Communication of Latinx Stories Through Art
The book cover is meant to help the book sell, but it does it through a way that appeals to aesthetic sensibilities, which oftentimes means evoking specific feelings and associations in an intended consumer. In a general sense, this is applied in properly advertising a book’s genre, so those who like the genre can find it. But in a more specific sense, especially given the changing ground of young adult literature, it can mean explicitly advertising the diverse representation found within a novel.
The link between the ethnic and racial elements of a novel and its cover will be examined, predominantly through the lens of #OwnVoices young adult Latinx novels.
The choice to use Latinx novels was due to both the complex intersection of race and ethnicity that Latinx cultures possess, as well as the growing scope of Latinx representation within young adult literature. In 2012, only a couple #OwnVoices young adult stories were being published, but in 2019, over fifteen were traditionally published.
#OwnVoices stories were chosen, both due to the desire to prioritize authentic stories, as well as the potential factor that authors who share an identity with their protagonist would be more committed to accurate representation of their culture on the book cover, or at the very least, the avoidance of inaccurate representation.
Young adult was chosen as a sector of children’s literature due to its popularity and the general accessibility of information about the genre that isn’t present in works for people of younger ages, but also the still limited range of titles that are published compared to adult fiction.
I assert that buzz words, representations of people, and distinct symbols are three of the most important factors in communicating the presence of a Latinx story in the art of a book cover.
This will be further expanded through seeing how book covers change between editions, as well as title changes, to see how stories now strive to present diversity visibly.Three books were selected for in-depth analysis: Don’t Date Rosa Santos by Nina Moreno (2019), Undead Girl Gang by Lily Anderson (2018), and Labyrinth Lost by Zoraida Córdova (2016).
- Don’t Date Rosa Santos was chosen to further analyze buzz words in part due to its title changes from writing to publication, as well as the presence of a Latinx-coded names in the title & author lines.
- Undead Girl Gang was chosen to further analyze the representation of people on covers due to its cover change between the original hardcover edition (2018) and the paperback edition (2019), as well as the presence of a brown girl on the paperback edition.
- Labyrinth Lost was chosen to further analyze Latinx-coded symbols due to wide range of covers among various editions, as well as the further coding in sequels to the novel.