Judging a Carnegie book by its cover - we're not so keen

Last time we did a bit on covers, we showed off the Carnegie 2013 longlist covers that we liked. This time it's the covers that didn't quite do it for us. In all cases here, the cover has put at least one of us off from reading it. For us then, the judging a book by its cover seems to work in a negative rather than a positive way. Good job we tend to look inside the covers too - although bright green.....

Black Arts - Prentice and Weil

 

 

Too animated (as in graphics not behaviour), unrealistic, too young, uninteresting

 

 

A Waste of Good Paper - Sean Taylor

 

 

Doesn't look like crumpled paper; dull; not keen on the font

 

 

15 Days Without a Head - Dave Cousins

 

 

Looks like a joke or toddlers book. We have seen an American edition which we prefer.

 

 

Goblins - Philip Reeve

 

 

Really don't like the bright green; cartoony; monstery; goofy

 

 

Maggot Moon - Sally Gardner

 

 

Although M liked the overall starkness and the coloured eyes on this cover none of us liked the thing coming out of the head. And the maggots....It makes more sense after reading the book, but still.....There is an adult version of this cover too and we have a wonderful post that shows all the different ideas and steps that went into designing these covers.

Maggot Moon is the only book on today's list that any of us have read: and it's absolutely fantastic. If you don't like the head-thing, get a copy with the adult cover. A similar case in point for us was A Monster Calls by Patrick Ness. Neither of us liked the children's illustrated edition....but we quite liked the adult cover and bought that (and thoroughly enjoyed the novel).