I love going into book stores, but when I don’t know what I’m looking for I do start to get overwhelmed by the masses of books available. This means, I must admit, that I often find myself judging a book by its cover.
Of course, covers are there to be judged, but I like to think that I’m not just buying what PR departments are telling me to buy, because really, what I’m after is a book that I’m going to enjoy.
But does a book cover really tell you what’s in a book?
October will see the release of Liar, a young adult novel from Justine Larbalestier. The narrator is a young girl who is quite plainly black. This in no way presents a problem to a reader until you try and judge the book by its proprosed cover.
From Bloomsbury Children's Books, the original 'white' cover
A very white girl on the cover of a book about an angsty African-American is slightly misleading, wouldn’t you say?
This, however, provides a very nice example of the power of the Internet. This story appeared on Boingboing last month, and Bloomsbury was forced to take notice. Thankfully.
Justine Larbalestier, herself, took a stand on her personal blog as she attempted to answer the question of the disreprancy between Micah’s descriptions of herself and the cover photo. She is clearly upset by the fact that there is a “notion that “black books” don’t sell” and openly laments the fact that authors have little input into the image that sells their work.
Bloomsbury Children’s Books have just revealed a new, more appropriate cover.
From Bloomsbury Children's Books, the revised 'black' cover
Does this really do a better job of reflecting the contents? Does a model truly capture the image of an adolescent in turmoil?
I think that this whole saga teaches us not only that we need to be more aware of what we consume, but also that we continually need to be held accountable for choices. So far, the Internet is proving to speed this process up.
Interestingly, this issue won’t be a big deal in Australia. Look at the cover recently revealed by Allen & Unwin.
A & U Children, the Australian cover
It doesn’t enter the debate because it doesn’t overwrite the possiblities created within the novel. Justine Larbalestier has said that this is the kind of cover that she wanted for her young adult novel in the first place.
The reason that the book covers are different in America and Australia is because each continent has a different publisher for the books. The market in America was seen to be one more easily persuaded into a sale by a white cover model. The Australian publishers felt that their market would be better suited to no cover model at all.
The author did not have any say in the resulting covers, which is where the controversy originated.
Maybe next time I’m browsing through books, I’ll be thinking twice.
“Do not judge a book by its cover”
नवं पुरातनं वापि
लेखं पश्यन्ति पण्डिताः ।
सारमासाद्य तुष्यन्ति
निःसारञ्च त्यजन्ति ते ॥
Whether it is new or old, it is the content of literature that the scholars study. They enjoy the ones that are essentially significant, and reject the ones that are undistinguished.