I didn’t cover this in my anniversary post, and it lets me talk about books and series I normally might not cover. I’m gonna try to keep these to English only covers, because foreign covers tend to be a lot more interesting, and maybe gets away from the original publisher’s intent.

Setting the Standard

In chapter books, covers tend to just feature characters. Maybe a scene from the book if you’re lucky. This isn’t exactly exciting compared to lively picture book covers, or more abstract middle-grade and YA covers. This has a lot to do with the intent of chapter books.

Picture books have to sell a $20 hardcover book to a parent, so having a colorful cover with a lively scene makes sense. The premise has to be worn on their sleeve. Middle-grade and YA are selling to a more mature audience, so just a title can be enough. Chapter books are intended to be sold to a kid just getting started with reading. They tend to sell on character. Names of chapter books are usually the main character’s name and the cover arts showcase the cool characters they’ll get to read about. Maybe the reader wants to be that character, or just read about the adventures of that character. Whatever the reason, it doesn’t usually make for a very exciting cover art.

Except you can make it work so there’s no excuse.

The Top 10 (In No Particular Order)

We’re not going to focus on quality of art or art style here, since I think that’s cheating (and also very subjective). These are just my personal preferences, but I think they showcase some more dynamic ways to present chapter book covers. I haven’t read every book shown here, but these are the covers that turned my head. Illustrators take notes.

Captain Awesome thrives on the comic book scene. Of course he would think that the new kid is a possible villain. Sally (the new girl on the right) is shown literally in partial shadow, with a potentially menacing expression on their face. We also see her cat and Eugene’s (class) pet Turbo, showing she might have a just-as-devious sidekick. Cats eat hamsters too. How “evil”. Also way to make a common kidlit topic look interesting.

This is the older cover for Stink book 1, but I like it a lot. The new cover just uses the Stink art, minus the comic panels. The cover above keeps them in, showing what Stink is using the pencil for. When you combine it with the title, The Incredible Shrinking Kid, my mind starts to wander, in a good way. Is there a supernatural element, and Stink goes into his comics? Does he become smaller than a comic book? How mysterious.

Pizazz’s final book cover needs a bit of explaining. This cover was a long time coming. Pizazz didn’t always care about being a hero this much, and this is the first book where she actually does. She has a new hairstyle, a shorter cape, and a pose that’s actually (kind of) heroic. You can check out the other covers here.

All the Sophie Mouse covers look great, but I think The Mouse House is the best of them. I’m not talking about Bell’s amazing art—art style isn’t something we’re getting caught on today. I’m talking about the attention to detail. Every room in the dollhouse being filled, Sophie’s upset expression, Ellie not noticing, even the bow on top showing it’s a gift. Detail city.

Mermaid You Look is a pretty typical Desmond Cole cover art. There’s a monster. Andres sees the monster. Desmond does not see the monster. But this time, the monster isn’t completely revealed. They’re in silhouette formed in a tank stuffed to the brim with fish. All kinds of creepy there. Honestly, I’m surprised more Desmond Cole covers don’t obscure the monsters more.

Maybe using both covers for Harper book 1 is cheating, but they show how using the same art in slightly different perspectives can make a cool difference. The newer (left) cover clearly shows her umbrella lets her fly. The right doesn’t, but does make it look like she’s using it to keep the stars off of her (like the snow in the left art). I think it also makes the umbrella a little more mysterious, since we don’t see what it does on the right cover. But it’s in the title still, so it must be cool, even if the art doesn’t show it.

So I’m not at Diary of an Accidental Witch 8 yet, but I have to get there because of this cover. It’s just a very inviting scene. Where are they? Who is this new friend? Why does Bea look so confident in her magic now? Are those Zs coming out of her wand or just magic sparks?

I’ve never read Llama Quest, but came upon it doing research for this article. I think it’s a little cheap putting the words “Llama” and “Quest” next to each other like that, but we’re not here to talk about titles. We’re here to talk about the situation these kids and llama are in. Is that a dragon? Are they nice? What’s the mage girl doing with those plants? She doesn’t look scared like the other kid. Neither does the llama. Also what’s that magic swirl around the llama? Did they teleport there? So many questions…

This is the newest Magic Tree House book. Jack and Annie are chasing a magic wind horse on bikes. What more do you need to see? I think we’re seeing that book covers that put questions in my mind are up there, but this time there’s just one big question: “Why?” Or maybe “How?” Jack and Annie normally go back in time, so they must not be that far back in time if they have bikes. But they’re in the wild, so why do they have bikes there? Is that horse actually magic? Magic plotlines are normally reserved for the older Merlin Missions series.

We’ll end on another series I haven’t read yet, but whose title I’ve always admired. Billy seems a bit like Tom Swift, what with all the different inventions. Billy Sure, Kid Entrepreneur book 10 puts Billy in a really interesting situation that piggybacks off the title of the book really well. It seems like his invention to find things goes terribly, hilariously wrong.

Conclusion

While chapter books covers tend to be dull, there’s clearly some ways to make them super cool. Keep an eye out for the covers next time you pick up another chapter book. You might find something out of the ordinary.