Cover Controversy: Blatent Barrette Banning
Reader Misti clued me in to the fact that a trend first unearthed by A Fuse #8 Production seems to be growing. In what could be nothing other than a cost-saving move, more and more book cover photo-shoot crews have chosen to forgo a hairstylist completely, with shockingly unkempt and windblown results. Let’s have a look…
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The Frenzy by Francesca Lia Block.
Breathless by Jessica Warman
Keep Sweet by Michele Greene
Raven Speak by Diane Lee Wilson
Birth Marked by Caragh M. O’Brien
Impossible by Nancy Werlin
The theme is undeniable.
Any to add?
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Filed under: Cover Curiosity, Covers
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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This is HYSTERICAL. I do get a pang of sorrow for the poor designers…how do these Vulcan Mindmelds happen? It happens to us writers, too. You work on your book for years upon years and then finally, your unique subject matter is about to hit the world and on your pub date, everyone has a book out about, say, elephants who wear toupees. There is the picture book, The Elephant Who Wore a Toupee, the middle grade tome, My Teacher is an Elephant Who Wears a Toupee, and of course the YA, The Vampire Toupee-Wearing Elephant.
I think you should run with the elephant book idea. Toupee-wearing really is underrepresented in children’s lit. It was in Bee Wigged by Cece Bell, but the world needs more!