Cover Stories: The Sisters 8 Finale!

Lauren Baratz-Logsted has been here many times sharing Cover Stories, and now the final book in her Sisters 8 series (which she writes with her husband and daughter) is out! You can read the Cover Story for the first two books here.

Take it away, Lauren!

"On August 7, the ninth and final volume in The Sisters 8 was published. The Sisters 8 is a series for young readers, that I created with my husband and daughter, about octuplet girls whose parents go missing one New Year's Eve.

"From the time we sold the first book to Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, I was curious about what the cover would look like. Perhaps more than any area of books I can think of, series for children are defined in the public mind over a long period of time by the packaging. Can you imagine Harry Potter or Junie B. Jones with a different style artwork on the cover? Try switching the two styles in your mind. Does your head hurt yet? So, as perhaps you can imagine, I was nervous.

"All I can say is, the day HMH decided to go with Lisa K. Weber to do the cover and interior illustrations, it was a great day for me. It's as though, with each cover (see a few at right), she's captured everything that I hope is special about the books.

"Take this latest cover, for instance. All eight sisters are depicted but since there are no cats on the cover - the sisters each have a cat and one has always had a cover op in the past - I imagine young readers will wonder about that! Annie, the oldest octuplet, is making a chess move against a boy - a boy? on a TSE cover? - and wherever they are, it's snowing outside; which is odd since, when last we saw the sisters at the end of Book 8, it was August. Hmm...

"So much gorgeous artwork to look at, so much to think about...

"Not to mention, the amazing job HMH's own Carol Chu has done throughout the series with the design and lettering. Honestly, I could not be happier. And that's really saying something because, 25 books into my career, I have by no means loved all my covers. In fact...

"But that's another cover story for another day."

Thanks, Lauren! I've made no secret of the fact that I think the illustrations in this series are adorable and so cute, with an edge. What do you guys think?

Read more of Lauren's Cover Stories (for Crazy Beautiful, for The Twin's Daughter, and for The Education of Bet and Marcia's Madness (another Sisters 8 book).

Cover Details: Lauren Baratz-Logsted

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.

Cover Stories: The Sisters 8 by Lauren Baratz-Logsted, Greg Logsted and Jackie Logstead

Lauren Baratz-Logsted has written a lot for adults and teens, but now she's writing for a younger audience--and her co-authors are husband Greg Logsted and daughter Jackie. My eight-year-old niece has devoured the first books in The Sisters 8 series, and is anxiously awaiting the next titles. As for me? I love the illustrations by Lisa K. Weber. So here's Lauren telling her Cover Story:

"I had no idea about a cover! This was the first time I'd done something for such a young audience.

"The publisher did ask our preference on a couple of ways to present THE SISTERS EIGHT, finally settling on the font they have now with it written THE SISTERS 8. They also sent us links to some of the artists they were considering, but the final decision to go with Lisa K. Weber was theirs. Since they were the ones paying the illustrator--not just for the cover but also for about 20 interior illustrations for the books--we had no problem with them having the final say. Besides, they know what they're doing.

"When I first saw the cover, I was in love! And this was a huge relief. Truthfully, before seeing it, I'd been very nervous. I've had a lot of books published before, and have had a lot of different covers, but this was different. How the cover of ANNIE'S ADVENTURES came out would define the life of the nine-book series just as much as our writing would. Short answer: We were thrilled. Longer answer: Lisa K. Weber's illustrations surpassed our hopes and dreams. All three of us are in love with our covers."

A short and sweet story that hinges on a very quirky/cool illustrator--yay! What do you guys think of these covers? Of these four, I like the first one best, maybe because of the snowy background and the gorgeously cold blue.

I'd love to hear what anyone thinks of illustrated covers vs. photographic covers. I'm a fan of both--either can be done well (or badly) so it just depends on the execution, I think. You guys?