October 2025: Covers > Likes and Comments
I had the idea when trying to definitively talk myself into reading, or choosing not to read, The Last Cuentista. Looking at other covers made me even more ambivalent. Consider:
- nope, not for me.
- appealing!
- ooh...!
- ah, that's interesting....
Look, also, at The Giver, or A Wrinkle in Time, etc.... Or just about anything that's been made into a movie. So, what do you think are the best editions for some of your favorite titles, and are they the ones you first read or not?
Are there covers that ruin a book for you, that you hope no child will be subjected to?
Coming in early to say the covers for this duology are much more serious/intimidating than the books, which are mostly joyful and even funny in parts. They are wise & thoughtful & quiet-ish, too, but surely there's a more appealing way to depict that vibe.
or
, and
or
.
I tend to not even notice covers (and when I do, it is often for negative reasons, but not always either). For example, while Paula Danziger's novel The Cat Ate My Gymsuit is a personal favourite, the most recent book cover makes me furious
since the girl who is obviously meant to portray main protagonist Marcy Lewis looks really slender, even skinny albeit in the novel, in The Cat Ate My Gymsuit, Marcy has body weight issues, is a bit on the chubby side. And well, the most recent cover image kind of tells me that it is obviously acceptable to write about teenaged girls having body weight issues but clearly not alright to have this depicted on the book cover (and yes, there are older editions where Marcy Lewis is thankfully not shown on the cover as being skinny,
).
Oh and for Judy Blume's novel Forever..., the most recent cover image
clearly focusses only or at least primarily on sexuality, while the edition I read in the 1980s had a cover image that focussed on love and not really on sex (as Forever is also not just about sex and not even primarily about sex either in my opinion),
.And really, if the book cover for Forever clearly focuses on sexuality (even though in my opinion sexuality is just one part of Blume's story) of course the naysayers and book banners might well assume the same and totally judge the story by its cover.
Even though I did not really enjoy Lisa Fipps' Starfish (not because Fipps' novel in verse was horrible but because I found the contents way too personally triggering), I do appreciate that the book cover shows a girl who has issues with her weight
(and not like in the most recent edition of Paula Danziger's
The Cat Ate My Gymsuit which I pointed out in post five clearly shows a girl who is skinny even though Danziger's words obviously say otherwise).Have to say that as someone who has never been skinny and has always had weight issues, I do find it problematic that far too often still, books for young readers featuring children who are "big" often refrain from showing this on the cover (now, if the cover is neutral, ok, I guess even though I would rather see a story of body weight issues depict this on the cover, but the skinny Marcie depicted on the most current The Cat Ate My Gymsuit cover makes me livid, and I bet if Paula Danziger were still alive, she would likely not be happy with this either).
And yes, I do appreciate that with Vashti Harrison's Big, the book cover does show a little girl who is not skinny
.
Love this idea for discussion! I will put my thinking cap on and be back to post later in the month :-)
"Ooh pretty shiny dragonflies!"The original cover caught my attention
Of course anything with a Garth Williams illustration on the cover always caught my eye.
I'm very partial to ladies in 19th century clothing. I then know it's at least something I might want to read. This cover (YA) intrigued me
Yes, I too am drawn to books that have cover art by my favorite illustrators. Garth Brooks did indeed generally illustrate books worthy of his talents. I'm drawing a blank right now, but I do remember that's not always the case... I've been disappointed upon opening a book with art by a favorite on the cover.Gundula, that Cat Ate My Gymsuit cover is terrible indeed, and that's the perfect example of one of the main reasons I started this thread.
Cheryl wrote: "Yes, I too am drawn to books that have cover art by my favorite illustrators. Garth Brooks did indeed generally illustrate books worthy of his talents. I'm drawing a blank right now, but I do remem..."I originally read The Cat Ate My Gymsuit with this cover
but I have only been able to find that horrible and problematic recent one
.
I really enjoyed Alone but I only read the book in the first place because the cover (with the Rottweiler) looks so sweet.
