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Judging Books By Their Covers: Adolescent Meaning Making From Newbery Book Jackets

Markle, Kelly Elizabeth
http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=muhonors1114194605

Abstract Details

2005, Bachelor of Philosophy, Miami University, School Of Interdisciplinary Studies - Interdisciplinary Studies.
More books targeted at young adults will be published in 2005 than any proceeding year in the history of the United States. The goal of publishers is to sell these books. Parents, teachers and librarians, on the other hand, tend to view literature as a tool to teach socially acceptable attitudes and values. Newbery Award winning books are a set often chosen for precisely this purpose. Newbery books represent the highest quality young adult fiction on the market, and are valued by librarians, publishers, teachers and young adults. The marketing of Newbery books, for adults interested in high quality adolescent literature, is partially accomplished simply by the presence of the award on the book jacket. But publishers believe that there is something perhaps equally important that can dictate whether or not adolescent’s will read these high-quality books: the image on the cover. Marketing, editorial and artistic input is employed when designing a cover image, however a sort of conventional “publisher’s wisdom” also influences these designs. Cover images are essentially advertisements for the book, and as such should be analyzed for messages about cultural values and power distribution especially with regard to typically “othered” groups: minorities, lower classes and girls. Too often when publishers employ “visual shorthand” to market these books they also register commonly held stereotypes about othered groups in the cover. Adolescent’s construct meaning from book covers. Two theoretical frameworks that attempt to explain how people make meaning from images are visual social semiotics and connotative analysis through semantic differential surveys. These frameworks were tested in a case study of Island of the Blue Dolphins. Four paper-back covers printed between 1970 and 2000 were distributed to one hundred eleven middle school students. All of the covers featured an image of the main character on an island. The analysis of student responses indicated that the connotative meanings attributed to the four book covers was different. The female character on the cover of more recently published books was interpreted more positively than earlier editions. This pattern may not hold for all books, but it is clear that students make meaning of cover art images and that this meaning influences their expectations for the book. Cover art should be critically examined before publication to avoid a conflict between the values on the book jacket and the message in the text of the book.
Chris Myers (Advisor)
110 p.
Adolescence; Media; Publishing; Newbery

Recommended Citations

Citations

  • Markle, K. E. (2005). Judging Books By Their Covers: Adolescent Meaning Making From Newbery Book Jackets [Undergraduate thesis, Miami University]. OhioLINK Electronic Theses and Dissertations Center. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=muhonors1114194605

    APA Style (7th edition)

  • Markle, Kelly. Judging Books By Their Covers: Adolescent Meaning Making From Newbery Book Jackets. 2005. Miami University, Undergraduate thesis. OhioLINK Electronic Theses and Dissertations Center, http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=muhonors1114194605.

    MLA Style (8th edition)

  • Markle, Kelly. "Judging Books By Their Covers: Adolescent Meaning Making From Newbery Book Jackets." Undergraduate thesis, Miami University, 2005. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=muhonors1114194605

    Chicago Manual of Style (17th edition)

muhonors1114194605
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© 2005, all rights reserved.
This open access ETD is published by Miami University Honors Theses and OhioLINK.