Judging books by their covers

I can't believe how much better children's book cover art has gotten in the past ten years. When I was a kid the majority of children's book covers were terrible--lots of cheesy, semi-realistic drawings of awkwardly posed kids set against garish backgrounds. (There were a few notable exceptions, sure, but dorky ugliness did seem to be the prevailing fashion.) But if you go into the children's book section of your local bookstore today, you're going to see a number of books like this one--richly colored and elegantly designed:


Isn't that gorgeous? And it's even more appealing in reality. (It's drawn by the same artist who's done some covers for The Decemberists, in case you were wondering where you'd seen that style before.) I don't know if the books themselves are any better than they were when I was a kid, but it's wonderful to finally see them getting the cover art they deserve.