Hearts On Our (Jacket) Sleeves

Hearts are decorating store windows and classroom walls. Quite a few have been popping up on book covers too. 

Some are sugary sweet:

 

Published by Egmontusa, 2011

Published by HarperCollins, 2010                        Published by Farrar Straus Giroux, 2011

And some hearts send messages: 

 by Arliama Tibensky

(Simon Pulse, 2011)

Published by Speak, 2004

Published by Walker & Company, 2011

Which cover do you *heart* ?

Let us know, we love your comments. 

An Abundance of Alices

Alice's Adventures in Wonderland
by Lewis Carroll
illustrated by Iassen Ghiuselev
(Simply Read Books, 2003)
(Revised Edition, 2012)

"What's the use of a book," thinks Alice, "without pictures and conversation?" And what other books reveal the talents of an illustrator in quite the way that the Alice in Wonderland books do?

This is the cover of illustrator Iassen Ghiuselev's take on Alice and I must say, I am smitten--and a little vertiginous. See and learn more on his website. You will not regret clicking that link, I think.

I (this is Carol, by the way) just ordered a copy for myself through my local indie and let me just say, I cannot believe I missed this one the first time around.

Next we have a few other versions, some almost as delicious, some questionable. It's interesting to see how Alice grows and shrinks in age on these covers. How very Alice, indeed.

Tell us in the comments which version(s) you own.

Enjoy!

by the legendary Arthur Rackham
(Chronicle, 2002)

by Helen Oxenbury, ditto on the legendary
(Candlewick, 1999) 

by Camille Rose Garcia
Collins Design, 2010 

by Robert Ingpen
(Sterling, 2009) 

A Penguin version (2010), or should
I say, a flamingo version?

Using the original, and awesome,
illustrations by John Tenniel
(HarperCollins, 1992)
This is the copy I own.

Espanol! Alicia en el Pais de las Maravillas:

by Marta Gomez-Pintado
(Nordica Libros, 2009)

by Rebecca Dautremer
(Luis Vives Editorial, 2011)

Can you stand some rather unfortunate pop-up versions?

by J. Otto Seibold
(Orchard, 2003)

by Harriet Castor
(Barron's, 2010)

There are scads of other versions available. Scads, I say! Which versions speak to you?

Bring It On, 2012!

We have much to look forward to in 2012: The Hunger Games movie, the upcoming U.S. presidential election, the London summer Olympics, and hey, maybe even the end of the world.

But before that, we have a lot of reading to do. Here's a look at some 2012 new releases in children's books:

(Publisher: Golden Books; For release: March 13, 2012)

This cover stood out on the list of forthcoming picture books with its bold colors and mixed fonts. The concept was also intriguing: smiles found on ordinary items. I couldn't help reading more. The Spontaneous Smiley Project finds smiles everywhere, and has teamed up with Operation Smile to help put smiles on faces of children around the world.

In the middle grade category:

(Publisher: Knopf Books for Young Readers; For release: March 27, 2012)

Bright, clean, not busy. The storyline looks amusing, too--a boy who lives in a zoo-turned-reality show.

In the YA department, readers can chose from a million covers featuring faces and girls. Here are a few that are different:

In the dark-and-simple category:

(A Beautiful Evil - Publisher: Simon Pulse; For release: February 21, 2012)
(Dead to You - Publisher: Simon Pulse; For release: February 7, 2012)
(The Vanishing Game - Publisher: Bloomsbury USA Childrens; For release: February 14, 2012)

Few colors, few words, yet interesting focus and contrast.

And in the bright-and-fancy class:

(Darkest Mercy - Publisher: HarperCollins; For release: February 22, 2011)
(Incarnate - Publisher: Katherine Tegen Books; For release: January 31, 2012)

Faces! Girls! But still lovely and interesting use of color and focus.

What's on your reading list for 2012?