook, which he’s determined to fill up with a series of rash decisions. Decision number one was a big one: He took off his turban, cut off his hair, and shaved his beard. He doesn’t look like a Sikh anymore; he doesn’t look like himself anymore. He put on a suit and debuted his new look at prom, but apparently changing his look doesn’t change everything. Sunny still doesn’t fit there, and all he wants to do is go to the Harry Potter after-party, where his best friend, Ngozi, and their band were supposed to be playing a show tonight.

Enter Mindii Vang, a girl he’s never met before but who’s about to change his life. Sunny and Mindii head off on an all-night adventure through their city–a night full of rash, wonderful, romantic, stupid, huge decisions.

 

Tell It True by Tim Lockette — September 21, 2021

Take a moment with this one to find the montage (maybe they buried the lede here–ha!). It’s a clever take on the design trend, and the way the title font is woven into the cover image makes it really pop. No designer or illustrator information found.  

Lisa Rives had higher expectations for sophomore year. Her beauty queen mom wonders why she can’t be more like other 15-year-old girls in their small Alabama town. Lisa’s Dad, well, she suspects he’s having an affair with a colleague at his top-secret job. Her friend Preethy seems to be drifting away, and Lisa spends her schooldays dodging creepy boys and waiting to graduate. Then she finds herself in charge of her high school newspaper, which is the last thing she wanted–school newspapers are for popular kids and club-joiners, not outcasts like her, and besides, the stories are never about anything you actually want to know. But after accidentally tipping the scales in the school election, then deciding to cover a real story–the upcoming execution of a local man charged with murder–and becoming a surprise news story herself, Lisa learns some hard lessons about friendship and truth-telling. As Lisa navigates the dilemmas, challenges, and unintended consequences of journalism, she finds her life–and her convictions–changing in ways she couldn’t have imagined. Tell It True is a sometimes hilarious, sometimes devastating, always relatable coming-of-age story about the importance of speaking the truth in a world of denial and fake news.

 

When You Were Everything by Ashley Woodfolk

I love this one, especially for how well it ties into the story about a friendship breakup. We have best friends. We have a clear argument. We have just one girl remaining. The fonts for the tag line, the title, and the author are integrated smoothly, without taking away from the montage. Illustration by Bex Glendining and design by Angela Carlino. 

You can’t rewrite the past, but you can always choose to start again. 

It’s been twenty-seven days since Cleo and Layla’s friendship imploded.

Nearly a month since Cleo realized they’ll never be besties again.

Now, Cleo wants to erase every memory, good or bad, that tethers her to her ex–best friend. But pretending Layla doesn’t exist isn’t as easy as Cleo hoped, especially after she’s assigned to be Layla’s tutor. Despite budding new friendships with other classmates—and a raging crush on a gorgeous boy named Dom—Cleo’s turbulent past with Layla comes back to haunt them both.

Alternating between time lines of Then and Now, When You Were Everything blends past and present into an emotional story about the beauty of self-forgiveness, the promise of new beginnings, and the courage it takes to remain open to love.

Filed Under: book covers, cover design, cover designs, ya fiction, Young Adult, young adult fiction

Donuts That Do Double Duty

May 17, 2021 |

Here’s a fun thing I saw while perusing book covers: two 2021 children’s literature books featuring donuts on the cover. But these aren’t just donuts.

They’re donuts that do double duty.

Sarah Moon’s Middletown features a pink frosted donut that double as a road. How clever are the sprinkles that are also the lane dashes? Here’s the middle grade’s book description:

Thirteen-year-old Eli likes baggy clothes, baseball caps, and one girl in particular. Her seventeen-year-old sister Anna is more traditionally feminine; she loves boys and staying out late. They are sisters, and they are also the only family each can count on. Their dad has long been out of the picture, and their mom lives at the mercy of her next drink. When their mom lands herself in enforced rehab, Anna and Eli are left to fend for themselves. With no legal guardian to keep them out of foster care, they take matters into their own hands: Anna masquerades as Aunt Lisa, and together she and Eli hoard whatever money they can find. But their plans begin to unravel as quickly as they were made, and they are always way too close to getting caught.

Eli and Anna have each gotten used to telling lies as a means of survival, but as they navigate a world without their mother, they must learn how to accept help, and let other people in.

