Do! Judge A Book By Its Cover is a regular feature on Pop! Goes The Reader in which I pay tribute to some of the best and brightest the publishing world has to offer in the way of book cover design. This feature is inspired by Katie’s feature Cover Love on her blog One Page At A Time. The idea is being used with her gracious permission.
Book cover design can play an important role in a book’s success or failure. While certainly not the only contributing factor, for the casual reader perusing the shelves of their local library or bookstore, a book’s cover offers one of the earliest introductions to the story contained within its pages and can help differentiate it from the thousands of other titles surrounding it. Book cover design is one of my passions, and given that I spend much of the year celebrating it in its many shapes, forms and iterations in my weekly feature, Do! Judge A Book By Its Cover, I thought it might be fun to compose a list of what I thought were some of the most effective, eye-catching and beautiful examples of book cover design for in 2018.
Please Note: I’ve done my best to provide credit for the cover designers, illustrators, artists and photographers responsible for the work below whenever possible, but was unable to find this information for a number of those listed. If you know of an uncredited individual responsible for any of these book covers below or if I’ve made any mistakes, please let me know and I would be happy to include proper attribution in this post. Their work is lovely and deserves to be credited.
The covers below are listed in no particular order.
01. A Very Large Expanse of Sea by Tahereh Mafi
Cover design by Rodrigo Corral
02. Notes From My Captivity by Kathy Parks
Cover design by Heather Daugherty, Cover art by Helen Crawford-White
03. That’s Not What Happened by Kody Keplinger
Cover design by Maeve Norton
04. Chaotic Good by Whitney Gardner
Cover art by Kyle Hilton
05. Heretics Anonymous by Katie Henry
Cover design by David Curtis
06. The Pisces by Melissa Broder
Cover design by Rachel Willey, Cover photograph by Tim O’Brien
07. The Good Luck Charm by Helena Hunting
Cover design by Elizabeth Turner Stokes, Cover art by Paul Oakley
08. Pride by Ibi Zoboi
Cover design by Jenna Stempel-Lobell, Cover art by T. S. Abe and Billelis
09. All Out: The No-Longer-Secret Stories of Queer Teens Throughout The Ages by Saundra Mitchell (Editor)
10. Monday’s Not Coming by Tiffany D. Jackson
Cover design by Erin Fitzsimmons
11. Rule by Ellen Goodlett
Cover design by Marcie Lawrence, Cover art by I Love Dust
12. Reflection by Elizabeth Lim
13. Damsel by Elana K. Arnold
Cover design by Michelle Taormina, Cover art by Vault 49
14. Dread Nation by Justina Ireland
Cover design by David Curtis
15. The Lantern’s Ember by Colleen Houck
Cover art by Billelis
16. I Am Still Alive by Kate Alice Marshall
Cover design by Dana Li
17. The Dangerous Art of Blending In by Angelo Surmelis
Cover design by Michelle Cunningham, Cover photograph by Christine Blackburne
18. The Summer of Broken Things by Margaret Peterson Haddix
Cover design by Lucy Ruth Cummins, Cover photograph by Greg Vore
19. Pulp by Robin Talley
Cover design by Kathleen Oudit, Cover art by Chris Arran
20. Convenience Store Woman by Sayaka Murata
21. When Katie Met Cassidy by Camille Perri
Cover design by Michelle McMillian
22. The Beauty That Remains by Ashley Woodfolk
Cover art by Zeke Peña
23. The Radical Element by Jessica Spotswood (Editor)
24. Undead Girl Gang by Lily Anderson
Cover design by Corina Lupp, Cover photograph by Michael Frost
25. Watch You Burn by Amanda Searcy
Cover art by Steve Gardner
26. Attack Of The 50 Foot Wallflower by Christian McKay Heidicker
Cover design by Krista Vossen, Cover art by Francesco Francavilla
27. Ahimsa by Supriya Kelkar
Cover design by Neil Swaab, Cover art by Kate Forrester
28. Amal Unbound by Aisha Saeed
Cover design by Dave Kopka, Cover art by Shehzil Malik
29. Front Desk by Kelly Yang
Cover design by Maeve Norton, Cover art by Maike Plenzke
30. Me, Frida and The Secret of The Peacock Ring by Angela Cervantes
Cover design by Nina Goffi, Cover art by Rafael López
31. The Extraordinary Colors of Auden Dare by Zillah Bethell
32. The Serpent’s Secret by Sayantani DasGupta
Cover design by Elizabeth Parisi, Cover art by Vivienne To
33. Clara Voyant by Rachelle Delaney
Cover design by Jennifer Griffiths, Cover art by Christy Lundy
34. Lucky Little Things by Janice Erlbaum
Cover design by Aimee Fleck, Cover art by Lisk Feng
35. Smoke and Mirrors by K.D. Halbrook
Cover design by Chloë Foglia, Cover art by Karl James Mountford
Now it’s YOUR turn! What were some of your favourite book covers in 2018? Let me know in the comments – I would love to hear from you!