Links: larger women and book covers, the popularity of youth lit, and dads reading to daughters
March 11, 2010
In a delightful bit of crossover, Gwen over at Sociological Images rounds up a bunch of covers of books about larger girls, most of whom don’t look that big on the cover. There’s also been some discussion about how the women on these covers are mostly disembodied parts–common in advertising (see here, here, and here for examples)–but there’s also been counter-discussion positing that it’s because publishers think that women want to be able to identify with characters and that’s harder when you can see their face. I’m not sure I buy that; I’d like to see a study sampling books with covers depicting men and covers depicting women that determines if there is a gender difference in whether or not faces are shown. And what about YA book covers?
Susan Carpenter writes for the LA Times about the rising popularity of YA lit among adults. She addresses the increasing sales of youth lit in general (“Where adult hardcover sales were down 17.8% for the first half of 2009 versus the same period in 2008, children’s/young adult hardcovers were up 30.7%.”), acknowledges the rise in critical acclaim for youth lit, and points to the growing number of movies based off of books for teens and children (my husband and I are finally going to go see the Percy Jackson movie this weekend!). She also makes the great point that current YA writers grew up when YA books were finally starting to mature:
Many of today’s young adult authors were born and raised in the 1960s and 1970s, when YA began to move beyond the staid, emotionless tales of Nancy Drew and the Hardy Boys in favor of more adventurous work from Judy Blume, Madeleine L’Engle and Robert Cormier. Now, they’re turning out their own modern masterpieces.
And finally, Lee Wind of I’m Here. I’m Queer. Now what the Hell do I read? has a post about reading with his daughter and what other dads need to know about reading with their own daughters. He paints a beautiful picture of a household full of readers and also touches on dialogic reading, which we’ve been talking about in my Youth Services class recently. I also love how he gets to the heart of why, beyond developmental and literacy-related reasons, reading with kids is so great: “Reading is the doorway to a Shared experience with your kid. Don’t just read it TO her. Experience it WITH her.”
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3 Comments Leave a Comment
1. Lee Wind | March 12, 2010 at 12:49 PM
Thanks so much for the shout-out. It was great to see that LA Times article – YA ROCKS! And yeah, I really dislike the disembodied covers. I’m sure they’ve done some studies, but personally, I don’t require a DNA match with the cover model to feel like the book can “speak” to me. I’m reading Laurie Halse Anderson’s “Chains” right now, and it’s amazing – I’m nothing like the main character, but her emotions feel real to me (and it’s a great book.)
Namaste,
Lee
2. Gretchen | March 12, 2010 at 3:55 PM
Hey, Lee, thanks for stopping by! I read CHAINS last spring and absolutely loved it–the story is so involving and the characters are well-drawn. But what I found most interesting about the book was that it didn’t take sides in the Revolutionary War setting. Most of the historical fiction I’ve read set in that time period feels kind of propagandistic, but all Isabel is interested in is her family. I’m also glad that it treats the situation of black people during the war when all of the whites are demanding freedom but expect slavery to continue as it is. And man oh man did I love the cover art!
You’re right that we don’t need to be able to identify with protagonists to enjoy reading about them. One of the beautiful things reading can do for us is to show us what life is like (or was like or could be like) for people who aren’t like us.
3. Librarified » Book &hellip | April 28, 2010 at 8:20 PM
[...] or an inanimate object. This may be related to the hypothesis proposed by a friend in my earlier post touching on the depiction of larger female characters on book covers that publishers think women need to identify with the [...]
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