 

Here’s the other double duty donut cover:

The first book in a juvenile graphic novel series, Stephan Patis’s Squirrel Do Bad also features a pink frosted donut, but this sugary sweet also serves as the home for some interesting creatures. The description for the book which comes out August 31:

Wendy the Wanderer has lived in Trubble Town her whole life but never had the chance to go exploring. For this reason, she thinks she was definitely misnamed. Her dad likes to know where she is to make sure she’s safe, so she’s never been anywhere on her own. Then, her dad leaves on a trip and the babysitter doesn’t reinforce all the usual rules. Or any of the usual rules! Suddenly, Wendy is free to do what she wants, and what she wants is to live up to her name…and find Trubble.

Turns out, there’s lots going on in Trubble Town. As she encounters endearingly goofy animals and hilariously hapless townsfolk, Wendy’s very first adventure takes more twists and turns than she could have ever expected. She learns some really valuable life lessons and even teaches a few of her own.

 

I really enjoy these delightfully fun covers and also hope that there are more double-duty donut covers coming soon.

Filed Under: book covers

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.

Filed Under: aesthetics, book covers

Orange Is The New YA Book Cover Color in 2021

December 21, 2020 |

As I scrolled through YA book covers for 2021, I was looking for trends to highlight and it struck me: there are a good chunk of YA book covers in the new year where the primary color is orange. Orange hasn’t gotten the cover love it deserves, and every time I passed one of the covers by, I paused to admire it. It’s a catchy color and really pops both on screen and on shelves.

Take a gander at the world of 2021 YA books featuring a big dose of orange. As always with cover trend posts, since not everything that’s hitting shelves in the new year has had a cover revealed, so chances are there may be more (please!). If I’m missing any 2021 YA book covers with a major orange theme, drop ’em in the comments!

Descriptions are from Goodreads, as are the covers themselves. I tried to find the designers for the covers but that information is so difficult to find. Here’s a regular plea for authors to credit the cover designers on your website. It’d be great if publishers would do the same.

2021 YA Books with Orange Book Covers | book covers | book design | YA book covers | YA books | YA books 2021

2021 Orange YA Book Covers

 

Blade of Secrets by Tricia Levenseller (first in a series, May 4)

A teenage blacksmith with social anxiety accepts a commission from the wrong person and is forced to go on the run to protect the world from the most powerful magical sword she’s ever made.

Eighteen-year-old Ziva prefers metal to people. She spends her days tucked away in her forge, safe from society and the anxiety it causes her, using her magical gift to craft unique weapons imbued with power.

Then Ziva receives a commission from a powerful warlord, and the result is a sword capable of stealing its victims’ secrets. A sword that can cut far deeper than the length of its blade. A sword with the strength to topple kingdoms. When Ziva learns of the warlord’s intentions to use the weapon to enslave all the world under her rule, she takes her sister and flees.

Joined by a distractingly handsome mercenary and a young scholar with extensive knowledge of the world’s known magics, Ziva and her sister set out on a quest to keep the sword safe until th

 

Bones of a Saint by Grant Farley (March 2)

Fifteen-year-old RJ Armante has never known a life outside his dead-end hometown of Arcangel, CA. The Blackjacks still rule as they have for generations, luring the poorest kids into their monopoly on petty crime. For years, they’ve left RJ alone…until now.

When the Blackjacks come knocking, they want RJ to prey upon an old loner. But RJ is at his breaking point. It’s not just about the gang who rules the town. It’s about Charley, his younger brother, who is disabled. It’s about Roxanne, the girl he can’t reach. It’s about the kids in his crew who have nothing to live for. If RJ is to resist, he must fight to free Arcangel of its past.

 

 

 

 

The Chariot at Dusk by Swati Teerdhala (third in a series, June 29)

A queen at last. An empty palace. A kingdom to save.

Esha is reeling from Kunal’s betrayal, but she has a kingdom to rule from behind a thin smokescreen—pretending to be Princess Reha while she sends her most trusted soldiers to collect Reha and Kunal by any means necessary. Traitors, after all, must be punished.

But the Yavar are attacking from every front—tracking down Kunal and Reha in the remote mountains, kidnapping Harun—in search of legendary artifacts that will give them the power to break the precarious janma bond and release the destructive magic back into the lands.

Now that the race is on to find the missing artifacts, Esha must put aside her rage and work with Kunal again—but can she find the strength to forgive him, or will the Viper have her revenge at any cost?

In the final book of Swati Teerdhala’s epic fantasy trilogy, the lands’ fate, their people’s livelihoods, and the bond that sustains their world all depend on what Kunal and Esha can offer—to the gods and to each other.

Cover Design: David Curtis; Illustrator: Michael Marsicano.

