Judging A Book By It's Cover (In A Good Way)

I don't deny that I will often pick up and read a book based solely on its cover. Good cover design is important! A couple of days ago when it was already dark outside and pouring with rain I ventured out to check the mail and there was a big tough envelope which was getting a bit soggy in the rain. Once safely inside, I ripped it open and the first thing I saw was that elephant. And I immediately decided that I really wanted to read this book :)

I have since found out a little more about it, as you can no doubt read it's called The Billionaire's Curse (which is an intriguing title) and is written by Richard Newsome. The whole book is published as a result of The Text Prize for Young Adult and Children's Writing which is an annual prize awarded to an 'outstanding unpublished manuscript' with the aim to discover more wonderful new books for young readers, by Australian and New Zealand writers.

If you are an Australian or New Zealand writer you still have until July 31st to enter your manuscript for thsi year's prize. All the info is here. Otherwise there's always next year!

But back to The Billionaire's Curse...

Someone has stolen the world’s most valuable diamond and a constable lies unconscious in the British Museum, two sedative darts protruding from his backside. Not something Gerald Wilkins knows or cares anything about. Not until he finds himself on a private luxury jet heading for London to attend the funeral of a great aunt he has never met. Not until he inherits her estate, worth twenty billion pounds. Not until he opens a bundle of envelopes from his dead great aunt. Was she murdered? Who stole the diamond? And what is the mysterious casket that everyone seems to be looking for? With the help of the Valentine twins, the rat-fearing Sam and the gymnastic champ Ruby, Gerald’s got a mystery to solve. A mystery that will take them into secret passageways, a musty bookshop, an ancient crypt, a ruined tower and a colossal cavern where the secret of a priceless treasure lies protected by deadly booby traps.

The Billionaire’s Curse is an irresistible adventure story with an array of curious characters, ancient folklore and a whodunnit. Young and not-so-young adults, get ready to stay up late.

It's not out until August in Australia, so expect my review around then :)

Love The Cover, Ash by Malinda Lo

I love the cover of the as-yet unreleased Ash by Malinda Lo. When I saw it for the first time, I only saw a small picture and it looked like some kind of pretty flower or shell but then I saw it bigger and wow it is a fantastic cover! (You can click on it to enlarge)

Here's what Ash is about:

In the wake of her father’s death, Ash is left alone to pay off his debts in the service of her own step mother. Consumed with grief, her only joy comes by the light of the dying hearth fire, re-reading the fairy tales her mother once told her. In her dreams, someday the fairies will steal her away, as they are said to do. When she meets the dark and dangerous fairy Sidhean, she begins to believe that her wish may be granted.

The day that Ash meets Kaisa, the King’s Huntress, her heart begins to change. Instead of chasing fairies, Ash learns to hunt with Kaisa. Though their friendship is as delicate as a new bloom, it reawakens Ash’s capacity for love—and her desire to live. But Sidhean has already claimed Ash for his own, and she must make a choice between fairy tale dreams and true love.

Entrancing and romantic, Ash is an empowering retelling of Cinderella about the connection between life and love, and solitude and death, where transformation can come from even the deepest grief.

It's not out until September. You can find out more here.

Love The Cover, It's Pinocchio!

Let's all just take a moment to examine this cover of the classic story of Pinocchio by Carlo Collodi.

Sure, that piece of tree bark has eyes.

And yes, it is kind of creepy.

But is it not an excellent and entirely fitting cover for the little wooden boy, Pinocchio?

I believe it is. I love it. It makes me want to read it rather than watch my Disney video version.

(You should go here to read an interesting piece that educating alice wrote about Pinocchio.)

What do you think think? Do you love it or is too creepy?

The Hunger Games - Australian Cover Art!

Everyone has been raving about The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins! I've had so many people tell me to read it, and I really want to! Published by Scholastic, it's finally out in Australia, with a totally different cover design.

I'm going to go and get myself a copy ASAP! :)

What do you think of the Australian cover art?

Love The Cover, Justine Larbalestier

The new paperback cover for Justine Larbalestier's How To Dtich Your Fairy is officially awesome. I love the lettering and everything is just genuinely cool. Plus, the blue and purple is pretty :)

The image isn't exactly true to the story. But it's eyecatching and awesome regardless!

I just finished reading this book (with the original cover) the other day. I thought it was pretty awesome.. the Aussie YA Alliance is going to be doing some fun stuff with it because Justine is an Aussie author, so stay tuned...

Love The Cover, Julia Lawrinson

I love the cover of Julia Lawrinson's The Push. Anyone agree with me on this one? The illustration is great... I think I have some art by the artist from a magazine. I don't remember her name though, I'll have to go hunting through a lot of back-issues of Frankie magazine to find it. Also, I love the font, the colours and the layout in general. Great cover!

From the author's website:

'Is she - was she with Johnno?' said Erica.

'It doesn't work like that,' Trish said. 'Not like boyfriend and girlfriend stuff, as I've been trying to tell you. It's more - fluid.'

Erica is restless for a life outside her office job, her boring boyfriend and her mother's tiny house in down-and-out Glebe.

In the 1950s, Sydney is quickly building a reputation for sinfulness, and some of the most attractively sinful people are to be found in a group known as the Push. They meet regularly to discuss their wicked ideas at the Royal George, and Erica is drawn into the captivating crowd.

I haven't read it.. but Allie has. She reviewed it here. Sounds really interesting though.. have you read it? Probably not actually because I'm pretty sure it's only available in Australia. Pity! We can all appreciate the cover art, though :)

Love The Cover, Carrie Ryan

I love the cover of The Forest of Hands and Teeth by Carrie Ryan for a number of reasons:

1. It makes me want to find out why the covergirl is sad.
2. And also if she is sad. She could just be tired. Or drowsy.
3. It creates an intriguing, chilly atmosphere
4. The misty forest in the background is pretty
5. I love a cover with big, bold typography.
6. Extra points for capitals. I LOVE CAPITALS.
7. It doesn't look like every other cover out there right now.

