From: Nell Fleming <nell.fleming_at_wsd.k12.wi.us>
Date: Fri, 10 Feb 2012 07:42:28 -0600

maia_at_littlefolktales.org writes: I feel that covers & jackets matter a great deal,

I concur. I will also go so far as to say that images, especially cover images, matter on a deeper level beyond whether it matches the book, or whether we like it or not. Images have meaning, and can be analyzed at the same level as text.

I started a post graduate project called "judging books by their cover" dealing with a decade 2000-2010 of book covers. It is a qualitative analysis of faces on childrens picture books. There are some interesting trends. What I am finding is that there is a significant trend in race depiction and theme of picture book. I know this isn't exactly what we're talking about here but I can only hazard to guess it is similar for YA. If there is a minority on the cover the themes were limited to a small list of themes including mostly reality based ideas, history, civil rights, ethnic discovery. If there were white faces on the cover the themes were endless, including light hearted topics and imaginative play.

When I did a cloud for each of the two lists in an anti-racism art contest it actually disturbed my daughter so much that I had to put them away afterwards.

Images are reflections of our values and our culture and the choices we make as human beings.

Nell Fleming Librarian WSD Library 309 Walworth Ave Delavan, WI 53115 (262) 728-7133 v/tty
Received on Fri 10 Feb 2012 07:42:28 AM CST