 

Fire With Fire by Destiny Soria (June 8)

Dani and Eden Rivera were both born to kill dragons, but the sisters couldn’t be more different. For Dani, dragon slaying takes a back seat to normal high school life, while Eden prioritizes training above everything else. Yet they both agree on one thing: it’s kill or be killed where dragons are concerned.

Until Dani comes face-to-face with one and forges a rare and magical bond with him. As she gets to know Nox, she realizes that everything she thought she knew about dragons is wrong. With Dani lost to the dragons, Eden turns to the mysterious and alluring sorcerers to help save her sister. Now on opposite sides of the conflict, the sisters will do whatever it takes to save the other. But the two are playing with magic that is more dangerous than they know, and there is another, more powerful enemy waiting for them both in the shadows.

Cover Design: Mary Claire Cruz; Illustrator: Viv Tanner. 

 

 

List of Ten by Halli Gomez (March 2)

Ten: three little letters, one ordinary number. No big deal, right? But for Troy Hayes, a 16-year-old suffering from Tourette Syndrome and Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder, the number ten dictates his life, forcing him to do everything by its exacting rhythm. Finally, fed up with the daily humiliation, loneliness, and physical pain he endures, Troy writes a list of ten things to do by the tenth anniversary of his diagnosis—culminating in suicide on the actual day. But the process of working his way through the list changes Troy’s life: he becomes friends with Khory, a smart, beautiful classmate who has her own troubled history. Khory unwittingly helps Troy cross off items on his list, moving him ever closer to his grand finale, even as she shows him that life may have more possibilities than he imagined. This is a dark, intense story, but it’s also realistic, hopeful, and deeply authentic.

 

Cover Design: Elizabeth Lindy. 

 

Once Upon a Quinceañera by Monica Gomez-Hira (March 2)

Carmen Aguilar just wants to make her happily ever after come true. Except apparently “happily ever after” for Carmen involves being stuck in an unpaid summer internship! All she has to do is perform! In a ball gown! During the summer. In Miami.

Fine. Except that Carmen’s company is hired for her spoiled cousin Ariana’s over the top quinceañera.

And of course, her new dance partner at work is none other than Mauro Reyes, Carmen’s most deeply regrettable ex.

If Carmen is going to move into the future she wants, she needs to leave the past behind. And if she can manage dancing in the blistering heat, fending off Mauro’s texts, and stopping Ariana from ruining her own quinceañera Carmen might just get that happily ever after after all.

Cover Design: Corina Lupp; Illustrator: Isabela Humphrey.

 

Playing With Fire by April Henry (January 19)

Natalia is not the kind of girl who takes risks. Six years ago, she barely survived the house fire that killed her baby brother. Now she is cautious and always plays it safe. For months, her co-worker Wyatt has begged her to come hiking with him, and Natalia finally agrees.

But when a wildfire breaks out, blocking the trail back, a perfect sunny day quickly morphs into a nightmare. With no cell service, few supplies, and no clear way out of the burning forest, a group of strangers will have to become allies if they’re going to survive. Hiking in the dark, they must reach the only way out―a foot bridge over a deep canyon―before the fire catches them.

 

Cover Design: Mike Burroughs.

 

 

Prepped by Bethany Mangle (February 23)

Always be ready for the worst day of your life.

This is the mantra that Becca Aldaine has grown up with. Her family is part of a community of doomsday preppers, a neighborhood that prioritizes survivalist training over class trips or senior prom. They’re even arranging Becca’s marriage with Roy Kang, the only eligible boy in their community. Roy is a nice guy, but he’s so enthusiastic about prepping that Becca doesn’t have the heart to tell him she’s planning to leave as soon as she can earn a full ride to a college far, far away.

Then a devastating accident rocks Becca’s family and pushes the entire community, including Becca’s usually cynical little sister, deeper into the doomsday ideology. With her getaway plans thrown into jeopardy, the only person Becca can turn to is Roy, who reveals that he’s not nearly as clueless as he’s been pretending to be.

When Roy proposes they run away together, Becca will have to risk everything—including her heart—for a chance to hope for the best instead of planning for the worst.

Cover Design and Illustration: Rebecca Syracuse. 

 

Radha & Jai’s Recipe for Romance by Nisha Sharma (July 13)

Radha is on the verge of becoming one of the greatest Kathak dancers in the world . . . until a family betrayal costs her the biggest competition of her life. Now, she has left her Chicago home behind to follow her stage mom to New Jersey. At the Princeton Academy of the Arts, Radha is determined to leave performing in her past, and reinvent herself from scratch.

