Comments on: Why Does This Picture-Book Cover Work? Elizabeth Matthews’s ‘Different Like Coco’

By: 1minutebookreviewswordpresscom

1minutebookreviewswordpresscom — Thu, 25 Sep 2008 03:32:50 +0000

Tara: You’ve identified a very common problem with children’s books: Many of them are designed to appeal more to adults than children. One recent example was Steve Martin’s The Alphabet From A to Y … With Bonus Letter Z.

But I wonder if the issue with Different Like Coco isn’t the art, which I still think is strong, but whether 4-year-olds will “get” it. You could argue that the issues of “art” and “audience” are inseparable, given that this is a book for 4-to-8-year-olds. As in your daughter’s case, covers do matter tremendously to children who read picture books. Yet I’ve so seen so many dumbed-down picture books that I admire authors try to avoid condescending to children.And Matthews seems to be one who tries to speak “across” to children rather than down to them.

It will be interesting to see how this book fares over time, or whether it will still have a place in libraries in a couple of decades, because that’s the real test of whether children like it.
Jan

By: tara

tara — Thu, 25 Sep 2008 00:23:41 +0000

Janice, I was lead to this page after I wrote a post of my own about picture book covers. I have to agree with Miki in that I find this cover far more appealing than my own daughter does, and she’s within its target age range. The little dog captured her attention, but she thought Coco actually looked “mean” (her word, not mine). I don’t know if it’s the black suit or the thin arms, but she isn’t interested in reading it. I wonder if the publisher did intend to appeal to mothers instead of daughters, as it’s the parents who know Coco Chanel. I’m going to be checking it out of our library, but for me! My daughter’s taste in book covers leans towards the pinkilicious and the fancy like Nancy, not the refined like Coco.

By: 1minutebookreviewswordpresscom

1minutebookreviewswordpresscom — Fri, 26 Oct 2007 01:02:36 +0000

A postscript on this book and libraries:
My sense is that “Different Like Coco” been selling strongly to libraries, because when I asked mine to order it, the librarians were willing but said that their supplier had sold out and the book was on back order for about six week. This suggests to me that maybe library suppliers had underestimated the demand.

I also just checked the coding on the copyright page of the copy of “Different Like Coco” that my library finally got and saw that it came from the second printing. So Candlewick has had go to back to press at least once on this one, which certainly doesn’t happen with every book by a first-time author (especially in its first year of publication).

By: 1minutebookreviewswordpresscom

1minutebookreviewswordpresscom — Fri, 26 Oct 2007 00:45:32 +0000

Amanda: My feelings, too. At the Plain Dealer, I saw virtually all the children’s books sent out by major publishers, and among books for 4-to-8-year-olds, I got far more good fiction and poetry than nonfiction. The ratio was maybe 100-to-1. And almost all the nonfiction was instructional or related to topics like nature and the environment. Biographies were almost nonexistent for children below the 9-to-12-year-old age range.

Do you know any good picture-book biographies for younger children? If so, the parents and teachers who are following these comments might like to have some suggestions. Thanks so much for your comment.
Jan

By: speedytexaslibrarian

speedytexaslibrarian — Fri, 26 Oct 2007 00:21:38 +0000

I think this book will sell well to libraries. Speaking as someone who buys for the children’s collection, it can be hard to find good picture-book biographies for the younger set. I’m certainly going to consider purchasing this one.

By: 1minutebookreviewswordpresscom

1minutebookreviewswordpresscom — Thu, 25 Oct 2007 23:28:49 +0000

If there were a Nobel Prize for book design, Chip Kidd is the first designer a lot of people would nominate. He is so good. I got many, many of his covers when I was the book editor of the Plain Dealer. And I’d love to do a post on one of his covers in this space. Keep your fingers crossed that one comes across my desk …

By: Laura

Laura — Thu, 25 Oct 2007 21:09:05 +0000

The discussion of cover design reminds me a book that came out a little while back- Chip Kidd, Book 1: Work 1986-2006. Chip Kidd is a cover designer and this volume compiles some of his best and/or most striking work as well as speaking to the elements and psychology of cover design. It’s pretty interesting. And the book itself features a very effective cover.

By: 1minutebookreviewswordpresscom

1minutebookreviewswordpresscom — Thu, 25 Oct 2007 15:38:37 +0000

Miki: My original plan with this series on covers was to include my comments at the end of the review, so that I’d be talking about the covers in a context, but it made the posts too long … I especially wish I could have done it with this book.

Coco Chanel’s mother died when she was young, after which she was sent to a girls’ convent school, and the book devotes a lot of space to her childhood. So “Different Like Coco” reads like one of the “orphan stories” that children traditionally love (from “Heidi” to “Harry Potter”). But, I agree, the cover doesn’t suggest that, and you could be right that it will appeal more to adults. My sense is that the cover will appeal to children, because of the wit and the dog and the interest in fashion that children of both sexes seem to be developing at younger and younger ages.

But I love both your and Kev’s comments, because I think that they’re exactly the kind of issues that book awards judges might raise. It will be so interesting to see what happens when these start being handed out in a few months, won’t it?’
Jan

By: 1minutebookreviewswordpresscom

1minutebookreviewswordpresscom — Thu, 25 Oct 2007 15:18:26 +0000

Kev: You’re right — the drawings ARE a bit Searle-ish, but I hadn’t thought of that until you mentioned it. Thanks for pointing out the similarity. About the appeal to 4-to-9 year olds, see the following comments for Miki …

By: Miki

Miki — Thu, 25 Oct 2007 12:33:48 +0000

Regardless of my opinion about this book cover, this is really an interesting entry, for me as a painter and as a book reader. And as a French woman, whose mother always dreamt of wearing Coco Chanel´s clothes!
I don´t agree with the assumption “it will stand out among its shelf-mates”. I think this cover is very well done, and everything you are saying about it seems true to me, but not in this context. I think this is a cover which would appeal to adults, and not to children. I am not speaking about the content of the book (Like Kev Moore, I don´t understand how an old, long time dead French fashion designer could interest American children from 4 up….). I am really speaking only about the cover.
The drawing is really nice, a kind of caricature I like, but doesn´t correspond to the style of drawings that appeal to children. It reminds me very much of the characters from the Painter Toulouse-Lautrec, which are internationally well-known now, but which certainly were not meant for children. Most of them were whores…
The sales statistics will tell who is right!

By: kevmoore

kevmoore — Thu, 25 Oct 2007 10:40:34 +0000

The drawing style reminds me a little of an old English illustrator…if my memory isn’t failing me, I think his name was Ronald Searle (at least I think he was English) His illustrations were used to good comic effect on film titles. From that standpoint, I can see why the design appeals to children, but I have to confess I’m wondering why a book about Coco Chanel would appeal to 4-9 year olds. Am I missing something? Or is it because I’m a guy!