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September 25, 2008 by Travis Jonker

Unfortunate Covers (#6)

September 25, 2008 by Travis Jonker   6 comments

(Take a look at previous Unfortunate Covers. #1, #2, #3, #4, #5)

While I was going through the fiction shelves the other day, I came across a book cover that I’d seen years ago, but had forgotten all about. This, the sixth entry into the ongoing Unfortunate Covers series is the first title that I might be inclined to call “awesomely unfortunate”.

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Before I get ahead of myself, let’s take a look:

“Dancing Carl” by Gary Paulsen. An unrelated comment: don’t you hate it when the barcode is covering the title? Rest assured, this happened well before my watch. Keep those titles barcode free, I say. Anyway, what you have here is an unfortunate cover. A solid book besotted with a cover that isn’t upping the shelf appeal. A close up:

I like how Carl is shown doing his little hand raise thing. Personally I like to think of it as Carl imploring the reader to “Get up out ‘cha seat and dance, like me!”

Click here to take a look at the most recent “Dancing Carl” cover.

On a side note, this unfortunate cover struck me as oddly similar to another famous title:

The perspective, the trees, the wintery night time setting, the use of the color yellow – similarities abound.

Click here to read a great post at Becky’s Book Reviews about this and other Narnia covers.

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

  1. blbooks says

    September 25, 2008 at 1:20 pm

    Oh how familiar that Narnia cover is. 🙂 Those are the unfortunate covers of the Narnia books when I first discovered them way back when.

  2. Scope Notes says

    September 25, 2008 at 2:15 pm

    I was recalling your post on those Narnia covers when I noticed the similarities, but I couldn’t find it when I searched. If you have the link to that post handy, I can add it in!

  3. Becky says

    September 25, 2008 at 5:33 pm

    I’ve had several posts on those covers through the years, take your pick…
    http://blbooks.blogspot.com/2008/03/btt-judging-book-by-its-cover.html
    http://blbooks.blogspot.com/2007/09/whats-in-cover.html

Trackbacks

  1. Unfortunate Covers (#7) « 100 Scope Notes says:
    December 3, 2008 at 3:04 am

    […] #1, #2, #3, #4, #5, #6. […]

  2. Unfortunate Covers (#8) « 100 Scope Notes says:
    March 12, 2009 at 2:07 am

    […] Unfortunate Cover, so take a look at past picks if you need your memory jogged: #1, #2, #3, #4, #5, #6, […]

  3. Unfortunate Covers (#9) « 100 Scope Notes says:
    April 16, 2009 at 3:03 am

    […] #2, #3, #4, #5, #6, #7, […]

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