STACKED

books

Double Take, Part VI

|

This double take comes courtesy of the lovely Janssen. Like many of the other titles that have been featured as double takes, it seems crazy to me that two books can have the same cover and be published so close together.

Remember this title I reviewed? After the Moment features a distinctive cover:

Freymann-Weyr’s book was published May 18 of this year by Houghton Mifflin Books for Children. I actually really liked the cover, as it captured a great moment of emotion, had a great color that stood out from the crowd, and, well, I’d never seen anything like it before. A refreshing change of pace, really.

But wait!

Get a look at Felicia C. Sullivan’s Sky Isn’t Visible from Here, published April 2009 by HarperCollins:

Yep, same cover, same girl, very similar color. The difference, of course, is the cropping of the picture itself.

Although I usually don’t have a strong opinion on “who did it better,” I think Freymann-Weyr’s cover is better because it better captures an emotion. I don’t like the cropped face in Sullivan’s cover because it shields an emotion in the book, and while I don’t believe as readers we should be hand held through character depiction, I do think that that emotional set up is a perfect rendering of the book itself. I haven’t read Sullivan’s book yet, so I can’t say for sure that the decision on cropping is representative of anything within it. Likewise, something else interesting to note with Sullivan’s cover is that this is just one of the cover variations — this cover is quite different and striking in a very different way.

What do you think? Who did it better?

Double Take, Part V, Sports Style!

|

One of my favorite books this year so far has been Bill Konigsberg’s Out of the Pocket, and you can read my whole review here. It was an accident to find and read this one since it’s a sports story, but I loved it.


The cover is pretty memorable: the football player looking into the dusty distance. The sepia clouds and black ground just look unique and different to me, as does the orange title font. The reason I even found the book was it was faced out and the cover caught my attention (see – it is important!). Out of the Pocket was published September 2008 by Dutton.

Then while browsing books online recently, I found this one:


Tim Tharp’s Knights of the Hill Country (and, yes, this is the same Thrap of 2008’s The Spectacular Now) was published in 2006 by Laurel Leaf and explores similar themes to Konigsberg”s book, minus the issues surrounding the acceptance of one’s sexuality.

Sure the covers aren’t identical, but it’s remarkable how many similar elements they use, particularly because there are many overlapping themes. There’s the football player looking out in the dusty distance, the sepia tones, and the dark ground. Though they aren’t the same, the fonts are very similar, right down to the use of orange.

Regardless of how alike they look, I have to say that these covers really strike a chord with me as a revolution in the traditional sports novel. Working in my town’s public library in high school, I loathed reshelving the sports novels because they all looked the same (and uninteresting — sorry Matt Christopher!). These, however, are much more intriguing to me, and I think they would definitely draw readers who may otherwise believe they have no interest in a story revolving around sports.

—–

Though it’s probably obvious, the three of us at stacked have been a bit swamped the last couple of weeks. But that doesn’t mean we’re not reading and preparing some fabulous reviews. Personally, I’ve got three or so books on the docket for this week, and by the end of next week, we’ll have up our first round robin review of a very different book (I’d say *awesome* book, but I’ll wait to see what the others say first).

Double Take, Part IV

|

This one just handed itself to me!

First, Dirty Laundry by Daniel Ehrenhaft, published December 30, 2008 by HarperTeen. This book follows the fledgling actress Carli as she prepares for her new role as a boarding school student and leaves her family and friends behind. Of course, she meets interesting characters in her new life and that leads to a number of interesting adventures. The story’s told through shifting narrators.


And….here’s the double take:


Cracked up to Be by Courtney Summers was published just a week before Dirty Laundry, on December 23, 2008 by St. Martin’s Griffin. The story follows Parker Fadley as she becomes secluded after a horrible event has left her feeling bad about herself. Although the description doesn’t give away a whole lot, it sounds a bit reminiscent of Laurie Halse Anderson’s Speak.

Cover-wise, both fit the story descriptions. They’re a little bit different, but again, being published a week apart from one another and with such similar covers, it’ll be hard for either to stand out on their own. Both covers feature the girl in her school uniform lying down (with her head to the left) and both feature a stack of books on her stomach. The cover for Dirty Laundry, however, doesn’t showcase the girl’s head or face at all and instead features her feet and shoes. The uniforms on both covers are different, even though they feature the same style of a plaid skirt, polo shirt, and cardigan.

So … which one did it better?

Why covers matter

|

Although we’ve all heard the adage that you shouldn’t judge a book on its cover, I beg to disagree. I think that the cover is indeed an important attribute to a book and that you will judge it before reading it. Obviously, some covers will tell you more and some will tell you less (or nothing, as is the case with hard cover books missing their jackets). And not only do you judge the book, other people who may see you reading judge the book, too.

