This is my weekly post where I highlight and appreciate cover designs and the general physical appearance of books. We all judge book covers to some extent. I can’t say that I’ve ever decided against a book with terrible cover art if I liked the sound of the plot, but I do purchase special editions of books and multiple editions of books based on their cover art. If book covers didn’t matter, publishers wouldn’t put out so many beautiful editions!
Once again, I’m featuring a fabulously designed book that I haven’t read yet. Sigh. I have at least read the first book (you can see a review/Judging post here) and I do mean to get to the sequel soon, but then again, I say that about basically every book I own. Warren the 13th: The Whispering Woods, by Tania del Rio, is a middle-grade book illustrated and designed by Will Staehle (whose work is friggen awesome and many of his covers can be found in my collection) and published in 2017 by Quirk Books, ISBN: 9781594749292. I absolutely love the style of Staehle’s illustrations here and while I hate to say it’s Tim Burton-esque (because I’m SO over Burton, despite loving his early work), but it totally is. The typography is excellent as well and I even love the column-style setup. These have to be some of the best designed middle-grade books I’ve seen.
The are beautifully illustrated. Staehle did such a great job. I still need to read the second one.