If we gave out awards for Most Misleading Cover Art, today would go down as the day Josh Berk's The Dark Days of Hamburger Halpin passed the torch: Andreas Steinhöfel's novel The Spaghetti Detectives might look like a PBS cartoon aimed at pre-schoolers, but it reads like a junior version of Mark Haddon's The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time.

Originally written in German and translated by Chantal Wright, The Spaghetti Detectives is told via the meandering narration of Rico Doretti, a boy with an unspecified learning disability that severely limits his ability to focus. While investigating the origins of a stray spaghetti noodle found outside his apartment, Rico meets a paranoid child genius named Oscar. The boys couldn't be more different, but they form an instant, oddball connection—and when Oscar becomes the latest victim of a notorious child kidnapper, Rico is determined to find his new friend.

The Spaghetti Detectives is endearingly weird, atmospheric, and frequently very funny, but that cheery cover and wholesome tagline (“They've got to use their noodles!”) is a total bait-and-switch. While children will probably find this story less disturbing than this adult reviewer, this is still a novel that boasts passages like the following:

"Mr. 2000 has been keeping everybody in Berlin on the edge of their seats for three months. On television they said he was probably the most cunning child kidnapper of all time. Some people call him the ALDI kidnapper, after the cut-price supermarket, because his ransoms are so low. He lures little boys and girls into his car and drives off with them, and afterward he writes their parents a letter:

DEAR PARENTS: IF YOU WOULD LIKE LITTLE CLAUDIA BACK, IT WILL COST YOU ONLY 2000 EUROS. THINK CAREFULLY BEFORE GETTING THE POLICE INVOLVED OVER SUCH A RIDICULOUSLY SMALL SUM, BECAUSE IF YOU DO, YOUR CHILD WILL COME BACK TO YOU PIECE BY PIECE.

Up until now none of the parents have told the police until after they had paid up and their child popped up safe. But everybody in Berlin is waiting for the day when some little Claudia or Alexander doesn't come home in one piece because their parents have messed up. Maybe some people would be secretly happy that their child had been kidnapped and wouldn't cough up a penny. Or they might be really poor and only have fifty euros to their name. If you only gave Mr. 2000 fifty euros, it's likely that the only piece left of your child would be a hand. It would be less noticeable. And a giant box for everything-minus-the-hand would cost fifty euros in postage all by itself."

See what I mean? That cover is doing this well-written, original mystery no favors: middle readers (and older kids) will be turned off by the cartoonish artwork, and little kids will be stuck reading a book they're too young to appreciate.

Review based on publisher-provided copy.

Labels: Book Reviews, Children’s Books, Cover Art

One more summer reading list and we're done. Here's the Horn Book magazine's list of recommended books for children. Their choices range from picture books to YA novels, and they've convinced me to pick up a copy of Adam Rex's Fat Vampire: A Never Coming of Age Story when it comes out in paperback on July 26th. Because really, who could resist a title and cover like this one?

Labels: Cover Art, Summer Reading

How did I miss this? There's a graphic novel adaptation of Jonathan Stroud's The Amulet of Samarkand, one of my favorite YA novels ever, and the cover art is (once again) terrible. Seriously, I'm not sure who has it out for this series, but I cannot believe what bad luck Stroud has had with cover art: these books consistently look low-budget, amateurish, and downright ugly, and this one, sadly, might be the worst yet.

Labels: Cover Art, Graphic Novels, Jonathan Stroud

The fine people at St. Martin's Griffin continue to trot out reprints of Jennifer Crusie's earlier work. Their latest offerings are freshly re-covered editions of 2001's Fast Women and 2002's Faking It—both of which make for awesome summer reading, although I have some concerns about their updated packaging.

Fast Women is one of my all-time favorite romance novels, not least because it boasts two of the most entertaining "wronged woman seeks vengeance" scenes ever. (One involves an implied lesbian fling; the other involves the wanton destruction of fourteen "Best Ohio Insurance Agent" awards. Both are delightful.) It's the story of Nell Dystart, a 42-year-old woman who has recently lost her job, her marriage, and her self-confidence. Nell has spent the past year sleep-walking through life, but when she's hired as the receptionist for a straight-out-of-film-noir private investigator's office, things take a turn for the better... or at least the more exciting.

Faking It features several of the characters from Crusie's Welcome to Temptation. There's Davy Dempsey, a former con man, and Clea Lewis, a professional trophy wife whose husbands tend to die young. Davy is trying to go legit, but that's before he meets Tilda Goodnight, a painter with a long list of buried (well, stored in the basement, actually) secrets. Tilda and Davy have no reason to trust each other, but they join forces regardless, determined to right a very long, very strange, and very funny list of wrongs.

These titles will probably be labeled as romances, although the strong mystery storyline in Fast Women expands its potential audience beyond romance readers. Faking It is more overtly romantic, but it has plenty of crossover appeal as well—in addition to the numerous criminals featured in the story, there's forged artwork, a family history of fraud, and at least one potential hit man. Both books are perfect escapist reading: as wickedly amusing as they are smart and sexy.

However, while I am totally in favor of keeping Crusie's books on store shelves, I am less enthusiastic about the cover art featured on these particular editions. As standalone images, the covers are eye-catching and fun, but they don't really fit the books. The vintage car featured in Fast Women is a 1977 Porsche Carrera, not a... whatever that car is, and the furniture in Faking It is hand-painted wood, not a purple armchair that looks suspiciously like the one from Blue's Clues. If the cover artist* wanted to include plot elements from the books, she might have been better to go for something generic (like a typewriter for Fast Women, or an empty frame for Faking It), rather than aiming for details and getting 'em wrong.

*Mollie Smith, whom I believe is Cruise's daughter. Although I'd like to note that Crusie was clearly involved in the cover art decisions, and I have to give Ms. Smith full props for her "Nuts" Crazy For You cover, which I so wish the publisher had used.

Reviews based on publisher-provided copies.

Labels: Book Reviews, Cover Art, Jennifer Crusie

Last week, The Beat posted the cover image for Yen Press's upcoming Twilight: The Graphic Novel #2, and it is, frankly, hilarious. Behold:


It's possible that Yen will shell out for a print job that allows Edward's skin to sparkle, but I'm hoping they leave him just like this: a pasty, gray-skinned, sweaty-looking zombie.

Labels: Comic news, Cover Art, Stephenie Meyer

Meg and I went to the bookstore last night and encountered this:


According to Lynsay Sands's promotional blurb, this novel is an "absolute delight". I don't know about that, but Meg and I certainly agreed that the cover is an absolute delight. It looks like a fantasy-themed 90s anime re-imagined as low-budget porn.

Labels: Cover Art, Vampires

The Atlantic has posted a lengthy review (complete with two recipe links) of The Gourmet Cookie Book, the latest and last title from the now-defunct Gourmet magazine. The review is good, but get a load of this cover. I have never wanted a jam thumb-print so much in my entire life:


I chose the largest image option, just for you.

Labels: Cookbooks, Cover Art

Okay, I love these: Penguin Books has recently released a line called "Penguin Ink", which features six modern classics repackaged with new cover art designed by tattoo artists/illustrators. Just look at little Bridget! That slightly evil expression totally doesn't work for the character, but isn't she adorable?

Note: Sadly, I don't think they're planning on redesigning Bridget Jones: The Edge of Reason, so if you decide you need to buy 'em both your books won't match.

Labels: Cover Art