In my job as a school librarian, I occasionally run into books with unfortunate covers. By “unfortunate” I mean this: an otherwise solid book is saddled with cover art that does nothing for its kid appeal. You just know that no matter how hard you try to recommend it to a student, they’re gonna take one look at that cover, quietly put it back on the shelf and begin to think you’re nuts. In an effort to bring these transgressions to light, I present to you the first in a series of these unfortunate covers:
“Superfudge”
1982 Dell Yearling paperback edition. I dare you to take one look at this cover and not be at least a little creeped out. For me, its the facial expressions that do it. Thankfully “Superfudge” has undergone a few makeovers since this one.
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June 27, 2008 at 2:37 am
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December 9, 2009 at 12:30 pm
Covers: The good, the bad, and the ugly « the open book
[…] Covers: The good, the bad, and the ugly People have been talking a lot about cover art lately, what with all the Best-Of Lists floating around this time of year. When it comes to cover art, I’ve found that people are shockingly opinionated. Maybe you can’t judge a book by its cover, but you can still judge the cover. Sometimes cover controversy is about larger issues, but more often than not it’s pure aesthetics: what looks good, what looks really bad? […]
December 25, 2014 at 10:52 pm
Ben
I never read this book but it is the one cover in your series that I distinctly remember from when I was in elementary school. So at least it is memorable, for better or for worse.
I wonder if I would have actually read it if it had a better cover.