Puffin Classics, redesigned
A number of Puffin Classics have been redesigned. There's no way these looked as good when I was a kid. See more of them here.
Thursday, March 20, 2008
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8 comments:
interesting that the font for the title changes...
More interesting—why is the intro author's name bigger than the name of the author of the book???
Out of all of these only Oliver Twist stands out title-wise. Everything else seems busy with the text.
Overall, these are nice and as usual, Penguin makes some fine choices with their series look.
Still like David Pearson's redo of Penguin Popular Classics: http://www.davidpearsondesign.com/popularclassics.html
They just come of as a real affordable read, which is what I think Penguin always wated to do with great literature...
Nice how the "Little Women" and "Black Beauty" illustrations break out of the square, just slightly. Some of the others might be too elegant/ understated for their own good.
The only reason I can think of to have the intro author's name bigger than the actual author is that these books are so famous we all know who wrote them. Still, an interesting choice.
Why place the introducing author on the cover at all for that matter?
Definitely a bad choice, the book will not be bought for it's introducer. The artworks are so stunning though that I don't really care. I will certainly replace my Jack London.
Perhaps hyping the introduction is part of their strategy for distinguishing the Puffin edition from the others on the shelf. Buyers may not know who Garth Nix is, but the large print implies that maybe they should.
The introduction-writers are all names that the target audience is expected to recognise: they're living authors that today's kids are already reading.
(Some of them are theme-matched as well, I notice: the introduction for 'The Wind in the Willows' is written by the author of a popular series about animals that act like humans, for instance.)
Two reasons I like this newly designed series: (1) They are printed on better quality paper, and (2) There are some extra info in the end of the books.
What I don't like is, the size of the books is smaller than the old ones.
Also, I don't believe in the publisher's statement that those books are for readers from age 8 to 12.
I love the design of this series but I have found they are very hit or miss in terms of quality. I found a few copies of various titles that seemed to be cut on an angle, with the top edge slanting to one side.
Books for children don't need to look like they were made by children.
And while the books span all "age levels," every book in the series is something I could see a precocious kid reading.
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