The "add book/author" tab will not bring up the cover of "A Wrinkle in Time" that I first discovered when I was in high school. That book was published in 1964, and I can find the book cover in the listing of the 396 editions on the book's Goodreads page, but apparently I can't copy it from there and paste it here. Anyway, it was a mostly blue cover with people inside of circles. However, the 1964 cover was not particularly appealing, but it was the only cover at the time I read it. There have been more appealing covers since then, such as:
I really enjoyed We Are Wolves (although the ending is rather unrealistically positive and would be better if it were a bit more ambivalent), but when I first shelved the book, the cover image was a bit too visually tame and not nearly aesthetically harsh enough for me (considering the heavy-duty WWII, homelessness and East Prussian refugee children being forced to survive in the forest thematics and the contents), so it took me a few years to actually get around to obtaining a copy and reading We are Wolves, and yes, I am indeed very glad I did and that do warmly recommend the story (for even with the overly positive ending, We are Wolves is a high three to low four star novel for me and otherwise absolutely excellent).
https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
I loved Dan in Green Gables: A Graphic Novel (and the fact that Ray Terciero's graphic novel is in my opinion an homage to Anne Shirley, Anne of Green Gables and L.M. Montgomery and not just a retelling with a male LBGTQ Anne, that Dan is his own person and the story is sweetly and nicely original has made definitely Dan in Green Gables: A Graphic Novel really special, solidly five stars and also with wonderful illustrations by Claudia Aguirre). But the cover image for Dan in Green Gables is also really lovely and at the same time reminds me of AOGG without being too obvious about it (and gives a lovely sense of place and of main character Daniel without giving away any possible story contents spoilers)
And Dan in Green Gables: A Graphic Novel also has a much nicer book cover than is the case for Ray Terciero's Little Women graphic novel, where in Meg, Jo, Beth, and Amy: A Modern Graphic Retelling of Little Women, the book cover already shows me that I will not likely enjoy Bre Indigo's artwork all that much, that the cover image is a hue story spoiler as well (and yes, reading the book, I liked neither text nor images all that much and only rated the book with a low two stars).
This is my favourite book cover for Madeleine L'Engle's Austin Family series, although for all of the other Austin Family novels, I own more contemporary books with pretty blah cover images (well, in my opinion).Meet the Austins
I mean the recent Meet the Austins (from 2008) just do not do it for me, they are not inappropriate but leave me cold.
Meet the Austins
The Moon by Night
The cover I remember from when I read The Moon by Night in 1981 is equally just so much nicer and also so much more evocative.
Beverly wrote: "The "add book/author" tab will not bring up the cover of "A Wrinkle in Time" that I first discovered when I was in high school. That book was published in 1964, and I can find the book cover in the..."The only one I know, from my childhood is this paperback edition
It's eye catching enough but I read it because the resource teacher's daughter used to swap books with me (she went to a different school) and she liked the series. I think we had very different tastes in reading.
I also do not like it when for authors who have been paired with a particular illustrator in one language, when they are translated the illustrator is then changed. For example, for me Astrid Lindgren is always paired with Ilon Wikland. Lotta Makes A Mess!
Tony Ross' illustrations (both on the cover image and inside the story) do not at all have the sweetness of Ilon Wikland (and look kind of caricature like as well) and I really do not understand why Wikland's illustrations have not been used (and I also do not like Tom Geddes' translation all that much either).
For the books I was reading for the Ukrainian topic (Fiction Club), I did not have issues with any of the book covers, but these two covers I consider really visual evocative (and also expressively reflecting the contents)83 Days in Mariupol: A War Diary: A Graphic Novel
Red Harvest: A Novel of the Terror Famine in Soviet Ukraine
Manybooks wrote: "I also do not like it when for authors who have been paired with a particular illustrator in one language, when they are translated the illustrator is then changed. For example, for me Astrid Lindg..."Absolutely. For example, [Lotta and the Bicycle |102340221]
For the Newbery Club I just read
The Many Assassinations of Samir, the Seller of Dreams and the cover is terrible.Way too busy, takes time to parse and even then is odd & vibes something very different than the story. I opine the cover should be very simple. Take the silhouettes of the boy and the man from the chapter headings, put Samir's on the front, and the other on the back. I don't know the best colors - maybe dark red on sand. Let the potential reader be intrigued, not overwhelmed.