Jai is captain of the Bollywood Beats dance team, ranked first in his class, and an overachiever with no college plans. Tight family funds means medical school is a pipe dream, which is why he wants to make the most out of high school. When Radha enters his life, he realizes she’s the exact ingredient he needs for a show-stopping senior year.

With careful choreography, both Radha and Jai will need to face their fears (and their families) if they want a taste of a happily ever after.

 

Sisters of the Snake by Sasha and Sarena Nanua (first in a series, June 15)

A lost princess. A dark puppet master. And a race against time—before all is lost.

Princess Rani longs for a chance to escape her gilded cage and prove herself. Ria is a street urchin, stealing just to keep herself alive.

When these two lives collide, everything turns on its head: because Ria and Rani, orphan and royal, are unmistakably identical.

A deal is struck to switch places—but danger lurks in both worlds, and to save their home, thief and princess must work together. Or watch it all fall into ruin.

Deadly magic, hidden temples, and dark prophecies: Sisters of the Snake is an action-packed, immersive fantasy that will thrill fans of The Crown’s Game and The Tiger at Midnight.

 

Cover Design: Chris Kwon; Illustrator: Fatima Baig. 

 

The Tragedy of Dane Riley by Kat Spears (June 22)

Dane Riley’s grasp on reality is slipping, and he’s not sure that he cares. While his mother has moved on after his father’s death, Dane desperately misses the man who made Dane feel okay to be himself. He can’t stand his mother’s boyfriend, or the boyfriend’s son, whose favorite pastime is tormenting Dane. Then there’s the girl next door: Dane can’t quite define their relationship, and he doesn’t know if he’s got the courage to leave the friend zone.

An emotional novel about mental health, and dealing with grief and growing up, The Tragedy of Dane Riley is the story of a teenager looking to make sense of his feelings in the wake of tragedy, and finding the strength he needs to make life worth living.

 

 

 

Untethered by KayLynn Flanders (series, July 20)

Although King Atháren’s sister, Jennesara, saved Hálendi from the Gray Mage, the reprieve came at a steep price–the life of their father. Now Ren rules over a divided kingdom, with some who want him dead, and a Medallion that warns of worse trouble brewing in the south.

As second born, Princess Chiara is the perfect Turian royal–perfectly invisible. She longs to help restore peace on the Plateau, but with no magic and no fighting skills, she doesn’t stand a chance against a mage. So when a member of the Turian royal family goes missing and Chiara finds a clue about the rumored resting place of the mages’ long-lost artifacts, she decides it’s time to be seen.

As Ren’s and Chiara’s paths cross, they find the depth of the mages’ hold on the Plateau is more powerful than anyone suspected, and that they must learn to trust themselves, and each other, before the mages retrieve their artifacts and become too powerful to ever defeat.

 

Cover Art: Alex Dos Diaz; Cover Design: Regina Flath

 

Where The Rhythm Takes You by Sarah Dass (May 11)

Seventeen-year-old Reyna has spent most of her life at the Plumeria, her family’s gorgeous seaside resort in Tobago. But what once seemed like paradise is starting to feel more like purgatory. It’s been two years since Reyna’s mother passed away, two years since Aiden—her childhood best friend, first kiss, first love, first everything—left the island to pursue his music dreams. Reyna’s friends are all planning their futures and heading abroad. Even Daddy seems to want to move on, leaving her to try and keep the Plumeria running.

And that’s when Aiden comes roaring back into her life—as a VIP guest at the resort.

Aiden is now one-third of DJ Bacchanal—the latest, hottest music group on the scene. While Reyna has stayed exactly where he left her, Aiden has returned to Tobago with his Grammy-nominated band and two gorgeous LA socialites. And he may (or may not be) dating one of them…

Inspired by Jane Austen’s Persuasion, Where the Rhythm Takes You is a romantic, mesmerizing novel of first love and second chances.

Cover design: Jessie Gang and Alison Donalty; Illustrator: Kingsley Nebechi. 

Filed Under: book covers, cover design, cover designs, ya fiction, Young Adult, young adult fiction

Going Global: A Look at International Cover Designs

November 16, 2020 |

Cover changes are one of my favorite things to look at since they’re not uncommon in YA books. Not only do I love analyzing why it is that a hardcover design changed when it went to paperback, I also love looking at how cover designs look different around the world. International editions of YA can take on entirely new identities for a number of reasons, including a market that gravitates toward very different design aesthetics in their books, rights acquisition for the design of US covers, or simply the preference of the publisher.

