Weekly Geeks-Book Covers

This week it's all about judging books by their covers! Pick a book--any book, really--and search out multiple book cover images for that book. They could span a decade or two (or more)...Or they could span several countries. Which cover is your favorite? Which one is your least favorite? Which one best 'captures' what the book is about?


This is my first ever weekly Geeks post. I've been lurking for a while, but couldn't resist doing this one. I'm going to do ballet Shoes by Noel Streatfeild, because it was my favourite childhood book, and apart from the two copies I own, I've never really thought about what other covers might be available.

The first is the one I've had since I was a child will probably always epitomise this book for me. The second is the one I've recently bought for my daughter. I don't actually like this one but I wanted her to have her own copy (read as I didn't want to give mine up!) and this is what was available.

There are a multitude of covers. They seem to fall into various types, probably dependent on when they were published. There are those that feature all three children, in various situations. These all tend to be the older covers. They are the ones that encapsulate the story most faithfully. My personal favourite here is the foreign one with the original drawings on the front.

Then there are the ones that feature a single ballet dancer. These are not very appealing to me at all, but I don't know whether its just an immediate reaction to the aesthetics of them, or a personal feeling that as the story is about three children, just one child on the cover doesn't seem appropriate.

The next category would be those that just have ballet shoes on the cover! Fairly obvious but effective!

And then there's the more recent covers, like this one, obviously designed to look like the many other generic books aimed at girls on the shelves today. This is a trend I'm not sure about but as I said at the start of this post it's the only type of cover I could find when I was buying for my daughter.

All in all, I think the covers with the three children on are my favourites, and the ones with the single dancers on I like the least. Oh and I think the cover below is beautiful and if I want it! Its really pretty, but I think its designed more for an adult market and I prefer children's books to have children's covers. I'd still buy it if I ever saw it though!