Unfortunate Covers (#1)

May 25, 2008 by Travis Jonker 7 comments

In my job as a school librarian, I occasionally run into books with unfortunate covers. By “unfortunate” I mean this: an otherwise solid book is saddled with cover art that does nothing for its kid appeal. You just know that no matter how hard you try to recommend it to a student, they’re gonna take one look at that cover, quietly put it back on the shelf and begin to think you’re nuts. In an effort to bring these transgressions to light, I present to you the first in a series of these unfortunate covers:

“Superfudge”

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1982 Dell Yearling paperback edition. I dare you to take one look at this cover and not be at least a little creeped out. For me, its the facial expressions that do it. Thankfully “Superfudge” has undergone a few makeovers since this one.

Filed under: Unfortunate Covers

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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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Comments

Lael says

March 5, 2010 at 10:06 am

Where to start, so many, so little time . . .
Robert McCarty says

May 16, 2012 at 5:54 am

Funny, cheeky, relevant and a bit sad for the writer or publisher…
I’m recommending this post to all members of IPNE (Independent Publishers of New England).
Robert McCarty
Barking Planet Productions

Trackbacks

Unfortunate Covers (#3) « 100 Scope Notes says:

June 27, 2008 at 2:37 am

[…] This one was difficult to include in the ongoing Unfortunate Covers series (click here for #1 and #2), but unfortunate it seems to be – at least in the eyes of some of the students I work […]
Want a Book? 100 Scope Notes Book Giveaway « 100 Scope Notes says:

July 2, 2008 at 3:30 am

[…] things movin’! Just for fun, I even threw in a book that was recently bestowed upon with Unfortunate Cover status. It’s the original folks, and sure to be a collectors item. Collectors everywhere are […]
Unfortunate Covers (#4) « 100 Scope Notes says:

July 23, 2008 at 3:11 am

[…] a look at previous Unfortunate Covers. #1, #2, […]
Unfortunate Covers (#5) « 100 Scope Notes says:

September 4, 2008 at 3:04 am

[…] a look at previous Unfortunate Covers. #1, #2, #3, #4) Possibly related posts: (automatically generated)Who Recorded The Best My Bloody […]
Covers: The good, the bad, and the ugly « the open book says:

December 9, 2009 at 12:30 pm

[…] Covers: The good, the bad, and the ugly People have been talking a lot about cover art lately, what with all the Best-Of Lists floating around this time of year. When it comes to cover art, I’ve found that people are shockingly opinionated. Maybe you can’t judge a book by its cover, but you can still judge the cover. Sometimes cover controversy is about larger issues, but more often than not it’s pure aesthetics: what looks good, what looks really bad? […]