Cover Story
Alec Williams
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Issue 22 Autumn 1996 Cover Story Alec Williams |
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Here's a question for you. What have the following books got in common?
The answers to both these questions relate to an aspect of publishing which is often passionately discussed, but where the creators are often unknown and unsung. It's an aspect that generates strong feelings amongst adults, but where little is known about children's views. All we do know is that it's usually their most important reason for choosing books.By now perhaps you've guessed the subject - book cover design. All three of the titles above had covers which, at the very least, were - shall we say - 'talking points' amongst librarians. I would be surprised, too, if you were not able to tick most of the phrases above; cover design is often behind such remarks.
The combination of jacket artwork, typography, and graphic style is critically important in helping authors reach their readers. Any survey of children's reading habits will show that cover design comes very high amongst the reasons they choose books to buy or borrow; knowing little of author's reputations, and often overawed by the number of books they see, they will choose the books that intrigue and excite by their jackets alone.
At the same time, the fewer staff we have to intervene and introduce books, and the more our libraries have face-out display, the more important the role of the cover design becomes. This will become even more true, if we are pushed towards reliance on CD-ROMs for selection, where little more than the cover is available...
Two years ago, "Yorkshire Libraries for Children", the regional group of Senior Children's and Schools Librarians in Yorkshire, decided to do something about the situation. Knowing the importance of cover design to children, we were also struck by the frequent poor covers we saw - especially in new hardback fiction. Librarians have long been critical of jackets that blight the chance of an otherwise excellent story being taken off the shelf. We quite often see covers which are too static; too dark and gloomy; too odd; too dated in style; or 'too adult' to appeal to the children with which we deal - and we know that this view is shared, by the times the subject is raised at national meetings and conferences. Attempts to influence publishers in the past had not always been successful, and there was a suspicion that hardback covers were trying to please the adult selectors, with little evidence of market testing amongst children. From the start, we were determined to let them have their say, too.
What we devised, "The Big Book Cover Award", has just celebrated its first successful year. Supported by Morley Books, this new award celebrates the best in book cover design, and has amongst its aims:
Those we approached were immediately enthusiastic. "Long overdue", said a former Chair of the Carnegie/Greenaway Panel; "A brilliant idea" said an HMI, and "When can we start?" said local library staff. We also knew that several well-known booksellers, from children's specialist shops, had shared our disquiet for some time, and were urging us on. Finally, we were delighted to have support from children's authors, all of whom warmed immediately to the topic, and have very strong views about how their stories are presented to children. Pete Johnson launched the award in May last year, and librarians sent in nominations throughout 1995 in the two age categories: 6-9 years, and 10 upwards. They also sent us one or two nominations for our 'worst' category - one of which is at the top of this article...
In February this year, members of Yorkshire Libraries for Children met at Morley Books and completed a 'first trawl' through the nominations, to produce short-lists of around 12 books for each of the two age categories. We discussed what good book cover design involved. It was not simply a matter of good quality artwork; many books had that, but still missed their mark. It had a lot to do with marketing - much of the success of the "Point Horror" series was undeniably due to its clever graphic style. Artistic merit was one chosen criterion, but also included was an adult judgement of 'child appeal'; children's views themselves; marketing merit; choice of subject and style; and graphic design of the whole cover. Our short-lists, we felt, had covers that included that indefinable 'something' that raised them above the rest. Now it was time to put our views to the test.
Between February and the final panel meeting in May, each of the two short-lists was 'road tested' with children of matching age ranges. A Calderdale primary school looked at the 6-9 year old short-list, while a Sheffield secondary school examined the "10 and over" one. Children were shown the covers, they talked at length about them, they voted on them.
In the end, the children's views coincided closely with the adults involved. Those adults, at the final meeting, included Pete Johnson, representing the author's perspective; John Chippendale, from Morley Books, representing a book buyer's view; and myself as Chair of the panel. We were also joined by a teacher from the primary school involved, carrying the votes of the children, and a member of the local Children's Book Group, to give an independent parent's view. Finally, we invited the secondary school librarian with the remaining children's votes, and Korky Paul, to represent the illustrator's view.
Our two category winners were Dick King-Smith's The Terrible Trins (Viking; cover by Diz Wallis), and Ann Halam's The Fear Man (Orion; cover by Ian Butterworth). The first shows a group of macho mice _ and a second look reveals that these are mice who mean business, since one has his foot on a large eyeball...
"It's going to be about muscley mice.." said our cover reviewers, and
"I like stories about naughty animals!"
The Ann Halam cover was perhaps a controversial choice - not least because one of its nominations was for the 'worst' category! It does not use bright colour, there is no action-packed scene depicting a high point in the plot - but it manages to be both scary and unsettling. Is that a face, or just a piece of crumpled newspaper? Some covers work because they plainly show what story to expect; others force you to take a second look. When this last sort succeed - and not all do - they succeed triumphantly. The Fear Man is one such success, and it was therefore the overall winner of the first Big Book Cover Award.
"Weird - catches the eye!" said our older road-testers, and:
"Something strange is going on - I want to find out what..."
The Awards (these two winners, and four runners-up) were presented on the Morley Books stand at the Library Resources Exhibition, on 4th June 1996. The winning publishers were there, to receive our unique "book man" sculptures on behalf of their cover illustrators, and the two winning artists themselves have each been given the opportunity to donate a collection of children's books to a children's organisation of their choice.
The Big Book Cover Award is now into its second year for nominations. If your experience tells you that covers are important, we should be glad to hear your experience of 1996's good covers, too. We should like to have even more nominations this year - why not tell us of striking covers you've seen? Your library service may well have some nomination slips already; if not, a simple phone call to Morley Books on (0113) 2538811 will produce more for you to use. If you would like to know a little more about the award, feel free to contact me (see below), or Jennifer Madden, from Kirklees Libraries, this year's panel Chair, on (01484) 446825.
In the meantime, talk about covers to the children you see, or show some to the next school class you encounter. Choose a type of story, and show a selection of covers to see which produce the "must read" response. You could try the first three books in this article, at the same time...
Finally, despite the proverb, try "judging a book by its cover" - after all, that's what most of your readers do!
Alec Williams is Senior Librarian, Children's & Education Unit, Calderdale Libraries. Tel: (01422) 392618 Fax: (01422) 392615 E-mail: ceu@argonet.co.uk