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November 12, 2009 by Travis Jonker

Cover Controversy: Making Waves

November 12, 2009 by Travis Jonker   Leave a Comment

great-wave-off-kanagawa

Few things can build anticipation like a curling wave. Where’s it going? What’s going to happen? Hokusai captured the mood perfectly in his iconic The Great Wave off Kanagawa (above). A trio of recent children’s book covers understand this and in doing so give off a distinctive separated-at-birth vibe. Let’s have a look:

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necksoutcov

Necks out for Adventure! by Timothy Basil Ering.

Number two:

alistaircov

Alistair and Kip’s Great Adventure by John Segal.

And to complete the trio:

missing-the-boat

Missing the Boat by Wayne Chinsang and Justin Shady.

Side by side by side:

necksoutcovalistaircovmissing-the-boat

Characters atop big waves, the nontraditional lettering – it’s a match folks. Hokusai would be proud.

Filed under: Cover Curiosity

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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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