Judy and her moods have been around since the year 2000. In that time her book series has seen a few reprints from a few different companies. Let’s briefly go over the evolution of her books and their look:

The Cardboard Era

A brown background with a colored stripe up top (and sometimes bottom) featuring various Judy moods. Also the O’s are colored in green and orange. Maybe to foreshadow the mood ring she gets in book four?

Or maybe not.

I really liked this brown look. It makes the colors stand out. This was the first Judy Moody book I saw. In a used bookstore among lots of other chapter books, the cardboard look made me feel like I found some kind of treasure.

Also all the arts during this era are unique to this era. There’s some really cool ones. Look ’em up.
I don’t know why they switched to those stark colors near the end of the era though.

The Mood Era

They kept the mood strip and the cardboard. Even the O’s have new colors and more mood faces!
The art seems to have taken a back seat for new mood focused art. This new focus is cool and plays up on the moods really hard.

I don’t know why they didn’t just remove the full arts though. You can barely see them. They cut book one’s title pretty hard too.

The Modern Era

Oh ok that’s better. I can see the arts much more clearly thanks.

Wait what happened to everything else? No more mood strips or mood faces or mood O’s. The cardboard got demoted to holding the book number. Clearly the tiger pajama pants were the texture people really wanted.

I will give them props for the title bar. I like how big the names are and at least the Judy Moody part is colored. And you can see Judy’s “I Ate A Shark” shirt now.

Oh oh and we get the introduction of the cool little words and phrases on every cover like Judy’s classic “Roar!” or “Ciao!” or that time she actually said “Thrill-a-delic!”. A nice touch.

International Editions

2020+, Walker Books (UK)

Boy you can really just arrange the arts however you want huh, Walker Books? Gotta leave all that room for text, since I might not be able to read or something. Also you know all that mood stuff and textures and established formatting from the last twenty years? All gone.

This can’t be a “for a UK market” thing. Someone at Walker Books just thought this was a good idea and nobody stopped them. I’ve read Isadora Moon 9-17. I’ve read Mirabelle 1-7. And both Emeralds. And Pizazz 5 and 6. All UK market only. Never seen either side of the Mississippi. All way cooler covers.

I’ve been drafting this article for weeks now, and I’m still cracking up at that “What mood will it be today?” tagline on book one. Like Judy’s some kind of unpredictable weather pattern.

Oh by the way, you might have noticed that little red circle at the bottom-left of book 7 there. Yeah, so fun fact: Every first edition copy of Judy Moody, US and UK, have exclusive stickers to that volume. I’m not mad I still don’t have that Amy Namey sticker. Really I’m not.

A selection of book 7 covers in Portuguese, Spanish, and Persian.

We’re in the wild west now. A lot more color. The Persian version does more of the mood ring coloring of certain characters like in the earlier eras. Judy’s got a world map. That wasn’t there in any of the English versions. Hang on a second…

Oh. It was a Newspaper Era book. These stopped around books eight and nine, so Not Bummer Summer never got a version like this. I would have preferred a new art to that movie, I think.

Wait, that means her map was removed from the Mood and Modern Era books. Same with her “Citizen of the World” shirt. It was turned into a regular green shirt. Her scarf is way different too. Why?

Mood.

I should probably stop before I get too moody myself. Anyway, if you haven’t read Judy for the covers yet, maybe do it for the story. Or the endearing characters. Or the super real dialogue. Or the stickers.

Cause if anyone has that Amy Namey sticker I’ve got a Rocky sticker up for grabs.