Bad book covers

Joe Queenan recently wrote an essay in the Sunday Book Review about how bad book covers can influence his reading choices.

I feel his pain. Bad book covers have kept me from reading some books for years.

The best example of a bad book cover (and a bad title) preventing me from reading the book is Sharon Creech’s YA novel Walk Two Moons. My wife insists it’s a great book, and she’s even volunteering to lead a book club in my classroom for any students interested in reading it. She’s tried getting me to read the book for years, pleading to ignore the cover and read.

There are certainly compelling reasons to do so.

I like Sharon Creech’s work. I think that Love That Dog, another one of her YA novels, is brilliant, and I enjoyed Bloomability and Heartbeat a lot (as much as I can enjoy a YA novel).

Walk Two Moons also won the prestigious Newbury Award.

And I’ve had many students tell me how much they love this book over the years. In fact, it’s one of the most frequently recommended books by students ever, and when my wife read it with her class a few years ago, every single student fell in love with the story.

Yet every time I look at the cover and read the title, I think, “Eh…”