Spring YA Covers: Yes, dresses--but also swords and fire and blood, blood red

There was a time when you could tell a fantasy was “Young Adult” because the cover featured a one-word title and a gorgeous dress or exceptionally great hair. Nothing wrong with that, of course.  But today’s covers—dark, mysterious, sometimes explosive—offer a refreshing variety of images.

Not that designers don’t get messages from the great hive mind. This season (meaning January-June 2014), the message seems to have been “darkly mysterious blue,” alternating with “eye-popping red.” Anything to drag us across that bookstore, right?

Also there are badass heroines and heroes, swords, eyes compelling or threatening, fire, shadow, explosions—and marvelous dresses. Can’t wait to read these books!

“Young Adult” in this case means age 12 to 18. As always, if there’s a cover we’ve overlooked, please link to it in the comments.

Tell us which is your favorite, and why!

(Click the link below to see the covers)

Spring MG covers: The Light! And the genders. Also hooves. And goldfish.

Ever since Harry, Ron, and Hermione, the two-boy-one-girl combo has been a winner. That’s apparent in this season’s roster of middle-grade fantasy covers, although we see pretty much every combination of genders. (Interestingly, there seem to be more all-girl covers than all-boy—we’ll leave you to debate what THAT means.)

The girls, we’re pleased to note, appear to be active  and self-sufficient—we didn't find any “boy reaches out to help girl climb the castle stairs” motifs. Girls have swords nowadays, and they know how to use them.

Once again this season, light is a big factor. Sometimes  our heroes run toward it, sometimes away, but designers know that a bright and mysterious light on a cover always will draw the eye.

Some publishers seem to be lowering the age-range for middle grade—we included several covers this time that were earmarked for ages “8 to 12” rather than the usual “9 to 12” or “10 to 14.” As a result, some of the covers look a little younger than in the past.

These covers hit the bookstores between January and June 2014. If you know of a great one we’ve overlooked, please link to it in the comments. 

And tell us which is your favorite!

(Click the link to see the covers . . .)

Fall YA Fantasy Covers: Gorgeous & Eerie

Fantasy covers for a young-adult audience tend to go with the flow—specifically, flowing dresses and hair. This year’s gorgeous fall covers have some of that—okay, a lot of it—but most of those we collected go off in various cool directions.

LOTS of cool directions.  Early on, we despaired of finding any common themes at all.  But then we looked closer and noticed . . . The Bare Shoulder. 

Yes! *fist pump*

These stunning covers are from books with pub dates between July and December 2013. We defined “young adult” as written for teens 12 and older.

The covers start after the "read more" jump. As always, if we missed one you wish we’d caught, please link to it in the comments. And—as always—we want to know your favorites!

Fall MG Covers: The Light Fantastic

Every season seems to have its dominant graphic themes, as designers do their best to drag us across the bookstore and make us pick up That Book.

This fall, middle grade fantasy covers are calling us to the light. Usually, it’s a blazing sky with one or more heroes either hurling themselves into it or running for their lives. But who can say no to flashes of lightning, glowing gizmos, or good old-fashioned magical energy?

I have to say, I like the fact that so many covers show boys and girls battling demons (or whatever) together and as equals. No more boys with swords, girls standing there looking scared. We're making progress!

Designers this fall also are fond of the “magical peephole” technique, in which the solid plane of the cover is broken by a circular portal to a fantastic world we want to see more of.  

As always, some designers use a sprightly cartoonish style to reassure us that all will be well. How bad can a zombie apocalypse be if it’s comic?

And then there are those who invent cool graphics to tell their tale: The forthright Flora matched with the flowing fonts of FLORA & ULYSSES, or the marvelously shifty Alexander Baddenfield and his cat. Being a typeface fanatic from way back, I’m drawn to THE CREATURE DEPARTMENT’s amazing alphabet.

As always, we’ve spread our parade of covers over two days. Come back tomorrow for a content-oriented post: Dragons! Princesses! And, of course, cats.

We’re featuring books published July-December, 2013. If we overlooked an amazing cover, please link to it in the comments. And tell us which cover is your favorite!

Click the link to see more covers . . .

I will face this scary flaming thing alone!

Guess the MG & YA Fantasy Book Covers: Back-to-School Style

It’s September – the month of back-to-school, shiny apples, and changing leaves… and a new round of Guess the Fantasy Book Covers!

As with our first round back in June, the author names and titles have been cleverly edited out of these MG and YA book jackets.  Do you have what it takes to identify them anyway?

You get one point for the correct title and another for the correct author. Books span the years from 1959 to 2013, and we use the first hardcover edition whenever possible (and, Lena says, with some exceptions! :)).

Ready? Pick up your pencils and begin!

Scoring system:

0-7 points:  Time to hit the books and do some extra-hours study.
8-13 points:  You’ve earned an E for effort.  A few more pop quizzes and you’ll be up to speed.
14-19 points:  Go to the head of the class!  You get all the stars.
20 points:  Good heavens – you must be the teacher!

Answers at the bottom!

1.

