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Top Ten Book Cov­ers of 2011

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Top Ten of 2011, a fab­u­lous week of look­ing back at the best of the best this past year, is hosted by Lisa from A Life Bound By Books, Rachel from Fik­t­shun & Jaime & Patri­cia from Two Chicks on Books and Jes­sica from Con­fes­sions of a Booka­holic.ce

I think this might be my favourite cat­e­gory this week. As an illus­tra­tor, I love well designed cov­ers, and as you can prob­a­bly guess from my own per­sonal choices, I’m not a fan of the over­done, ridicu­lous look­ing model in a designer dress that unfor­tu­nately seems to be the trend at the moment. No won­der boys don’t want to ven­ture into the YA section!

If a book has a cover that is like a work of art, I, more often that not, will buy it regard­less of the story inside.

But I have to admit, I have found that if a pub­lisher has put that much work into the design of a book, it tends to be because it is worth reading.

Here are my par­tic­u­lar favourites of 2011:

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The 10pm Ques­tion by Kate De Goldi

Also one of my Top Ten Reads this year. I first noticed this book because of the cover, was incred­i­bly intrigued when I read the syn­op­sis and then knew I had to buy it after read­ing The Book Smuggler’s glow­ing review.

Bread­crumbs by Anne Ursu

This is my top, absolute favourite book cover design of this year, if not ever. This cov­ers makes me squeal hap­pily. It is stun­ning. It’s the kind of work I dream of cre­at­ing myself.

Prized by Caragh M O’Brien

I love these new designs for the Birth­maked tril­ogy. Gor­geous colours, beau­ti­ful typog­ra­phy and a rus­tic, ornate feel. You can’t get this cover here sadly, and I didn’t love the first book, but these cov­ers make me want to col­lect them all any­way. Because they would look very, very pretty on my shelf.

I’ll Be There by Holly Gold­berg Sloan

Another illus­trated cover. This cover is def­i­nitely one of the rea­sons this book is all over the blogs and I have heard the story is just as impressive.

The Night Cir­cus by Erin Morganstern

I can­not tell you have des­per­ate I am to get a copy of The Night Cir­cus with this cover. Sadly it seems to be unavail­able every­where. I could just buy it with the image of the two peo­ple on front done in the same sort of style, but I’m stub­born. I want this one. 

The Girl who Cir­cum­nav­i­gate Fairy­land in a Ship of Her Own Mak­ing by Cath­erynne M. Valente

With a title as scrump­tious as that you have to have an impres­sive cover to match. I think ‘Oooo’ was my reac­tion on first see­ing this.

Miss Peregrine’s Home for Pecu­liar Chil­dren by Ran­som Riggs

Miss Pere­grine has such a delight­fully creepy, old fash­ioned cover and is just as dis­turb­ing inside, with pho­tographs of the pecu­liar chil­dren throughout.

Daugh­ter of Smoke and Bone by Laini Taylor

It may not look as impres­sive on the screen but Daugh­ter of Smoke and Bone’s cover is beau­ti­ful in real life. The feath­ers sub­tly shim­mer and glint. Def­i­nitely wor­thy as one of the Top Ten Cov­ers this year.

A Mon­ster Calls by Patrick Ness

The illus­tra­tions by Jim Kay in this book are breath­tak­ing, dark, edgy, and utterly unique for a YA cover.

A Straight Line to My Heart by Bill Condon

Sim­ple but per­fect. Much like the book itself. I love this cover, which is also embossed for that lit­tle extra something.