We love David Levithan and we are excited to know that his books are getting a revamp! While David’s books have always had some distinctive covers, they are perhaps too distinctive that they don’t match well with each other. Don’t get us wrong — we love the iconic cover of Every Day, but it just feels too different from his other book covers. So we are definitely excited to learn that Harper Collins is revamping his book covers, giving them a fresh look. To celebrate, let’s chat about each of these covers, shall we?
Every Day
Starting with Every Day, we must say we love how the story is captured so well in this new cover. The original cover is classic — the scene depicts two people falling through the clouds and there is also a brief description of the premise. However, with the new cover, the picture is enough to paint the entire story. You have Rhiannon, and then 3 different versions of A so even those who are not familiar with the story can guess the story. (Hopefully no one will think Rhiannon dates 3 guys in one book!)
Ryan and Avery
This is a new book by David Levithan so we have no other covers to compare the new one with but in Ryan and Avery, Ryan (the blue haired boy) meets Avery (the pink haired boy) so this seems perfectly capturing the hair colour at least. But more importantly, Ryan and Avery tells of 10 dates that Ryan and Avery go on, but also the experiences that many LGBTQ+ teens face. Readers get to see how supportive Ryan and Avery are of each other in the book, and them leaning against each other on the cover is the perfect description of that.
Two Boys Kissing
Another classic one of David Levithan. Two Boys Kissing is known for being a banned book due to its content and its original cover — a close up of two boys kissing. The new cover still features two boys kissing but instead of a stock photo, it is just a drawing of that. Maybe parents might allow that now…? (lol) Either way, we definitely love revisiting this book because of its writing style, and because we realized that Ryan and Avery actually feature in this book!
Are We There Yet?
This is rather different from the other David Levithan books. Instead of having a storyline that is focused on LGBTQ+ characters, Are We There Yet is a simple light-hearted story about the relationship between two brothers as they are forced to visit Italy together. The cover when this book was first published in 2005 featured a snow globe, which shows a scene from Italy, so it is rather fitting. A later cover then has a paper plane as its only feature, which is too generic perhaps. The newest cover now has two boys that look basically the same (point to being brothers!) and a girl sitting between them. This is very different from the original ones as it now highlights a new part of the story that has never been reflected in the previous covers, but it unfortunately loses the travel aspect of the original covers, so we can’t tell how much we love it.
Boy Meets Boy
This is the debut novel of David Levithan and it’s pretty cute and sweet. Following Paul who is having a chaotic time, having blown up his chance with his crush and being in a fight with his best friend, Boy Meets Boy is a classic. And it originally got a cute cover with the classic heart-shaped sweets. A newer version of the cover has two hearts being torn from a piece of paper, which also looks very classic, or at least old school, so it fits the vibes of the book. The newest edition features two boys, well, meeting each other, with the meeting part highlighted through the flower. Overall, not our favourite out of these redesigned covers but we appreciate the flower representing an old school tradition, and thus fitting this classic.
