Covering the Newbery (#7): Gay Neck: The Story of a Pigeon
My mission is this – give each and every Newbery Medal-winning book a new cover, beginning way back in the golden days of 1922 and working my way up to today. I have a ways to go, so enough with the chatter – let’s take a look at the latest cover redo.
1928: Gay Neck: The Story of a Pigeon by Dhan Gopal Mukerji, illustrated by Boris Artzybasheff
Original Cover:
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My Redo:
Side by side:
Verdict: Simplified, but maybe too YA-ish. What do you say?
Read Previous Covering the Newbery Posts:
1927: Smoky, the Cowhorse by Will James
1926: Shen of the Sea by Arthur Bowie Chrisman
1925: Tales from Silver Lands by Charles J. Finger
1924: The Dark Frigate by Charles Boardman Hawes
1923: The Voyages of Doctor Dolittle by Hugh Lofting
1922: The Story of Mankind by Hendrik Willem Van Loon
(Source Image: “See, told ya, he’s late again!” http://www.flickr.com/photos/linhngan/3953821298/)
Filed under: Covering the Newbery, 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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I love that you’re doing this series. I like the GAY NECK design, but it feels more like a poster than a dust jacket (I think it’s all that white at the bottom). For my money, your VOYAGES OF DR. DOLITTLE design is the one to beat!
A poster – yes I can see that, Jonathan! I think you hit the nail on the head. Funny how tricky it is to get to something that looks like an actual book cover. You’d think you could put a title on there and it would be clear, but that certain “cover-ness” can be elusive. Thanks for your thoughts.
I love the new cover! I like the image, where one pigeon (Gay-Neck, presumably) is in flight. I wasn’t thinking it was too YAish until you pointed it out. To somebody completely unfamiliar with the book, they might think it was about a gay teen and not about a pigeon at all?
I like the image, but it won’t help the book’s popularity (nothing but a title change could do that). I don’t like the scribbley font for the title, though – it makes me think of little pigeon feet and pigeon poop.
I love this feature, and there’s a few unfortunate Newbery covers that I can’t wait to see you take on!
Thanks Sandy, I have fun putting them together.
I really like this cover too, but it definitely does have a YA look to it. It looks all modern and urban and somewhat dark. I agree with Madigan, it looks like it could possibly be about a gay teen. But this cover is much more pick-up-able than the original!
I say it’s too Hitchcock!