It’s been awhile since I posted something for the Book Blogger Hop, but I’m really hoping to get connected with some great new-to-me bloggers this week – and I hope you are too!

This week, Jennifer asked us to respond to the following question: “Do you judge a book by it’s cover?” I think this is a great question because it has some value to publishers and the graphic designers responsible for book cover design. If those behind the literary publishing machine check out any one of the participating blogs this weekend, I think that they’ll find some interesting information about the book blogging community as a whole and what they think is important in cover design.

So, do I judge books by their covers? Absolutely – I have no qualms about admitting that an aesthetically-pleasing cover will grab my attention when it’s either on a bookshelf (facing out of course) or when I’m searching through books online. Some books, like Nancy Werlin’s Extraordinary is sooo gorgeous and otherworldly that I was drawn in right away. However, there is a funny thing about book design in that often the North American and UK markets have very distinct cover images. For the Hunger Games trilogy, I found that I really appreciated the design of the copies I could get in Canada, but the UK covers really didn’t appeal to me in the least. Other times, like in the case of Jackson Pearce’s Sisters Red, I prefer the UK edition with the shiny, rather than matte, finish. Hopefully, the UK designers have an idea of what appeals to UK teens…otherwise, there might have been a number of books that never make it off the shelves.

I will say one thing though, like Jennifer from Crazy For Books, if someone pitches me a book to review, I do examine the synopsis or book jacket copy before I decide to review it or not. It’s only fair, especially since the author doesn’t have control over the cover design most of the time and sometimes, the designer hasn’t even read the book before they come up with a concept.

What about you? Do you judge books by their covers, despite the cliché? Let me know in the comments, and when you’re done that, check out my Mockingjay Giveaway!

Buy Rose Sees Red
Special $12.94 (Regular price: $17.99)
Publisher: Scholastic Press
Format: Hardcover
Reviewer: Melissa on September 2, 2010
Rating: 4.5 out of 5 stars

Sometimes a single night has the power to change everything; sometimes a single night is all you have. If you pick up Rose Sees Red by Cecil Castellucci, I guarantee that you’ll be drawn into the moment of this unputdownable book just as I was. When we meet Rose, she’s a black cloud on the inside, having given up on friendship, on happiness, and on life being on anything other than the darkness that it appears to be. However, when Yrena, Rose’s Russian next door neighbor, crashes into Rose’s room and life, she sets in motion the events of an unforgettable night and the hope for better things to come.

If there is a word that can best sum up RoseSeesRed, then it would have to be electric. It’s too bad that Scholastic already used the phrase, “sparks will fly” to sell Suzanne Collins’ Catching Fire because I think the energy of this novel feels like static electricity coursing from the page to your literary imagination. It’ll wake you up, and it’ll make you remember what it’s like to feel the newness of friendship, the undiscovered confidence within yourself, and the excitement of New York City. I think it’s easy to see why both teen and adult readers of YA novels would identify with this narrative.

Readers will be thrown headlong into a novel rich in the language of artistic expression, including dance, theater and music. It’s a novel of dreams and the uncertainty and fear that these dreams won’t come to fruition. However, it’s also about the joy of sharing your artistic expression with other artists and the world at large. In other words, it’s a novel that speaks to the creativity ever present in human beings in a way that grabbed my attention. This book taps into the truth of the teenage experience, and when reading Cecil Castellucci’s novels, I find myself transported back to my own teen years with the same fears and desires as I had then.

If you’ve read my blog before, then you’ll know that I’m partial to historical novels. However, unlike the 18th and 19th century books that typically wind up in my YA historical literature category, this one speaks of a period in 1982 while the cold war is still raging and KGB and CIA agents still close observe any interactions between Americans and Russian diplomats (or their children). It’s a time that many of my adult readers will recognize and one that while still be a little foreign to today’s teens, may mean a larger appeal than the typical historical novel. It begs the question, how do you put the “historical” into this novel? Does an author need to be extra conscientious about a setting that is within the living memory of it’s readers and their parents? Perhaps these and other questions will be answered in due time on YABookShelf.com, but for now, I’ll keep pondering.

I think there is a lot to love about about Rose Sees Red, but what worked for me more than anything else was how it captured hope for the future. Celebrate the hope of adolescence – read this book!

Buy Rose Sees Red today!

Buy Romeo & Juliet & Vampires
Special $6.74 (Regular price: $8.99)
Publisher: Harper Teen
Format: Paperback
Reviewer: Melissa on September 1, 2010
Rating: 3.5 out of 5 stars

William Shakespeare’s Romeo And Juliet is probably one of his most widely read plays among a teen audience. Its themes of family feuds, truelove, revenge, and tragic ends, which are pivotal to the play’s action are all easily understood by young adults; they reflect the dramatic ways in which teens view their own first experiences with love and loss. Thus, Claudia Gabel’s decision to adapt this romantic tragedy to the monster mashup genre is not surprising. For the August 31, 2010 release of Romeo & Juliet & Vampires, readers can expect a fun read, which will, hopefully, motivate teens to check out Shakespeare’s version again with new eyes.

When I first heard about the novel Gabel was releasing, I wanted to check it out to see the ins and outs of the adaptation process. While many people instantly dismiss the mashup genre, I’ve argued on YABookShelf.com more than once that there can be something worth checking out in these monstrously-infused versions of classic novels and plays. I mean what was Shakespeare himself but a mashup artist par excellence, who only wrote one original play, The Tempest, which is often considered to be the least successful of his oeuvre. When I heard that Romeo&Juliet&Vampires was set to cast the Capulets as a long line of blood-sucking vampires and the Montagues as a gifted family of vampire slayers, I thought that Gabel was definitely on to something.

