Submit a blog post explaining what book you have chosen to re-create the cover for. Why did you choose it? What is your plan when reworking the design?
I am considering reworking the cover of The Giving Tree. It is one of my favorite childrens’ books, I read it in school when I was at the elementary level, but my parents also got this for me when I was real little. At the time I didn’t realize the significance of the book, but I did enjoy it as well as many other of Shel Silverstein’s poems and works as a kid. Now, I realize the meaning behind the story, how the tree was a sort of mother figure to the boy, and gave everything she had to raise him. I might do some sort of work with the boy growing up and essentially becoming the tree, because I see it as the tree gave everything she had to raise her boy. The cover itself kind of gives a foreshadowing to that already.
Some may argue that the book is about a spoiled child who only returns when he wants something, but I think if the boy was different, the tree would still give all of herself to make the boy happy. Essentially, that is what a mother, a parent, a guardian will do for their children.
Another option I was considering was the Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants. I read it in high school, and continued to read the rest of the series later on. The cover doesn’t really do the story justice, in my opinion. It is pretty plain, and it is about four different stories and one big one put together amongst four girl best friends. Maybe I would do something still simple, like including a map with pins in places and parts of the girls’ lives where the pants “travelled,” or maybe I would include the girls in the cover, as they are all unique physically and on the inside, and it would give a little bit more as to what the story might be about.
Paige's Visual Communication Blog Fall 2015 