Word Art

Faces: they’re everywhere. Browse the YA section and you get the feeling you’re being watched. A crowd of faces stares back at you from YA jacket covers. If you ignore the faces, you can also find plenty of body parts to look at (necks and torsos seem to be “in” these days), and there’s lovely scenery featured on covers, too. Sometimes, it’s easy to lose the book title in all the embellishments.

Here are some YA covers that focus simply on their title:

Fallout by Ellen Hopkins
(Margaret K. McElderry Books; September, 2010)

Karma by Cathy Ostlere (Razorbill; March, 2011)

The contrasting colors draw the eye to the title, but a closer look reveals profiles of a couple in the scrollwork below it.

7 Kinds of Ordinary Catastrophes by Amber Kizer

(Delacorte Books for Young Readers; April, 2011)

Summer and the City: A Carrie Diaries Novel by Candace Bushnell

(Balzer + Bray; April, 2011)

A clever way to pull readers into a “diaries” novel—the title looks like it’s embossed onto a leather journal.

Beautiful Darkness by Kami Garcia

(Little, Brown Books for Young Readers; October, 2010)