Cheryl wrote: "For the Newbery Club I just read The Many Assassinations of Samir, the Seller of Dreams and the cover is ..."Yuck, not just way too busy, but the actual words on the cover image are hard too read because they look too much like the background images.
Cheryl wrote: "Manybooks wrote: "I also do not like it when for authors who have been paired with a particular illustrator in one language, when they are translated the illustrator is then changed. For example, f..."I just cannot accept Astrid Lindgren without Ilon Wikland (and especially for picture and for chapter books).
I really like the cover for Alone (see above) and it was the reason I originally read the book (because the Rottweiler on the cover is so sweet, and indeed, if the Rottweiler had not had a huge part in Alone I would definitely have felt cheated and also not liked Megan E. Freeman's story all that or nearly as much).
But for Away, for the companion book, I only read the book because it is the companion to Away and if I had noticed Away and not Alone first, I probably would not have bothered since the cover image is fine I guess but also in no way draws me visually in in any manner.
I'm not a big fan of darker covers myself. (For this and other reasons, I'm skipping Away.)It does remind me of The Scavengers by Michael Perry for obvious reasons, but I find the latter much more appealing... and it's a good book by a great author, too.
Cheryl wrote: "I'm not a big fan of darker covers myself. (For this and other reasons, I'm skipping Away.)It does remind me of The Scavengers by Michael Perry for obvious reasons, but I find th..."
I am glad I read Away but Alone is much better and you really do not need to read Away to get closure for Alone (since there is not much at all about Maddie and her family).
Really like the cover image for Adam McHeffey's Asiago, as it shows enough to be interesting (a cute and non scary looking young vampire at the beach and also during the daytime) but does not give away too many spoilers either.
My favorite covers are the ones by my favorite artists, especially Trina Schart Hyman, such as 
(to show just a few)
AND
Ruth Sanderson
I also love those Trina Schart Hyman covers, and I also love the covers for Bernadette Watts' picture booksThe Star Child
The Smallest Snowflake
Varenka
Wish You Were Here: Postcards from Franz Kafka
The Bremen Town Musicians
(and many others)
Good points! I, too, am a huge fan of Hyman, and I'll even read books that I'm not interested in just to see her art. (even full-length ones, not just picture-books)
I really loved reading Maizy Chen's Last Chance but I almost decided not to read the book because the cover image is too graphic novel like for me and I wrongfully at first assumed that Lisa Yee's text would be simplistic (which has definitely not been the case at all).
I'm so glad you liked it; I thought you would! (I hope you can find time to report in the Newbery Club, too.) I agree, the cover can easily be interpreted in a way that gives the wrong impression of the book. It's a book with some very serious issues... just told in a manner that's accessible, not a downer.
Cheryl wrote: "I'm so glad you liked it; I thought you would! (I hope you can find time to report in the Newbery Club, too.) I agree, the cover can easily be interpreted in a way that gives the wrong impression..."
Yup, so glad I decided to read this (was an increasingly rare five star book for bothy my inner child and also for adult me). I guess for the intended audience the book cover will likely be appealing, but not really for me all that much.
The Little Bear books HAVE to have the illustrations by Maurice Sendak. They're not his usual creepy style and these are among the only "I Can Read" books I actually liked. This and this are cute but not classics
Good point - Sendak's different illustrations are classic for a reason!
The cover for Marsha Forchuk Skrypuch's young adult Holodomor novel Winterkill is excellent. It shows the greyness of winter, of Joseph Stalin's deliberate starvation (and that Nyl and Alice are obviously dying of hunger), with the cover image also visually pointing out that Winterkill is a very heavy-duty and horrifying novel.
