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Book Covers

JUNE 21, 2011

This is a collection of recent book cover commissions from a variety of publishers, along with some of the process that went into putting them together.   I did all of the hand lettering on these covers.   The first is a book jacket for "Dancing Home", a new book from Simon & Schuster.   The book is about the stories of two Mexican girls, one that has come to America and the other one who has stayed behind.  It has also been published in Spanish as "Nacer Bailando".  Art Director - Lauren Rille
Rough sketches for Dancing Home

wraparound jacket


"Home and Exile" is the latest in my series of ten covers for books by Chinua Achebe that are being published by Random House.   This book is a collection of Achebe's essays about growing up under colonial rule in Nigeria.  Art Director - John Gall
"A moving account of an exceptional life...Achebe reveals the innner workings of the human conscience through the predicaments of Africa and his own intellectual life...A story of the triumph of the mind, told in the words of one of this century's most gifted writers.  The book is bound to be a classic of its kind."  —Henry Louis Gates, Jr.
sketches for 'Home and Exile"

final art


"Double-Click for Trouble" is a young adult novel published by Farrar, Straus & Giroux.  The story focuses on the topic of internet pornography as it relates to teenagers.  The main characters and the reading audience are teens so this was a tricky one to pull off.  I had some fun with the sketches.
sketches for "Double-Click for Trouble"


"Leaving Glorytown" is a story about a boy living in Communist Cuba in the 1960s and his emmigration to America.  I've done a lot of reportage drawings on my own trips back to Cuba and worked in that vain for this book jacket.   Published by Farrar Straus & Giroux.
Some of the other sketches for "Leaving Glorytown"

final pencil study


"Fusion" is my first foray into doing covers for digital books.   This book was self-published by the author, Edward Iwata, and will be available as an e-book via Amazon and other digital outlets.   I treat all of the rights, usage and fees in the same manner I would a printed book.
sketches for "Fusion"


This is a collection of stories by authors such as H.G. Wells, Dickens, and Kipling, published in Italian.  The publisher, Einaudi, saw one of my existing drawings and wanted to use it as the book cover.


Finally, this is another case of existing art used as a cover.  This art was originally published in The New York Times, accompanying a review of the book "Christine Falls", about a beautiful, unidentified, female body that sits, unclaimed, at a coroner's office.  The novel is about trying to find out who she is, her identity, etc.  The book was published in Israel as well, and the publisher wanted to use the art on the cover for their edition.
© 2024 Edel Rodriguez