Wednesday, September 26, 2007

Should Demco start selling discreet brown wrappers?

From the (London) Times Online:

How judging a book by its ‘girlie’ cover is putting boys off reading.

I'm slightly embarrassed to say that I never saw this downside to the vibrant new book covers that have been appearing over the past few years. I knew there were a lot of girls who would automatically grab a book with a Barbie-pink cover, but I didn't think about all the boys who were alienated by those covers. Then again, I think Saffy's Angel would be a hard book to sell to a boy regardless.

Friday, September 21, 2007

Interesting censorship story.

A high school student in Alabama has checked out the book Sandpiper, by Ellen Wittlinger, and refuses to return it, claiming that it is too explicit for a school audience.

Read more at School Library Journal.

The interesting this is that I had never heard of this book before this kerfuffle, but now I have, and so have thousands of other people. These things tend to backfire.