Miss Kathleen
At the Libraries: Horrendous Book Covers from the ’80s
by Miss Kathleen - August 5, 2011 - 4:18 PM

Time for another week of book- and library-related fun!

The New Yorker gets some pretty amazing illustrators to do their covers, and one blogger noticed that many of them have a connection to children’s books. Ian Falconer is definitely my favorite. He writes the Olivia books.
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But you shouldn’t judge a magazine or a book by its cover, of course. Just take a look at these hilariously bad teen novel covers from the 80s. Totally respectable writers; totally horrendous covers.
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And back to The New Yorker. They have a great piece about sex ed books. You won’t be able to find these at your local library, but we have plenty of updated ones!
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Here’s a piece for librarians out there wondering how to make movie screenings more meaningful library events. There are some great tips here! And of course, yes, you still have to offer popcorn.
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Long story short: libraries won’t have to ditch hundreds of old kids books due to prohibitive lead testing.
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Dinner: A Love Story is a great blog about food, but did you know that they also have famous writers suggesting books for children? Yeah, pretty awesome. See what Daniel Handler and George Saunders recommend for your kid!
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Here’s a great little illustration whose name says it all: Snacks of the Great Scribblers. Click to see what F. Scott ate while writing (it’s kind of gross). Got a favorite work snack?
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My birthday isn’t for another two months, but I kind of want all of these book cover t-shirts, so maybe you should start saving now.
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And in firearms news of the day, Iowa gun owners were making robocalls asking citizens to vote against a new library to send a message. What message? That they are angry about the city council’s decision to ban firearms from public property — including libraries.
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August’s Blog of the Month fits in with a lot of book-related blogs we’ve seen — updating a classic somehow. Last month it was titles; this month it’s imagining new covers. Specifically, Plausible but Tonally Inappropriate Book Covers. I think they are pretty great, and I could totally see them in stores. Congrats!
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That’s all for this week, friends. Thanks for reading, and email me if you have any exciting library news to report!

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Comments (4)

  1. I don’t understand why tonally inappropriate covers are inappropriate. What am I missing?

    posted by j on 8-6-2011 at 4:48 pm

  2. That totally has to be Courtney Love on the “Oh Rick!” book.

    posted by lj on 8-6-2011 at 5:16 pm

  3. I read Oh Rick back in 1999/2000. I was in the 7th grade. Needless to say I thought the book sent a horrible message to girls my age back then. And that was if you loose weight boys will like you.

    posted by Dany on 8-7-2011 at 8:38 pm

  4. @ j Yeah I found the humor on those rather … subtle. I think the idea is that the covers don’t match the tone of the book, or emphasize the wrong part of the narrative, but the only one I found genuinely humorous was the Alice in Wonderland cover designed to look like a fluffy chick-lit book a la the Shopaholic series. Most of the rest of them felt like the sort of thing people like to laugh at because it makes them feel smart and exclusive.

    posted by Jamie on 8-8-2011 at 7:45 am

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