It's been awhile, but I've been making a list of covers that caught my eye (for good or ill) lately and thought it was time to toss them out there for public consideration. Please note this is all about cover design and nothing more.

First up is the paperback edition of Cecil Castellucci's Beige which takes full advantage of the growing teen musician appeal. I've counted at least a half dozen titles in recent catalogs that all involve a teen who plays guitar (either famous or not) and clearly the Candlewick folks wanted to make sure readers knew exactly what Cecil was writing about here. I think it works quite well although man, I'd love a break from dark covers for awhile. With all the black and purple on the vamp titles, a little blue or red would not have been a bad idea but it's still good.

I just received Saundra Mitchell's Shadowed Summer and plan to read it for possible inclusion in the April mystery column but the cover gave me reason to pause. I like the gate and cemetery (the story involves a ghost) but the girl just didn't look right. It took a couple of minutes before I realized that her head is the same size as her waist. Up close you can practically see the lines where the photoshopping was done here - the body and the head and the arm are likely all from different models. I don't know what on earth book designer Trish Watts (according to the copyright page) was thinking or why Delacorte let this slip by. The cover would be much more appealing without the model entirely and only the cemetery to sell the story. (Have they not seen the zillion vamp books out there? Cemeteries sell.)

I mean really - her head is as big as the tombstones. Very very odd.

Beth Kephart has a new one due out this fall from Egmont and I think they've done a nice job of making the book visually appealing to thoughtful teens. Here's a bit from Beth's site on Dangerous Neighbors: "Could any two sisters be more tightly bound together than the twins, Katherine and Anna? Yet love and fate intervene to tear them apart. Katherine's guilt and sense of betrayal leaves her longing for death, until a surprise encounter and another near catastrophe rescue her from a tragic end."

It's set during the Philadelphia Centennial fair of 1876, which makes the historian in me very curious, and honestly I'm surprised not to see a period specific cover - although maybe Egmont is hoping to lure in readers who might normally pass up on historical fiction. Either way, nicely done. (And the color is going to stand way out.)

There is a lot about Ali Shaw's The Girl With the Glass Feet that appeals to me - the whole story sounds like the best sort of fairy tale spin, and the cover certainly has the romantic sort of feeling that I think Henry Holt was looking for. It's just pretty to look at, isn't it? But....it also looked vaguely familiar and then I finally remembered Lauren Goff's short story collection Delicate Edible Birds (which I keep meaning to read). Same light blue, same fanciful leaf design and the birds look quite similar as well, don't they? (Although one is a partridge and one more a raven - they seem to belong to the same shadowy world though.) Nothing wrong here but the similarities are worth noting nonetheless.

Also make a note to seek out Sonya Hartnett's upcoming title Butterfly (August from Candlewick) as it has a most evocative cover that seems pitch perfect based on the book's description (I have an ARC beside me and I'm looking forward to reading it - and note the cover is not the same as the UK/AUS version). Also check out the fabulous cover for Robin McKinley's Pegasus - I'm sure the ten year old girl in all of us is swooning with joy over this one. (It is not a MG novel at all, but I'm sure you agree that is the most flying horse swoony age for all of us.) (Not that I'd mind a flying horse right now, however.)