Killer Cover Monday and the NCTE! Fairest of All: A Tale of the Wicked Queen

Okay, just got back from the NCTE/ALAN Workshops at Disney World, which my awesome publisher, Holiday House, was kind enough to send me to! It was a wonderful conference, not to mention a great Thanksgiving vacation for my family! Oh, and when I presented to the 300+ educators on Tuesday they actually laughed at my jokes! Phew! I was so nervous, expecting nothing but tumbleweeds and rotten tomatoes! What a relief!

So, in my many travels through Disney World a book kept catching my eye. The cover was to die for, the Wicked Queen from Snow White. The book is called Fairest of All: A Tale of the Wicked Queen, a fractured fairytale (very hot genre right now) by Serena Valentino. I just started reading it last night. Long story short, I had to share this uber cool cover with you. On the dust jacket, the evil, yet beautiful Queen. Remove the dust jacket and here's what you get! GAH! Quite a shocker!

BTW: Loving this book so far. Valentino writes it in a very traditional fairytale style, so nothing like WICKED or other fractured fairytale novels I've read, but so far just as enthralling!

Hope you ALL had a fantastic Thanksgiving! I didn't have to cook or clean, so mine was amazing! ;)


xoxo -- Hilary

IN LIVING COVER...what's your favorite cover?

Whittington, by Alan Armstrong, cover by Kenneth McMillan

Have you ever read a book, loved the book, but also literally fell captivated by the cover? Basically to the point where you can't stop staring at it and every time you look at it you find something new to wonder about?

The cover of the Newbery Honor book, WHITTINGTON by Alan Armstrong, does that to me. This version of the cover was created by Kenneth McMillan and it just draws me in (no pun intended). You start with those eyes--that mesmerizing stare that makes you realize this animal is much more than your average feline. Then you see that sad limp ear--what happened to this cat? Who or what hurt him? Was he born that way? Did he deserve it? He's large and burly, with a scruffy chest and bold confident stripes--who is this cat? McMillan does a fantastic job of making what most people would think is simply a typical housecat into anything but. Every time I look at this cover I see more.

What covers do it for you? Is there something new--a book you're reading now that has a cover that just strikes you or maybe something you read as a child--a cover that you can still picture in your head after all those years and sometimes do?

Social Networking Fail or Save Me from Myself!

PROJECT MAYHEM: Social Networking Fail or Save Me from Myself!

I'm talking about social networking today on the Project Mayhem Blog. When does it become too much???