I’m sorry to say anything unkind about Anne Shirley, but…
is it just me, or has Anne gotten ugly in her latest incarnation?
I’m wondering who will want to
read these books? What about
you? Do these covers reach out
and grab you? Does this look like
the loquacious and starry-eyed
Anne we’ve all come to know
and love? Or does this cover
model look more like Cruella
De Vil?
« previous High Concept for Novelists
subsequent » A Beach Tail ~ picture book review
category: Book Covers
tags: anne of avonlea, anne of green gables, anne of the island, lm montgomery, ugly book covers
tags: anne of avonlea, anne of green gables, anne of the island, lm montgomery, ugly book covers
What’s with the dour expression?
I can only guess that the artist didn’t read the books. What were they thinking?
I suppose really sad, uptight little girls might be drawn to these, but I think they’ll instantly be disappointed when they meet the Anne inside.
Becky
.-= Rebecca LuElla Miller´s last blog ..My Least Favorite Book of the Bible =-.
I always thought of Anne as beautiful but in a Katherine Hepburn kind of way – luminous skin and fine read hair. This one is Cruella de Vil yes, and also like the Charlie and Lola illustrations.
Sally, I’ve been thinking about high concept. Do you think it applies to picture books?
.-= Book Chook´s last blog ..It’s Fun to be Frugal =-.
I just saw this question. Yes, I do think high concept applies to picture books. I think even with PB’s you are trying to get real estate in the parents’ minds.
I mean, high concept, to my way of thinking, means fresh and desired, so why wouldn’t it apply to all books? You don’t want to write or read cliched PB’s.
These look very anime to me, and Anne is supposed to be big in Japan. I thing they are trying to get the asian market.
I actually always pictured Anne looking like a Gibson Girl, myself. I remembered reading somewhere that Montgomery ripped out a Gibson illustration from a magazine & put it in a frame over her desk, while she was writting the first Anne book.
I found this picture recently & I really like it:
http://www.james.griffin.org/7.html
I been using it as my wallpaper on my monitor.
Shalom, that’s a gorgeous picture of Anne. Thanks for linking to it.
How funny and odd. You’re right – this is not Anne at all. I guess the goal was to make her appeal to contemporary readers – but even her expression isn’t Anne-ish.
.-= Megan Abrahams´s last blog ..Keeping the Olympic spirit alive through books =-.