Let’s take a look at five YA books that have some significantly different looks in some of their international editions. These books published between 2019 and 2020. I’ve done the best I can to identify the country for the international edition, but know they might be incorrect, as seeking that information out is even more challenging than finding the US cover designer.

I’ve stuck to one changed design for each of the below, except for the final one, which I’ll showcase three international editions.

I’d love to hear what you think and which is your favorite. I’ve put the US edition on the left, with the alternate cover on the right.

YA International Cover Designs

 

 

Diana Urban’s All Your Twisted Secrets takes its cue from the other thrillers on the US YA market, and that’s not necessarily a bad thing. It’ll immediately tell readers whether or not the story i for them. Like so many covers, too, it’s illustrated, with a large, centered title. The cover was illustrated by Evgeni Koroliov, and design direction was by Corina Lupp and Alison Klapthor.

The French edition of this book cover is SO great. It feels absolutely like a twisted mystery, and it mirrors so much of the design of J-Horror films and books, with a hint of old school Lois Duncan books. The title was slightly altered, too, to Who Should Die? I really dig this look.

 

Both of these covers are so lovely, and they play against each other perfectly. I hadn’t looked at the smaller details of the US version of Kristina Forest’s I Wanna Be Where You Are as closely as I did when I looked at the Indonesian edition — I was going to note that it’s interesting the female lead is driving in that edition, but it looks like she’s in the driver’s seat of the US version, too. I love the two color palates, and I love the clever green-blue color car in both. Even though the way they evoke a dreamy look differs, both succeed in showcasing how this is a story about a girl chasing her dreams.

Cassie Gonzales designed the US cover and worked with artist Alex Cabel. If cover nerdery is your jam, this look behind the process is awesome. I especially love how one of the rejected designs really looks like the Indonesian edition.

 

There is no question that Abdi Nazemian’s Like a Love Story is set in the city, is there? In the US edition, we have the tall buildings that comprise an urban landscape, while in the French edition, we have the inside of a graffiti-covered subway. Both covers are bright, and both feature three teenagers who are clearly close with one another. More, the story is set in the 1980s and both absolutely reflect that. They’re gritty and showcase the fashion choices of that time and yet, they also feel contemporary.

The US jacket art is by Dave Homer and the design is by Michelle Taormina.

 

 

On The Come Up, Angie Thomas’s sophomore YA novel, has such an iconic design on the US cover, and it pairs so well with The Hate U Give. But how striking is the Swedish cover? It’s electric, and even though we don’t have a great view of the model’s body language, her expression and the neon color way is so expressive. This book is electric and propulsive, and the look in that girl’s eyes doesn’t shy away from that.

Cover art for the US edition is by Anjola Coker.

 

 

David Yoon’s debut Frankly In Love has so many different international editions and what’s interesting is how they can all both look so different and yet clearly also look like the same book. The US edition in hardcover — which got a new look in paperback — is really simple and eye-catching. It’s all font work. There’s a huge sense of this particular cover looking like adult book covers, suggesting that while the book is YA, the visual marketing of the hardcover angled for those adult readers who like YA, as well as those who might be skeptical of it. I think the paperback is much more teen friendly, but both designs capture a solid feel for the story.

The Italian cover on the right features a teen boy, holding a bouquet of flowers, waiting on a park bench. There’s clearly a romantic angle at play here, though the title font stands out as well. BUT the real reason I wanted to include this cover design is the bit at the bottom which I can’t say I’ve seen before: I don’t read Italian but know enough to translate the words that this book is by the husband of bestseller Nicola Yoon. That’s wild, seeing a male author referred to as the partner of a bestselling female author.

 

The cover on the left is the Portuguese cover, and I love that it uses such a romantic color selection, as well as a clear indication that romance is a big theme in the story — we see the male lead appearing to look at the person with him adoringly. Finally, the Swedish edition of Frankly In Love is interesting to think about because it carries the same emphasis on being font driven, without any standout images of people on it, but the font work looks nothing like the US edition (Note: I believe this is the Swedish edition, but the title itself appears to be in Danish). And the title? It’s Planet Frank. I love the use of the planet to capture that shift in name.

The US cover artist is Owen Gildersleeve, and you should definitely read this interview about how he created the design. You’ll see how it was replicated on a couple other international editions as well.

Filed Under: book covers, cover design, ya fiction, Young Adult, young adult fiction

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