Colorful Wizards And Girls With Wings: Teens Can Write, Too! June 2012 Blog Chain

I found this awesome blog and the blog chain a few months ago, through Liam’s blog. I really like the idea of ‘Teens Can Write, Too’ because I think too often, people underestimate just how much teens can love writing or how well they write. So I joined the blog chain! This month’s prompt is:

“Let’s face it; we all judge books by their covers. What kind of covers grab you? Why? Be sure to use examples of your favorite book covers.”

I love book covers. I love reading the pages in between them, too, but I am definitely attracted by pretty colors and an interesting design. If a book has a boring or poorly illustrated cover, I’m not as likely to pick it up.

A good book cover, to me, is one that has a striking picture, usually of a person or two, and that forecasts some event in the book. It helps if the art is colorful.

The Lightning Thief is mostly black or dark green, but it’s OK that it breaks my rule of colorfulness. It heightens the drama of the storm/Zeus, and it makes Percy’s orange Camp Half-Blood shirt stand out more. I love the way the waves and sky were drawn.

I could write quite a lot about the questionable revision habits of James Patterson, but since that’s not the point of this prompt, I’m not going to. Whatever his writing faults may be, he knows how to find good artists, since I’m assuming he didn’t make this cover himself with Photoshop. Or maybe his publisher found the artist. Anyway, they know what they’re doing. Maximum Ride: The Angel Experiment certainly has the most striking cover of the series. Immediately, you wonder why this girl has wings. Also, maybe this is just aesthetics, but I like this version of Max more than the blonde version on some other covers. I think she looks a bit too girly in those versions. This cover makes her look like she would kick butt, and she does. That’s pretty much the only reason I read the Maximum Ride books. You don’t read James Patterson for the masterful prose.

I love all the covers of the Underland Chronicles, but this is my favorite. This one really gives you an idea of the size of the creatures in the Underland – I couldn’t get my mind around the bats before. Luxa is my favorite character and it was cool to compare what she is supposed to look like with the image I have of her in my head. I love the lettering they used for the title. I also love the purple cover of Gregor and the Code of Claw.

My edition of this novel is only 180 pages, but it is one of the best I’ve ever read. I wish I’d written it. The story seems so simple and innocent at first, and then you realize how complex and sinister it really is. I like how the cover is sort of the same way: you think the old man is just, well, an old man, but actually he’s quite powerful. I also love the picture of the trees, because it reminds me of when Jonas first starts to see in color. I don’t know if that’s what it is supposed to represent, but isn’t that the beauty of book covers? If something isn’t specific, you can decide for yourself who/what/where it is.

This is one of the best and most original books I have ever read, along with its sequel. It is even more awesome because of the cover! I love the mirrored view of above-ground New York City and the Shadow City. There is the American hardback cover; the paperback just has Kiki and New York City, which is OK, but not as cool. So you can probably guess which version I bought.

My favorite book of all time. I love the cover art and chapter art of all the American editions, but this one and the next few are especially good. I guess I really like the style of the art. This is one of the most colorful covers of the series. The others aren’t in black and white, of course, but most of them have a definite color theme.

See, monochromatic covers can be cool! This one just fits. It fits the growing sense of darkness in this, the sixth Harry Potter book. Mary GrandPre, the author, is really good at drawing the Dementors’ mist, too. It feels so mysterious, as it should, because there are a lot of mysteries in this novel: Voldemort’s background, the Half-Blood Prince, and, on a lighter note, the students’ love lives. And Dumbledore’s on the cover, so that makes it awesome.

This is the British edition of the seventh and final book in the series. I love this cover because it is so different from the American versions. The British editions seem to be going for a bit more realism. I like how the characters look different. Harry, in particular, looks a lot older than 17, Hermione looks slightly older than she really is, and Ron looks about 12. I think it’s cool to see different covers of the same book, and wonder why that design was picked. Do British people have a thing for treasure? Anyway, I’m glad they picked this scene to illustrate, because it’s one of my favorites and the movie made the Lestranges’ vault look too dark. It should be filled with colorful, shiny things!

And here’s the same cover, but now the American version. When I first saw it, I wondered why Harry was in Italy. But no, that’s not the Parthenon in the background. I love the strange choice of colors for this cover. Going by the colors already used, I thought the cover would be purple or red, not orange. At any rate, I love this cover, maybe because Harry looks the most like I imagine him. I do have a quibble with the art on the back, though. You can’t see it because, well, this is the front, but the other side has Lord Voldemort. J.K. Rowling mentions time and again that Voldemort has skin so pale that it is literally white. But his skin on the back cover is green. I don’t understand – is he supposed to be seasick or something?

Want to follow our blog tour? Here are the participating parties, day by day:

June 8–http://hazelwrites.wordpress.com–hazelwrites

June 9–http://miriamjoywrites.wordpress.com–A Farewell To Sanity

June 10–http://insideliamsbrain.wordpress.com–This Page Intentionally Left Blank

June 11–http://laughablog.wordpress.com–The Zebra Clan

June 12–http://weirdalocity.wordpress.com–Life, Among Other Things

June 13–http://otherrandomthings.wordpress.com–Dragons, Unicorns, and Other Random Things

June 14–http://correctingpenswelcome.wordpress.com–Comfy Sweaters, Writing, and Fish

June 15–http://kirstenwrites.wordpress.com–Kirsten Writes!

June 16–http://lilyjenness.blogspot.com–Lily’s Notes in the Margins

June 17–http://inklinedwriters.blogspot.com–Inklined

June 18–http://realityisimaginary.blogspot.com–Reality Is Imaginary

June 19–http://planetaryelastic.blogspot.com–Tangential Bemusings

June 20–https://musingsfromnevillesnavel.wordpress.com–Musings From Neville’s Navel

June 21–http://allegradavis.wordpress.com–All I Need Is A Keyboard

June 22–http://incessantdroningofaboredwriter.wordpress.com–The Incessant Droning Of A Bored Writer

June 23–http://teenscanwritetoo.wordpress.com–Teens Can Write Too! (We will be announcing the topic for next month’s chain!)