You see hundreds or thousands of book covers — at least in your peripheral vision — every time you enter a bookstore or library, and they probably influence what you pick up and maybe buy or take to the checkout desk. But how much do you really know about why they work or don’t work?
Last week I wrote about why Katha Pollitt’s new essay collection, Learning to Drive, is a good book with a cover that doesn’t serve it well (Oct. 16 and 17). Tomorrow I’ll consider the cover of Elizabeth Matthews’s picture book about Coco Chanel for ages 4 and up, Different Like Coco, which I reviewed on Oct. 21 www.oneminutebookreviews.wordpress.com/2007/10/21/ and also liked. This book is undoubtedly one that the judges for the 2008 Caldecott Medal will look at when they meet to select the winners in January, partly because there are so few good picture-book biographies for children under age 9 that the American Library Association www.ala.org rarely has a chance to honor them. What might the Caldecott committee say? Good cover or bad? Can you give three reasons why the cover works or doesn’t? Check back tomorrow to see if your reasons agree with mine.
(c) 2007 Janice Harayda. All rights reserved.
One-Minute Book Reviews 
I don’t know anything about art or graphics, but I do know what I like, and I like this. I could imagine it as a poster in my daughter’s room. I think the cover shows a stylish woman who is not afraid to be her own person, happy, with her head held high.. a nice message for kids. I like the placement of the title and the curly girly font. The color is nice too. I’d give it an “A”.
Comment by lisamm — October 25, 2007 @ 1:03 am |
As you’ll soon see, Lisa, you and I think alike. And the poster hadn’t occurred to me. What a great idea.
Comment by 1minutebookreviewswordpresscom — October 25, 2007 @ 1:57 am |