2.

3.

4.

5.

6.

7.

8.

9.

10.

As before, this post was a tag-team effort between me, Lena Goldfinch, and the wonderful Amy Greenfield. We had so much fun putting it together, we're tossing around the idea of doing it again!

Confession, I'm to blame for stripping these beautiful books of their titles & author names, with sincere apologies to book designers everywhere, and Amy deserves the credit for scouting out a fabulous selection of book covers for me to choose from & for introducing our game.

Here's a little more about us and a look at our own book covers stripped of their titles & author names – just for fun.

AMY BUTLER GREENFIELD was on her way to a history PhD when she gave into temptation and became a novelist. She loves music, romantic adventure, alternate history, and twisty plots, which explains how she came to write her first YA novel, Chantress (McElderry/S&S, May 2013).


LENA GOLDFINCH writes young adult fantasy with a healthy dose of "sigh-worthy" romance. In her creative heart, she loves travelling to all sorts of exciting places, past and present, a perk of making things up for a living. Her upcoming release, HAUNTING JOY: a ghostly little story, makes its first spectral appearance on October 20,2013.

Can You Guess These Popular Fantasy Books from their Covers?

Here at the Inkpot we’re fans of the Guess the Phantom Book Covers game over at PWxyz. Today we thought we’d do our own variation, using MG and YA fantasy book covers from the past 50 years.

As you can see, the author names and titles have vanished. Are you clever enough to identify the books anyway?

Super bonus points to the cover aces who can name them all – and extra twinkly gold stars if you know the pub years, too!

Answers at the bottom!

Book 1

Book 2

Book 3

Book 4

Book 5

Book 6

Book 7

Book 8

Book 9

Book 10

Today's post was a tag-team effort between me, Lena Goldfinch, and the wonderful Amy Greenfield. We had so much fun putting it together, we're tossing around the idea of doing it again!

Confession, I'm to blame for stripping these beautiful books of their titles & author names, with sincere apologies to book designers everywhere, and Amy deserves the credit for scouting out a fabulous selection of book covers for me to choose from & for introducing our game.

Here's a little more about us and a look at our own book covers stripped of their titles & author names – just for fun.

AMY BUTLER GREENFIELD was on her way to a history PhD when she gave into temptation and became a novelist. She loves music, romantic adventure, alternate history, and twisty plots, which explains how she came to write her first YA novel, CHANTRESS(McElderry/S&S, May 2013).


LENA GOLDFINCH writes young adult fantasy with a healthy dose of "sigh-worthy" romance. In her creative heart, she loves travelling to all sorts of exciting places, past and present, a perk of making things up for a living. Her new release, SONGSTONE, comes out in July 2013.

Great dresses, kick-butt women: New YA Covers!

Some cover elements scream “young-adult fantasy”: Great dresses, amazing hair. Brooding faces. Titles of one sizzling word.

We get all those things this season, and more. There’s some serious water action, over and under. Kick-butt women with weapons. Images with an unsettling beauty. Not to mention some very cool insects.  

Today and tomorrow, the Inkpot will take a look at young-adult fantasies with pub dates between January and June 2013. We’re calling a book “young adult” if it’s intended for readers between ages 12 and 18. As always, if there’s one we’ve overlooked, please link to it in the comments.

Click on "read more" to see the covers. And tell us which is your favorite!

Cute and Creepy: More middle-grade covers

Animals, gorgeous, gruesome, or cute. Spectacular images. Interesting typefaces, sometimes neon
green.

Cover designers, sly bootses all, have an arsenal of tricks to catch our attention.  And if all else fails, you can’t beat a good dragon.

   

Herewith, day two of our spring middle-grade fantasy cover extravaganza. These books have pub dates between January and June 2013. “Middle grade,” again, means the audience is somewhere between ages eight and fourteen.  We’ll show you young-adult covers April 8 and 9.

As always, if there’s one we’ve missed, please link to it in a comment.

Click on "read more" to see the covers. And tell us your favorite!

In Your Dreams: New Middle-Grade Covers!

If a cover designer wants to draw us into a book, what better way than to tap into our dreams?

Or our nightmares.

And so on this season’s middle-grade fantasy covers, we float or we fly, sometimes on magnificent beasts. We swashbuckle with swords. We hobnob with mermaids and ghosts and our fellow humans. Boys face danger alone and unafraid . . . and just LOOK at the number of girls taking charge of their destiny!

Sometimes there be monsters. Very cool monsters.

This post covers middle-grade covers for books published between January and June 2013. (“Middle grade” these days seems to be anywhere between ages eight and fourteen.) As usual, there are so many we’ve split the post in two—look for more cover awesomeness right here tomorrow. We’ll show you the young-adult covers April 8 and 9.

If we missed one you think the world should see, please link to it in the comments.

The covers are after the break (click on "read more"). Which one's your favorite?

YA Fall Covers, Take Two

In yesterday's post, we admired the way cover designers catch our eye. Today's covers draw us in with hints of what's inside the book, whether it's a stern-faced couple, evil eyes, or a gargoyle.