I neeeeeed to read this! How could you not want to read a book called The *Forest* of *Hands* and *Teeth*!!!!. How delightfully awesome sounding. And spooky.

Love The Cover, Suzanne Supplee

I love the cover of Artichoke's Heart by Suzanne Supplee. It's interesting, eye-catching, pretty and reasonably delicious looking :)

From the publishers website:

Rosemary Goode is smart and funny and loyal and the best eyebrow waxer in Spring Hill, Tennessee. But only one thing seems to matter to anyone, including Rosemary: her weight. And when your mom runs the most successful (and gossipy) beauty shop in town, it can be hard to keep a low profile. Rosemary resolves to lose the weight, but her journey turns out to be about everything but the scale. Her life-changing, waist-shrinking year is captured with brutal honesty and humor, topped with an extralarge helping of Southern charm. A truly uncommon novel about an increasingly common problem.

Yum? I don't know. I like how one of the chocolate's is shaped like an artichoke heart, though. That's enough from me for now...

Have you read it? (I haven't). Do you love it's cover? (I do.)

(Almost) All of The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants Book Covers!!

After looking at the covers for 3 Willows, by Ann Brashares I've gone back and tried to find all the covers of the four Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants books, which are about the friendships of four girls, Lena, Tibby, Bridget and Carmen who all miraculously fit into the same pair of pants.

Finding all the covers started out as a fun, seemingly manageable task that soon spiraled out of control... there are so many covers and they are all confusing and I'm not entirely sure where they are all from but I have done my best. If you know where one is from, tell me! I need to know!! :)

Honestly, I am missing some. I know this because I own books 1 and 2 and the covers I have don't even feature here. Why is google so unhelpful?! I fear the internet has failed me :(

So, the beginning, Book 1: The Sisterhood of the Travelling Pants (or 'Traveling' depending on where you live). From left, we have the original cover, a non-US cover, and film tie-in (above)! The cover I own is of a girl's midriff, she is wearing jeans. I like it better than these three actually, sorry there's no picture!



Book 2: The Second Summer of the Sisterhood. From left: Original (kind of boring) cover, then the cover we have here in Australia, my cover of this one is blue and has some metallic cartoon pants on it, the pants are horizontal though...



Book 3: Girls in Pants... I could only find two covers for this. Left is the cover we have in Aus, right is your typical cover. Anyone seen other cover versions for this one?



And finally, book 4: Forever in Blue. We have the typical cover, the Australian edition (which is coincidentally the first Aussie cover to not show the models stomach) in the middle and a pretty one on the right which I've never seen before until I started my googling journey. Anyone know where it's from? The last one is the fim tie-in cover.. which is highly confusing. Apparently the film takes the story from the 2nd, 3rd and 4th books so they recovered the 4th book as a tie-in (thanks to inr-ainbows for clearing this up for me). Craaaazy!


I'm disappointed I couldn't complete my task! If you've got any pictures to add or know of where an edition is from tell me!!!! Phew! That was hard work :)

So... which covers are good, which covers are bad?

Love The Cover, Simmone Howell

I love the cover of Notes From The Teenage Underground by Simmone Howell. The cover looks like someone has sat down and done some awesome doodles. I like it very much.

From Amazon:

Seventeen-year-old Gem feels as if she's beginning to drift away from her best friends, Lo and Mira, with whom she's formed an alliance against the "sucker peers" they call "barcodes." In the spirit of Andy Warhol and his Happenings, Gem comes up with the idea to make an edgy film to screen at an underground party, she thinks this project will bring the three girls back together again. As scriptwriting and production begins, however, she starts to feel that the project is getting out of control.

A quick google reveals that it actually comes in many different covers...

It's a good book :) Anyone else read it? Which cover do you like best?

EDIT: The fantastic Adele over at Persnickety Snark has just interviewed Simmone Howell and has a guest blog coming up soon!

Also, if anyone out there lives in Melbourne you can meet Simmone Howell and Justine Larbalestier on Feb 22!! How cool :)

Love The Cover, Justina Chen Headley

I love the cover of North of Beautiful by Justina Chen Headley. It's a nice photo and I like the cropping, plus the compass superimposed over the top is very cool as well. All in all, I think it's great. Props to the designer!

The book's not out yet but I read a teaser over at Rimas Book Journal.

From the authors's website:

From behind, you’d think Terra Cooper had it all: she’s tall but not too tall, has a figure to kill for, and boasts naturally blonde hair. But the palm-sized birthmark on her face might as well be her fate map. Everyone in her small, touristy town knows what’s hidden beneath the heavy makeup she’s worn since birth. Sick of being the town oddity and even sicker of her caustic mapmaker of a father, Terra yearns to escape the suffocating grid of her life. And then she nearly runs over an Asian Goth boy, her age…and encounters True Beauty in him…and herself.

Explains the hair in the photo! It's always good when the cover actually relates to the book. This one's out on February 1st... I'm looking forward to it :)

Love The Cover, Gabrielle Zevin

I love the cover of Gabrielle Zevin's Memoirs of a Teenage Amnesiac. While the cover design doesn't really give you much of an indication as to what the story will be about, it is very pretty to look at. And anyway, the title Memoirs of a Teenage Amnesiac sums up what the book is about nicely!

I wish my hair fanned out like that. Doesn't it make you want to go lie out in the sun?

The book was also printed with a different cover, typewriter keys. Which is probably more fitting to the story but not as please to my eyes.

Which cover do you prefer?