Shelf Candy Sunday: Michael Wagner

This Sunday's Shelf Candy recognizes Michael Wagner's epic mystical covers for Michael Scott's series, The Secrets of the Immortal Nicholas Flamel. 

I've been admiring these covers for years. I find them so charming that I keep getting tempted to buy the books, even though I've read the jacket descriptions, the online descriptions, and even a chapter without feeling interested. The covers are just so dang mystical and spellbook-y, I can't resist. Bravo, Michael Wagner! Clearly he did his job well, as a cover is meant to lure readers in to discover the book's story. My only complaint is that the author's name kind of gets lost in this busy cover, and I personally think remembering the author's name is a pretty important part of being a reader. Aside from that, this is definitely a fantastic cover design. Maybe I'll buy the books and just pretend I have a bunch of spellbooks...oooh.

Shelf Candy Sunday #2: Sarah Gibb

How freaking adorable is this cover by Sarah Gibb?

This Sunday's shelf candy selection sports a lovely array of pastel colors and enchanting watercolor-y illustrations that definitely appeal to the middle-grade reader inside me. I have to admit that I haven't read Emily Windsnap and the Castle in the Mist, probably because I'm 23 and not 13, but I would have read the heck out of this if I'd found it in the library in seventh grade, based just on the cover. Love the colors, love the font, love the cute little stars instead of dots, just love. Follow the link to check out the rest of this artist's portfolio, which is full of middle-grade book covers.

Shelf Candy Sunday #1: Sarah Jane Coleman

I first encountered the term "shelf candy" on fellow blogger Maria's site, A Night's Dream of Books, and just fell in love with the term. Maria took over "Shelf Candy Saturday," a blogging event that people could join in and link to, from a retired blogger, but nowadays only has the time to do her own post. I hope she doesn't mind if I borrow the idea, but for Sundays.

After all, we are probably all guilty of having picked out a book solely based on the cover before. Heck, I'll throw it out there - the very first thing that catches my attention about a book is a beautiful cover. "Beautiful," by the way, is not the same as "eye-catching." Eye-catching: big bold letters, bright colors, and glitter-pixie throw up all over it. Beautiful: thought-provoking design.

With Shelf Candy Sunday, I hope to showcase a new beautiful book cover every week. Time allowing, I'd also like to find out more about the illustrator and maybe do a short showcase/blurb/interview. I don't have any of that cool stuff about illustrator Sarah Jane Coleman today, but let me share her amazing cover with you anyway:

What I love: Absolutely everything. This cover lends a modern twist to a great American classic. Design-wise, I love love love that the book title merges into the branches of the tree. I love that the tree is pictured, because it's one of the most interesting symbols in the book. I love that there's a mockingbird hidden in the branches at the top. I love the additional mystery of shadow-figures. I love that it's nighttime, because most of the exciting events in the book happen at nighttime.

Lastly, I love that the author's name is in a clear, tall font, because it was kind of small and insignificant in past covers and I believe that if you write a great American classic, you kind of deserve to have your name shouted from rooftops. Or at least, for your name to be noticeable on the cover of said great American classic. Now that it has its own very cute font, all-caps and attention-grabbing, Harper Lee is finally bound to get noticed by the thousands of high school students who are required to read To Kill a Mockingbird every year.

Read a litte more about Sarah Jane Coleman's process while creating this cover here. 

What about you? Do you love this cover? Are there any other great American classics with remodeled covers? Feel free to share in the comments!