Having only read one monster mashup novel so far, Jane Slayre by Sherri Browning Erwin, and being a consummate lover of all things Shakespeare, I had really high expectations for this novel. In many respects, Gabel has done a great job making this beloved play recognizable in a new setting – Translyvania – and with characters who have slightly different motivations and raison d’etre from those of the original. Moreover, while I personally find a lot to love in the original, I can understand where the dark element of immortality and the secret vampire initiation rite would make this more exciting to a teen audience. Even I can admit that it was a fun read, especially as I got closer to the 80 page mark and beyond.

However, the more I read, the more I realized that transforming a play written in iambic pentameter into a prose novel is difficult. While Gabel, without a doubt, has made a valiant effort, there are some aspects of this novel, which didn’t meet my expectations. First, one of the major differences between plays and novels is that the former are high on dialogue and brief scene descriptions, but more sparse on description and first person point of view, except in the odd soliloquy or aside. For this reason, I found that the first 70 pages or so dragged a little, feeling longer than was necessary. Second, while most of the time, Gabel resisted the urge to use Shakespeare’s Rennaissance English with some slight modern modifications, which I really appreciated, there was at least one instance where she did update one of the famous lines with less than satisfactory results. I’m referring to the novel’s prologue in which the chorus’ lines are modernized in this way, “From forth the fatal loins of these two foes, a pair of star-cross’d lovers were fated to find out,” which may not bother a teen reader, but for someone like myself, who has read heavily from the Shakespearen oeuvre, this half-Renaissance, half-contemporary line wasn’t my cup of tea. Personally, I would have much preferred that this line would have been delivered in a fully modernized format.

Of course, these faults occur early on in Romeo & Juliet & Vampires, so as I continued reading, I was able to not only get passed them, but also really get into the paranormal twist on Romeo And Juliet. It is definitely a fun, new take on the classic play and is sure to entertain both bookworms and reluctant readers alike. Who knows, Gabel may make a Shakespearean student out of the most resistant to his iambic pentameter genius.

Buy Romeo & Juliet & Vampires today!

If you’ve been here at any time over the last week, then you’ll probably have seen a lot of love for Suzanne Collins and her latest novel in the Hunger Games trilogy. While many of you may have already read this novel, I’m sure there are a few people out there who are hanging back for the time being. If you’re one of these Mockingjay stragglers, then I have a giveaway that will give you a chance to check out the stunning conclusion or give you an excuse to buy the two earlier novels, The Hunger Games and Catching Fire and hole up for a weekend of reading.

Perhaps you think that my opinion might not correspond with your own – it’s a valid point. If that is the case, then take the time to check out some industry quotes about Mockingjay and the rest of the Hunger Games trilogy:

• “The final installment in the addictive and deliriously popular “Hunger Games” trilogy will be inhaled, swallowed, snorfled, snozzled, single-gulped, shoved down the gullet, Jonah-to-our-whale’d.” – David Plotz from Slate
• “a beautifully orchestrated and intelligent novel that succeeds on every level.” – Starred Review in Publishers Weekly
• “In the final analysis, this is exactly the book its fans have been hoping for.” – Starred Review in Kirkus Reviews
• “Wow.” – LA Times
• “[T]he fact that Collins’ books echo countless other narratives is a strength, not a weakness. If The Hunger Games are, indeed, book crack, they can also be gateway drugs.” – Nina Shen Rastogi from Slate

If these critic comments have grabbed your attention and you’re from either the US or Canada. Please feel free to fill out this FORM and enter to win. Extra entries are possible but either following @YABookShelf on twitter or the YA Book Shelf Facebook page is required. The grand prize winner will receive a new, hardcover copy of Mockingjay and a Mockingjay bookmark, while three other winners will get a bookmark only. This contest closes on September 17, 2010, but enter early so you don’t forget and miss out on your chance to win!

May the odds be EVER in your favor!

Today is release day for a bunch of hot YA novels, so I’m pretty sure that a lot of readers will be making their way to the bookstores or might actually have some pre-orders making their way into their mailbox as we speak. One of the books that is seeing the light of day today is Romeo & Juliet & Vampires, which was adapted from the Shakespearean play into a novel by Claudia Gabel. I’ve already had the chance to read this fun monster mashup, and you’ll get to read my thoughts about it tomorrow. Today, however, I thought that I’d give you the chance to be won over by (or at least give your opinion of) the book trailer created to help promote it.

Whoever made this trailer, used a very simple text and photo-based design. Personally, I thought that some of the selected images were really attractive and in keeping with the novel, but at the same time, using simple images without any movement seems a little dull given that the majority of book trailers use either special effects to show movement in still photos or actual video content. On another note, it uses simple text superimposed on the screen (and occasionally over top of the images). In order to match up with the 1492 setting, the creator selected a very old school style font in red, which definitely worked when it was in front of a plain, black background. I found it difficult to read the text when a image was behind it, which might compromise it’s promotional value.

Still, I think that you should definitely check out this trailer. Why? You might have a different opinion about the production values of the Romeo&Juliet&Vampires book trailer, and it might even get you to want to pick it up. Moreover, I think that the author, publisher, and the creator of the trailer can really benefit from your opinion on this trailer. Who knows? It might help them to create the next trailer for the next book that comes out. So, let me know what you think!
UPDATE: I just got an email from the Claudia Gabel, and given some of the questions that came up from my readers, she wanted you all to know that she made the trailer herself using iMovie. She didn’t have a big budget, but felt that it was better to put something out there, then nothing at all. Oh, and by the way, I think it’s cool that her boyfriend made the music for the video. Can’t help but appreciate collaboration like we see here.