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readergirlz is a literacy and social media project for teens, awarded the National Book Foundation's Innovations in Reading Prize. The rgz blog serves as a depot for news and YA reviews from industry professionals and teens. As volunteers return full force to their own YA writing, the organization continues to hold one initiative a year to impact teen literacy. All are welcome to "like" us on Facebook!

Sunday, March 7, 2010

Cover Stories: All Unquiet Things by Anna Jarzab

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The lovely Anna Jarzab is here to talk about her novel's cover. All Unquiet Things, which The Compulsive Reader called "[A] complex, smart, and disquieting debut."

Take it away, Anna!

"It surprises me now, considering how obsessively I thought of this book, how little I thought about what the cover might look like. I had dinner with my editor and my agent a few months after we sold All Unquiet Things and my editor asked, 'So do you have any ideas about what you might like to see on the cover?' I was totally stumped, so I blurted out the only thing that came to mind: matryoshka dolls. One is crucial to the plot and they've always seemed sort of an apt metaphor for people and mysteries. I don't know whether or not the art department at Delacorte found that suggestion helpful, but they didn't go with it, which was fine because then I used it as a theme for my website, which has worked out pretty nicely.

"I got my cover in January 2009 and was totally stunned by it. I mean, absolutely, positively, 100% in awe of how elegant and captivating it is. I had absolutely no input except '!!!!!'. I didn't even try to play it cool. The cover never changed from the comp I saw, which was just fine with me.

"The cover photo was shot specifically for the book by the brilliant Eva Kolenko (who according to her blog just did some shots for a Rubio's commercial, which is pretty much the coolest thing ever; as all Californians know, Rubio's is delicious). The model's name is Lauren, and a couple of months ago I heard from her lovely mother, who dropped me a line to tell me that was her daughter on the cover. I was excited and asked her to see if Lauren could write a little something about her experience being a cover model for the book. You can read the full thing here on my website, but here's a snippet...

Read the rest of Anna's Cover Story and comment on melissacwalker.com for a chance to win a copy of the book!

5 comments:

Little Willow said...

Just started to read this.

JenFW said...

My response to this cover: I gasped. I actually gasped. That hand in the grass is rather haunting. The stark white bottom half contrasts with the word "unquiet." Very evocative cover.

I have a tendency to choose books based on very little information, and I wouldn't need more than the cover and title to pick this one up and take it home.

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