The cover art for this book is simply awful. It is one of the worst in the entire series. In fact, I hate this one the most. It is even worse than the horrific Beverly Gray's Quest. At least Beverly Gray's Quest has some character to it and looks kind of like comic book art.So, I was looking at this cover art and then looked at the frontispiece, which is the same illustration, but in gray and white on glossy paper. The glossy frontispiece might be just slightly better since it doesn't have the horrible colors.
The caption of the frontispiece reads, "Beverly stared after her friend in amazement." The scene is from page 49:
Shirley was coming aboard and Beverly ran to meet her. Shirley smiled briefly and swept past to go below deck. Beverly stared after her friend in amazement.Reading the actual scene in the book only makes the illustration worse. "Shirley smiled briefly and swept past to go below deck." The illustration has Shirley going in the wrong direction, onto the deck instead below deck. Okay, so perhaps the illustration is instead depicting when Shirley came back up and left the boat, even though Beverly isn't staring after her in amazement in that part of the scene. However, Shirley is still heading in the wrong direction, away from the gangway, which is where Beverly is standing.
It actually looks as though Shirley is holding onto the frame of the entrance while she looks at the sailboats out in the water. In fact, it looks like Shirley could be hiding from the sailboats, and Beverly is watching her. The illustration does not match the intended scene and looks almost as though Grosset and Dunlap took some random illustration of people on a boat and made it apply to a scene in this book.
This is a perfect example of when a person should not judge a book by its cover. The book is excellent, and the dust jacket illustration is awful
2 comments:
That's actually my second favorite Beverly Gray cover art--second to Beverly Gray, Reporter, which is very similar. To me, they're very slick and forties/mid-century. I also love forties Whitman dust jackets for the stylized illustrations (i.e. Blythe Girls and Outdoor Girls reprints). I can see how they would be unappealing to someone who prefers the Tandy style, though. Tastes differ, I suppose.
And I probably should have pulled out the thesaurus for my (too) many uses of the word "style."
I like the dust jacket art to Beverly Gray, Reporter much better than that of Beverly Gray's Return, although it is not one of my favorites.
It is interesting how each person's tastes differ and how some of us like cover art that other people dislike. I have always liked the Penny Parker dust jackets, but most people apparently hate them. For a long time, I have thought that the key to liking the Penny Parker dust jackets is in getting some that are actually in decent shape, which is difficult.
On the other hand, I read mostly positive comments about the Bill Gillies Nancy Drew dust jacket art, and I don't particularly care for those dust jackets. They're okay, but I like the Tandy and Nappi art much better.
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