This isn’t something I thought about too much before taking my young adult materials course. We were reading Judy Blume’s Forever . . . which is one of those “classic” titles of teendom. Within my class of about 11 people, the currently available copy of book had three covers, and each of these covers portrayed something entirely different about the book.

The first:


What does this cover suggest? To me, it’s reminiscent of many titles currently on the market. It reminds me a lot of the Sarah Dessen or the Jennifer Weiner covers in particular. Sweet with a definite bent for teens or young adults. When I shuffled through the used books at the bookstore, this was the copy I chose because it was most appealing to me (and as I found out, probably most relevant to the story itself).

The second:


This one’s pretty basic as well. It’s very similar to the recent cover from Sarah Dessen’s Lock and Key (seen here). The cover doesn’t tell you much about the story, but it’s also discrete enough to carry around anywhere and no one will really know what sort of book you are reading. The first cover, on the other hand, definitely looks like it’s a teen book or a book for the younger 20-something crowd. This one could scream romance, I suppose, but since there are no pictures of people or places, it isn’t too obvious. Moreover, the benefit of a cover like this is that it allows the reader to imagine everything for themselves; the publisher hasn’t given us an idea of what the main character looks like. The downfall, however, is that the book’s physical appearance isn’t memorable.

The third:


What says steamy romance more than the trade paperback size, red cover, and envelope with a lipstick kiss? Talk about a totally different message than the first book cover; in fact, this cover screams everything that the first cover doesn’t — this isn’t a sweet romance but rather a hot and heavy lust-driven book. Obviously, that sort of cover appeals to an entirely different audience than the first, even though the book is the same. It seems to me that inevitably, one group of readers will be disappointed to discover that it’s not what they were lead to believe it is based on the cover.

The cover images, the font (notice the first doesn’t capitalize Blume’s name and the second uses a teen-ish style), and even the size of the book really do impact the reader’s sense of the story. Notice, too, how a cover often changes when the book goes from its first release in hard back to its second life as a paperback. I would love to ask people who read books that have different covers what impact that had on their reading.

I’m willing to bet that readers of Forever . . . see and appreciate the value all three covers have. For some readers, the story really can be a steamy romance like the third cover suggests while for others, it’s a sweet story like the first portrays. But which do you think that people would feel most comfortable checking out from the library? Bringing to a busy lunch room on break? Reading on the train? What do YOU prefer when it comes to a cover?

EDIT:

Janssen has convinced me that it would also be worth including these two covers still readily available at the library:

This one just looks very, very dated. I’m a big believer in the notion if the book’s circulating and still on the shelves decades after it was published, it might be worth spending a few dollars to replace it with a more current look. It might seen an entirely new life, too. This particular cover just reminds me of those Lifetime movies that came out back in the early 90s.

And finally:

Really, this one’s not out dated, but it does strike me as a book geared for adults more than teens.

Double Take, Part III

|

I really don’t look for this intentionally, but perhaps it just happens as a matter of looking at and reading so much material. This one struck me and not because the covers are so similar that it’s an obvious double take.

The first book is North of Beautiful by Justine Chen Headley, which was published February 1, 2009 by Little, Brown Young Readers.

North of Beautiful is a coming of age story about Tessa who was born with a large port-wine stain on her cheek. The book follows her as she comes to terms with who and what she is while delving into the big themes of love, family, and abuse. It’s been getting a lot of attention around the blogosphere, though I did not find it as exciting as the other reviewers. I DO really like the cover — it’s clean, fresh, and captures the essence of Tessa and one of the big themes in the book, cartography. You can’t see it here, but the edges of the cover are a beautiful fresh blue color.

The second book is this one:


Evermore by Alyson Noel was published a mere two days after North of Beautiful on February 3, 2009 by St. Martin’s Griffin. Evermore is the first book in a series by Noel that follows 17-year-old Ever after a terrible accident leaves everyone but her dead in her family. Of course, she falls for a boy in her new home who has magical powers, including the ability to produce tulips and disappear when he needs to.

Though immediately the covers don’t look alike, look again. It’s the same girl in both photos, but in the second one, her image has been mirrored. The hair is piece-y in both, the lips are full in both, and her eyebrow is distinct in both. Both covers show the part of her hair behind her ear with part tumbling down her shoulder. The lighter-colored strand of hair in the front is distinct, as well. In Evermore a tulip has been added since it’s a crucial part of the story, but I can’t help but wonder, too, if this was done to create more distinction with the cover. While the images are exactly the same girl, it is a big relief that the cover for Evermore is darker. It helps differentiate the two, particularly when both may be sitting on a shelf of new materials.

Who did it better? I like both of them, but I’m very bothered by both of them, as well. It makes me wonder how this sort of copying can happen. The publishing world is huge but so is the photography world/stock image world — it seems way too coincidental for two books to have this image published two days apart. What’s crazier is if you go to Amazon and look up North of Beautiful, you will be recommended Evermore. Wonder why?