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January 19, 2011 by Travis Jonker

Award Seal as Design Element: A Cover First?

January 19, 2011 by Travis Jonker   7 comments

Today I was checking out upcoming releases using Edelweiss (a great place to go for publisher catalogs y’all) when I came across a book that was released back in September – the paperback edition of Zorgamazoo by Robert Paul Weston. If you remember, the original cover made an impression on me.

But this new design? It may just be a world’s first.

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How is it unique? Take a look:

That’s right, the awards it has won (E.B. White, Silver Birch) have been incorporated into the cover illustration as balloons held by the main character, Katrina Katrell. Very cool.

Now a question for the masses (this includes, of course Peter from Collecting Children’s Books) – is this the first book you’ve seen do such a thing?

*Update* Author Robert Paul Weston talks a bit about the cover on his blog. Click here to read.

*Update* In the comments, Al uncovered another example of award seal  with The Brain Finds a Leg by Martin Chatterton (with the Junior Library Guild selection seal). Take a look:

I see this as more of a particular placement than incorporating the seal into the cover artwork, but it is certainly planned. Any others you know of?

Filed under: Articles, 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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Reader Interactions

Comments

  1. BookMoot says

    January 19, 2011 at 2:02 am

    So how fast did they turn this out? Was the design waiting in the wings just in case? Interesting.

    • Travis says

      January 19, 2011 at 6:40 am

      Well, The E.B. White finalists were released in April, and the winner was announced in May – the Silver Birch also was declared in May. Seeing as how this cover came out in September, I think it’s safe to assume this design wasn’t waiting in the wings, but was just a clever response to the awards.

    • Al says

      January 19, 2011 at 12:43 pm

      Check out THE BRAIN FINDS A LEG cover…

      • Travis says

        January 19, 2011 at 12:49 pm

        Ah-ha! I knew there had to be other examples of this. Thanks for sending it my way – I’ll add it to the post

  2. Brenda Kahn says

    January 19, 2011 at 5:47 pm

    It didn’t win an award, but Melanie Watt’s first Chester book, well, Chester, had an outline drawn on the cover for future award placement. I found that the first of many hilarious moments.

    brenda

  3. nomadreader (Carrie) says

    January 20, 2011 at 3:05 pm

    Genius. Simply genius.

Trackbacks

  1. Morning Notes: All Cop Edition — @100scopenotes 100 Scope Notes says:
    January 20, 2016 at 1:06 am

    […] award stickers on books (visit the ALA store if you need some) I love a good medal placement post. I’ve talked about the topic in the past. Bottom Shelf books took it to the extreme last year. And yesterday Tales of an Elementary School […]

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