Indeed, good point. That cover made it clear I would not have the wherewithal to read the book.
Cheryl wrote: "Indeed, good point. That cover made it clear I would not have the wherewithal to read the book."I find it much better if the cover image for a heavy duty book makes this clear than if the image looks non heavy, generic (or even the opposite of heavy).
Absolutely. In an example not relevant to children's books, I don't like it when a romance cover looks light & friendly and then I get surprised with a much too spicy scene.
Covers should definitely reflect content, not be bait.
Cheryl wrote: "Absolutely. In an example not relevant to children's books, I don't like it when a romance cover looks light & friendly and then I get surprised with a much too spicy scene.
Covers should definite..."
I agree. This is also my issue with the more recent covers for Judy Blume's oh so often banned YA novel Forever.
The cover image I had when I read Forever in the early 1980s was this
(and for me shows that this is a story primarily about love) but a more recent cover image from 2005 makes it appear as though EVERYTHING in the novel, in Forever will be about sex and nothing but sex, which is simply not true (and also caters to the haters and the book banners)
.
The Dollhouse: A Ghost Story
Really like the book cover and how the image of supposedly haunted Blackstone House really draws potential readers in (I like Charis Cotter as an author any how, but the depicted and almost glowing house with the lit up attic really sold me.
This is such an interesting topic to cover. I'm a huge sucker for covers and it will often be the main thing that attracts me to a book. I'll then read the blurb to see if I'm likely to enjoy reading it. I'm the same when buying wine haha.It's something I really struggled with when publishing my own children's picture book - should the cover be a visual summation of the story or just something pretty to get the book picked up on the shelf.
Jonny wrote: "This is such an interesting topic to cover. I'm a huge sucker for covers and it will often be the main thing that attracts me to a book. I'll then read the blurb to see if I'm likely to enjoy readi..."I honestly do not think the cover should be a visual summation (as that would in my opinion be a potential spoiler), but it should show what the theme is and be a hook for potential readers/buyers.
Designing covers is a challenge. The best ones manage to be appealing, relevant, and honest - all at once. Ones that lie to me about the content really frustrate me, like Days at the Morisaki Bookshop, in which there is no bicycle nor cat.
I really love the book title and the cover image for Whitney Gardner's 2025 graphic novel Free Piano Not Haunted
, but when I read the story, I found this didactic and boring (and it took me almost two months to finish). So yes, an engaging cover image and title can also be misleading if the contents and the thematics do not measure up and hold up.https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
That's too bad. Sometimes the cover is the best, or possibly the only, redeeming quality of the book.
I really like the book cover for Marilyn Sachs' 1971 The Bears' House
. The cover really says 1970s to me (as I had books with very similar looking covers in the 1970s). And the 1989 cover for the sequel, for the 1987 Fran Ellen's House
also says 1980s to me, as many of the books I read as a teenager in the 1980s looked very similar.
Manybooks wrote: "And the 1989 cover for the sequel, for the 1987 Fran Ellen's House Fran Ellen's House by Marilyn Sachs also says 1980s to me, as many of the books I read as a teenager in the 1980s looked very similar.."Yes I liked those cheap paperbacks too. The Scholastic Apple book fair flyer was the best thing ever!
QNPoohBear wrote: "Manybooks wrote: "And the 1989 cover for the sequel, for the 1987 Fran Ellen's House Fran Ellen's House by Marilyn Sachs also says 1980s to me, as many of the books I read as a teenager in the 1980..."I loved ordering books at school from Scholastic!!
Cheryl wrote: "What makes an appealing cover? Should the cover reflect the book accurately, or should it serve primarily to attract readers? What are some of your favorites? Look at the many many editions of cl..."
The covers are very important, because they are the first thing that catches our attention. So, they have to reflect the atmosphere of the book as best as possible.
Look at the many many editions of classic titles, for example The Secret Garden. Those of us who read an older edition, illustrated by Tasha Tudor, might be uncomfortable with some of the newer artists' interpretations.