reply

Responding to: 5. Let’s talk about the book’s appearance.

@J.R. hits it exactly: The cover hints at disguised identities and humor. So simple, but such an effective image, especially when combined with the FAKER title. I was intrigued! And @Jade, I agree, it’s a really good symbol but it sort of makes you expect a more slapstick type of humor. (Like Kirkus Reviews said: “Korman goes more for ironic humor than the physical or stand-up sort in this book, as shown by Trey’s enrollment in an ethics class that forces him into some decidedly hypocritical stances.”)

Trivia: FAKER’s cover is the second time (that I know of) when Groucho glasses have appeared on a Gordon Korman dust jacket. (The other time was more than 20 years ago, on the back flap of MAXX COMEDY.) 

The cover’s lavender background is a bold choice. Way back when, NO COINS PLEASE was the OG purple cover and FAKER’s color is similar. I wonder if there was any intentionality or homage—Artie Geller was definitely one of GRK’s original “fakers.” Then the inside flaps are a complementary yellow. I know @Jade took note… does anyone else notice a trend with the purple-and-yellow color scheme? We’ve seen a similar palette on MIXED UP and NOTORIOUS recently, along with SLACKER.

FAKER’s back cover is the second time Scholastic has featured six previous Korman covers with a teaser to read more of them. (MIXED UP was the previous one.) @Jade, did you notice the designer dropped WHAT’SHISFACE and kept the older title SLACKER? I really like this treatment. It’s a fun change from the normal blurbs.

Scholastic Press sometimes gets creative for their intrachapter separators. MIXED UP had lightning bolts, THE FORT had potted cacti, WAR STORIES had plastic soldiers, LINKED had a chain of paper links, and in FAKER we see a “fake mustache” used to indicate a break in time or setting. It’s a fun little detail.

The cover’s back flap repeats two surprisingly frequent mistakes in GRK’s bio: It says he wrote his first book at 13 (it should be 12) and that the title was This Can’t Be Happening at MacDonald Hall, miscapitalizing “Macdonald” and omitting the exclamation mark—which would be less egregious if it weren’t formatted and punctuated correctly in the partial list of GRK’s previous works at the start of the book.

While I’m really a fan of cover illustrations that capture one scene from a book, I appreciate the “iconic” format Scholastic has used in the past several years. Plus, the distinctive font (for the title and author name) help to identify these as Gordon Korman books, even at first glance.