The look of Teen novels has changed over the years from the simple drawing on the cover of Maureen Daly’s Seventeenth Summer (1942) which could be considered the first teen novel to the chess pieces found on the cover of Stephanie Meyer’s new Breaking Dawn (coming out in August 2008).
Young adult novels, like their adolescent readers, have long represented something of an awkward phase, wedged between the dreaded children’s area and the daunting adult section. Print magazine, which is devoted to graphic design, looks at the changes in Teen cover art. Titles can have a new life when the cover has relevance to readers. Sweet Valley high is featured, as is Nancy Drew, Judy Blume’s Forever and Paula Danziger’s The Cat Ate My Gymsuit.