Once again, these books are being published between July and December 2012. I'm intrigued by the crow-cloak on the MAGISTERIUM cover (I liked that crow action in "Snow White and the Huntsman," too) and I'm absolutely nuts about the beetle in the Jasper Fforde cover.

Which are your favorites?

Fall YA Covers: Red to be Read

Happy Labor Day!

Apparently the word's out among cover designers: If you want to want your book to catch a buyer's eye across a crowded (we hope) bookstore, better to be red than dead.

Okay, that's it for the "red" rhymes.

Once again, our roster of fall covers--young-adult fantasies this time--is too big for just one post. Today, we'll focus on designers' choices for drawing potential readers to their books. We'll post a second round of covers tomorrow, focusing more on their content.

Bonus feature: What seems to be this season's favorite hair color? Red on the head, of course. (I lied about no more rhymes.)

These covers are for books published between July and December this year. If there's one we missed, please link to it in the comments.

The red works for me, I have to admit--that skull with the blood drops on a black background would beckon me from afar, and I admire the audacity of the red envelope cover on THE WRAP-UP LIST. Which is your favorite, and why?

Characters, Critters, & Gizmos: Middle-grade Fall Covers, Day Two

Sometimes a cover's style matters less than what it depicts: a feisty heroine, a cool contraption, or a cantankerous critter. After the break below, you'll  find a bevy of good examples from the new middle-grade fantasies of July-December 2012.

Not that these aren't stylish covers--check out THE SAVAGE FORTRESS for excitement, or THE SEVEN TALES OF TRINKET for sheer class. I love the notion that the push-broom is mightier than the sword in THE SPINDLERS.  I have to say, though, my all-time favorite gizmo has to be THE PECULIAR--can't wait to see what that one's about.

As always, let us know in the comments if we missed one of this season's stunning covers--and link to it so we can see it. Stay tuned for the fall collection of young-adult covers, starting Labor Day!

Click on "read more" to see the covers.

Danger! Middle Grade covers, Fall 2012

The colors could knock your socks off--especially the reds. People fly, fall, and fight off baddies. Sometimes they're ghosts. Sometimes they're puppets.

Where DO cover designers get their ideas?

Once again, there are so many gorgeous new covers that we're posting them over two days. Today's focus is on the graphic solutions designers chose to highlight their books' tone, plots and themes. Is the book funny? Hopeful? Scary? Complex? The design says it all. Tomorrow we'll look at critters and characters highlighted on fall MG covers.

These covers hit the shelves between July 1 and December 31. If we missed one, tell us about it in the comments, with a link if possible.

I have to say, I'm taken this time with the towering-over-or-falling-on-us theme. Danger obviously is imminent--how can you not grab these books and read all about it?

You can see the covers are after the break. Which are your favorites?

More YA covers: Eye catching!

They're diabolical, these YA cover designers. They have to be: They have a tough, tough job.

First of all, obviously, they have to be pretty accurate about conveying a book's essence: There's nothing more annoying to a reader than buying a book with a soft, romantic cover only to suffer a bloody chainsaw murder on page five.

Also, a designer wants to drag you to a book across a crowded store. Once the book's in your hands, he wants you eaten up with curiosity about what's inside. (CINDER wins that award, in my opinion.)

Today's post explores a few of the techniques designers have been using on covers in the January-June publication season. Cue the eyeballs!

The covers are after the break. Which ones work for you? Why?

Spring YA fantasy covers take wing!

Angels and mermaids still rule in young adult fantasy, and cover artists have to exercise all their creativity to come up with new ways to depict them.  (The creators of wings--whether angelic or fae--were especially inventive this season.)

Meanwhile, YA covers continue to love gorgeous dresses and tresses. (Who doesn't?) Also one-word titles. Unearthly light. Well-toned torsos.

And, of course, nothing says "uh-oh" like a good mist.

This spring's round-up includes books whose pub dates were January through June. Once again, we're so overloaded with wonderful cover art that we're going to spread this post over two days. Tune in for more great covers tomorrow!

In today's groupings, I admit to a fondness for the kick-butt females in the bottom grouping--not to mention the GRAVE MERCY lady who has both a great dress and a crossbow. (You really won the sweepstakes on that one, Robin!) On the other hand, you can't beat DRAGONSWOOD for sheer weird resplendence.

Click "read more" to see the covers. Which ones are your favorites?

Even MORE Middle-Grade Fantasy Covers

Welcome to day two of  Love that Cover, in which we see ghosts, great hair, contraptions and cartoons, not to mention muscle-men and prancing war-horses. What’s not to love?

Seriously, what’s NOT to love? My favorite today is a toss-up between two big guys: Hades, or the giant knight protecting his kingdom. (Hades is actually kind of hot. But then I suppose he’d have to be.)

Which do you like?

Horsies!

Great Hair Catches the Breeze

Contraptions!

 

Doorways and Other Portals

Ghosts, Fog, and Assorted Wisps

Cartoons!

Cool art

 

My, you’re big