Newbery/Caldecott Placement Predictions
Yesterday I wondered aloud if cover art illustrators/designers ever take award placement into consideration when doing their work. Do they ever toy with the thought, I pondered, that a big honkin’ award sticker might someday be slapped on top of their creation?
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Cover Art Illustrator (to self): Dude, this book is good. Like award-winning good. Maybe I should leave just a little bit more room in the corner.
Cover Art Illustrator (out loud): Ha.
Cover Art Illustrator (to self): Don’t laugh. Just drop that title font by a couple points, switch it to arial narrow, and you’re golden.
Cover Art Illustrator: (quietly makes the changes.)
Uninformed musings? Yes. Is this a consideration? Well, I guess not. But, just for fun, let’s say that my predictions for the Caldecott and Newbery came true. Where would those award stickers go? First up, Caldecott…
“The Wall” By Peter Sis is up first. This one seems like a bit of a no-brainer. I think that high placement will typically win out over low placement and right side of the cover will usually win over left. So there it goes.
“Pssst!” By Adam Rex. The wonderful children’s lit blogger Wizard’s Wireless said that she sees this award fitting better under Mr. Rex’s name, which I could also see. But I’m going to stick to my thought yesterday and say it’s going up top.
“Leaves” By David Ezra Stein. This one looks best to me right under the title, just to the side of the tree trunk. If the book is called “Leaves” you gotta show the tree.
Now, Newbery…
“Elijah of Buxton”. Wow. Tell me that doesn’t belong. The perfect place for some Newbery recognition.
“Feathers” By Jacqueline Woodson. I’m going to guess low on this one. It kind of balances out the cover.
We’ll find out where the awards will really go when the awards are announced live on January 14th at 7:45 am. Be sure to tune in!
*Disclaimer* The book cover images contained in this post were altered for the purpose of discussion.
*Update* Actual award images were removed and replaced with blank circles. Fire up those imaginations!
Filed under: Articles
About Travis Jonker
Travis Jonker is an elementary school librarian in Michigan. He writes reviews (and the occasional article or two) for School Library Journal and is a member of the 2014 Caldecott committee. You can email Travis at scopenotes@gmail.com, or follow him on Twitter: @100scopenotes.
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Wow, those are some intoxicating images. It’s amazing how much authority those stickers lend to the jacket covers.
Incidentally, did you know that when a book wins an ALA award, the publisher has to buy the stickers, and then pay for the labor to have someone physically affix it to each book? A pretty small cost, given the overnight popularity the book has just gained as a result of winning the award, but still, I think it’s interesting.
I wasn’t aware of that! Yes, it makes sense given the guaranteed post-award bump. I wondered how that worked. I was also wondering this: do they pull all of the books from the shelf to apply the award?
No, they don’t pull the books off the shelf to apply the award…. the award only goes on the new books. You can tell if the book was purchased before it won the award, because it won’t have the pretty sticker on it. Libraries (and anyone else) can buy the award stickers from the ALA and affix them to previously purchased books.
See this link to buy all the award stickers you ever wanted!
http://www.alastore.ala.org/SiteSolution.taf?_sn=catalog&_pn=sub_category&_op=62
If the link doesn’t work, go to the ALA store (http://www.alastore.ala.org), and click on ALA Award Posters & Seals.
-Susan
Thanks for the knowledge! I’ll be using that link shortly, no doubt.