... and complained about how there aren't enough people of color,
... or too many girls in fancy dresses,
... or not enough people in everyday street clothes,
... or how you hate seeing girls in pieces,
... or overly sexualized,
... or from behind,
... or on a black background,
... and why can't we just get a real girl on the cover for once:
HERE IS A COVER FOR YOU.
BUY THIS BOOK.
IF ENOUGH OF YOU DO IT,
IT WILL MAKE EVEN MORE OF
A DIFFERENCE THAN YOUR BLOG POSTS.
Need more cover awesomeness? Here is the back, for anyone who's ever wanted to see a person with a disability on a book jacket:
And you can read the starred review from PW here.
Links to Put Your Money
Where Your Mouth Is:
Where Your Mouth Is:
Indiebound | B&N | Amazon
(This is not a book I edited, by the way. But I swear to God: Support the covers you want to see, and change happens.)
Posts
I was only reading Sharon Flake's article "There Need to Be More Nonwhite Protagonists" last week! You can find it here: http://www.nytimes.com/roomfordebate/2012/03/28/the-power-of-young-adult-fiction/more-nonwhite-characters-are-needed . "Pinned" looks awesome. I can't wait to read it.
ReplyDeleteVery awesome cover; however, I don't like any face on the cover. I prefer to imagine the characters my own way and I find it sad that anyone would or would not reach for a book simply because of the race of the person on the front.
ReplyDeleteYes, I guess all of us (readers, writers, publishers) need to put our money where our mouths are. I have bought Sarwat Chadda's The Savage Fortress (Kindle edition - no space for paper) and am requesting that my local library purchase The Savage Fortress and Amber House.
ReplyDeleteThis looks like a great read. And you're right - money talks in a language that businesses understand very well. If we want diversity in cover design, we should buy books that employ it.
ReplyDeleteHooray! I'm a youth services librarian who came to the field in a roundabout way, so I often feel as if I've missed some things that everybody else knows. I noticed the trends in cover art when shelving new books. In my mind, the were "one white chick" books. I put the ones that portrayed male characters, people of cover, or no people at all. It was only later that I found discussions like this one. 1) Thanks for validating my observations and 2) thanks for sharing this (I put it face-out on the YA display and it left the building within 4 hours!)
ReplyDeleteI hear and obey. Thanks for pointing out a winner.
ReplyDeleteLOVE this! Thanks for sharing about it, Cheryl! (And I like the idea of requesting my local library get it, too!)
ReplyDeleteNamaste,
Lee