Lauren Baratz-Logsted is like a book machine! She's got two new books out, and she's on a huge blog tour. Yesterday, she was at Satisfaction for Insatiable Readers talking about altering the ending to a classic! Tomorrow she'll hit NomadReader and discuss the Sisters 8's magic and talents. For her stopover here, I asked Lauren to pick one thing in each of the two new covers that she didn't notice at first after looking at her covers lovingly (as authors tend to do!).
Here's Lauren:
"For The Education of Bet: The girl on the cover is seated in front of a wall of similar-looking books. It wasn't until you asked this question that I squinted hard enough to see that the books say, Halsbury's Laws of England. Google informs me that it's the definitive encyclopedic treatise on the laws of England -- there are 56 volumes in the set! This makes me feel very good since, Bet so wanting to get a proper education, it would be disappointing if she were seated in front of the Victorian equivalent of a bunch of Danielle Steel titles. On the other hand, Google also informs me that Halsbury's Laws of England was first published in 1907. So unless Bet's a time traveler and I just don't know it, the scene depicted here could never have happened since The Education of Bet takes place in the 1800s!"
"For The Sisters 8 Book 5: Marcia's Madness: OK, this one will expose me as being really lame, but before we get into that, I need to explain somthing about The Sisters 8. The eight sisters in the Huit family are octuplets, their names being: Annie, Durinda, Georgia, Jackie, Marcia, Petal, Rebecca and Zinnie. The sisters in turn have eight gray-and-white puffball cats, one for each sister, whose names are: Anthrax, Dandruff, Greatorex, Jaguar, Minx, Precious, Rambunctious and Zither. Without giving anything away, let me just say that the cats are uniquely connected to their little mistresses. And getting back to that cover: When I first saw it, with Marcia standing in the foreground, the other Eights behind her and her cat Minx by her side, I went back and looked at the previous four covers.'Isn't this amazing?' I said to one of my coauthors, 10-year-old Jackie Logsted. 'The artist puts the cat on the cover that goes with each featured sister!' Jackie gave me a look that might have been withering on a less cheerful child, as if to say, 'Really, Mom? You're only noticing this for the first time now?' See what I mean - lame, right? So how the cover makes me feel is: 1) amazed and grateful that our illustrator puts so much detail into every cover; and 2) lame, really lame."
Ha! I loved having Lauren take this in-depth look at two very different covers. Check out these two new books, and let me know what you notice. Have you ever really studied a cover and discovered some extra cool detail? (Yes, you know I'm cover obsessed.)
Happy Friday!
PS-Read Lauren's Cover Stories for The Sisters 8's first two books and Crazy Beautiful.