Here we go - another round of cover analysis!

I mentioned a couple of weeks ago when writing about my July column how impressed I was with the cover on Sherri Smith's Flygirl. Other than the obvious fact that it is beautiful (and it really is - you have to see it in person to appreciate it), I think this is a perfect example of a book about a female protagonist that has a cover design which would appeal to either sex. They get the girls with Ida Mae Jones but they get the boys with the airplane (and believe me - they will get the boys with those planes.) They also cross the color line here which is part of the story. The girl on the cover could be black or white - it's unclear what her complete ethnicity is (she's black and white in fact) so readers of multiple races will be interested. All in all this is about as good as it gets cover-wise and perfectly depicts the character and the story. It's wonderful.

I did not request Another Faust by Daniel & Dina Nayeri and when it showed up in the mail the other day my immediate thought was "I hate them". One look at this cover and its obviously spoiled, rich, obnoxious five main characters and I was done. One particularly annoying thing - they are all white. I thought at first the girl in the middle might be a minority character (maybe mixed race?) but really, it's mostly just a picture of rich white kids. (I love the glasses on the girl in the front - want to bet that one of them is described as "smart" and its her?) A quick review of the online catalog shows this is all about five kids who are part of a "faustian" bargain who show up mysteriously at - wait for it - the "elite Manhattan Marlowe School"!!! Yes, we are rich, we are white, we are "enigmatic", we "deftly cheat, steal, hide and lie" (I think that's all code for "we are the coolest teens ever") and we go to an expensive private school!

Okay, some pretty common YA elements at work here, that's for sure.

On the one hand, the cover does perfectly depict what this book is about, on the other hand - the cover perfectly depicts what the book is about. For all the intrigue about the Faust bits, really it's just rich, misunderstood, dangerous and bad and everybody wants to be them. It will attract some readers, I'm sure but I think they went the wrong way here. The cover is so obvious that the mystery is secondary. The only question is whether or not there are enough white bread teens out there to go for what the authors are selling. If the "Gossip Girls" crowd finds them, I imagine they'll be fine. As for me, I don't think so.

Oh wait - the print catalog provides more information. Yes, glasses girl has to "hog the awards, rule the debate team, get a perfect GPA". The athletic blonde guy? Yea, he would be the "killer athlete". And pretty blonde girl is "desperate to be drop dead gorgeous". That leaves the curly haired slightly rumpled guy (long hair of course); he would be "hell-bent on being a famous writer" and my mystery girl in the middle is - oh lord yes of course - that is "Bice" who "really likes her alone time - and when she's lost in a book, it's like time actually....stops". (That would be your melodramatic plot hint.) Wow, they must be going for the most teen cliches in one novel award. Can any sort of supernatural mystery carry readers through all this predictable teen angst? I'd love to see the outline for this one - I bet there was a checklist of looks and personalities that was followed.

DK always does a great job with their books but the cover for Prehistoric Life is really stellar. It's simple, it's direct and it tells you what the book is about while still remaining artistic and beautiful. It's not typical - no dinosaurs - but instead a lovely fossil. It's going to jump right out when seen on the shelves; it certainly caught my eye.

Finally, from Paula Morris we have Ruined: A Ghost Story. The plot here is pretty straightforward - Rebecca goes to post Katrina New Orleans to stay with her "voodoo obsessed aunt". While near a graveyard one night (Hmmm...why was she there?) she meets a ghost girl whose been dead for 150 years. The dead girl and Rebecca unearth a mystery in her aunt's house. Meanwhile there is some other more mundane drama with school and boys and whoa - "an elite group of popular girls who may be linked ot the ghostly mystery themselves". The cover gives you the haunting and plenty of New Orleans cemetery atmosphere. If the plot holds up nearly as well as this picture does, it should be a nice little mystery.