Hi, kids! I was just reading a few Twitter threads from Nilah Magruder, the fabulous artist from Dactyl Hill Squad and How to Find a Fox, regarding the disparity between how writers and illustrators in kidlit are perceived by the general public and by the industry itself. Now, if you read many of my reviews, you know how much I love illustrators. I love to wax rhapsodic over the art in everything from board books to YA graphic novels, and I always credit authors and illustrators in both the title and body of my posts. So I thought I had been doing a good job of giving equal credit to writers and artists, but after reading Nilah’s thoughts I realized that I have been doing quite a disservice to the cover artists for the books I feature here on the blog. When I post a review or do a TBR round-up, I often mention how beautiful the cover is, but (unless the artist who did the interior art did the cover as well) I haven’t been crediting the cover artists at all. Looking back, I’m ashamed of myself for not crediting the artists who created those incredible covers, so I’m going to do a few things to correct my oversight:

1. Apologize. I’m so sorry that I shared your work without crediting you. I have no excuse for overlooking you wonderful cover artists, but I hope you’ll forgive me.
2. Go back and add credits to all of my previous posts so that the artists get the kudos they deserve, and be sure to credit all cover artists moving forward. I’ll also post links below with the names of the artists I’ve overlooked up to this point. (The list will be a work in progress at the time that this post is published; I hope to have it finished by February 15. As of my last update on February 6, I have located and added artist credits for 21 of the 26 books that were missing credits.)
3. Start a new regular cover art feature! I’ll mix this one up depending on my mood; sometimes I’ll have several different books by the same cover artist, sometimes I’ll have different cover artists working in the same spooky subgenre, and sometimes I’ll probably just have random covers that really speak to me that day. Hopefully I’ll even have interviews at some point (something I’d like to do with creators of all types, so let me know if you’d like to chat sometime!). Regardless of the theme, the purpose of the feature will be to shine a spotlight on the artists whose talents at designing and illustrating covers help us discover new favorite books and enrich our connections with old favorites.

I’m sorry that it took me this long, but I will make it right. I’m excited to use this space to show more love to the incredible cover artists in the kidlit industry. Be on the lookout for the first installment of Creepy Cover Connoisseur in the near future!

Artists whose cover work you can find in old posts:

• Richard Amari: Paris Pan Takes the Dare (TBR:YARC)
• Linda Benson: The Witch of Blackbird Pond (Blogoween List)
• Quentin Blake: The Witches (Blogoween List) — Cover and interior illustrations.
• Antonio Javier Caparo: The Darkdeep (TBR) — Illustration, co-credited with designer Jeanette Levy.
• Melissa Castrillon: The House with Chicken Legs (TBR) — This title had a cover change after I published my TBR piece, so there are two artists listed here for this book. Though I love both covers, this one is my favorite because of its strong fairy tale vibes.
• Sally Wern Comport: Skeleton Man (TBR) — Cover and interior illustrations.
• Baily Crawford: City of Ghosts (Review, Best of 2018)
• Torborg Davern: The Girl from the Well (TBR:YARC)
• Michael Frost: Undead Girl Gang (Review, Best of 2018) — Photography, co-credited with designer Corina Lupp.
• Connie Gabbert: The Walls Around Us (TBR)
• The Brothers Hilts: The House in Poplar Wood (Review, Best of 2018) — Cover and interior illustrations, co-credited with cover designer Amelia Mack.
• Jim Hoover: Akata Witch (TBR) — Design, co-credited with illustrator Jillian Tamaki.
• Yaffa Jaskoll: The Spider Ring (Review)
• Jeanette Levy: The Darkdeep (TBR) — Design, co-credited with illustrator Antonio Javier Caparo.
• Ayesha Lopez: Midnight Reynolds and the Spectral Transformer (TBR)
• Corina Lupp: Undead Girl Gang (Review, Best of 2018) — Design, co-credited with photographer Michael Frost.
• Amelia Mack: The House in Poplar Wood (Review, Best of 2018) — Design, co-credited with illustrators The Brothers Hilts.
• Jaya Miceli: The Good Demon (TBR, Review, Best of 2018)
• Maeve Norton: The House with Chicken Legs (Review, Best of 2018)
• Kerri Resnick: Sadie (TBR) — Design, co-credited with illustrator Agata Wierzbicka.
• Matt Rockefeller: Spirit Hunters (TBR:YARC)
• Matt Saunders: Small Spaces (TBR, Review, Best of 2018)
• Victoria Semykina: Begone the Raggedy Witches (TBR, Review, Best of 2018) — Previously credited as illustrator, but I did not credit her cover art in my TBR piece.
• Erin Stein: Toil & Trouble: 15 Tales of Women and Witchcraft (TBR)
• Jillian Tamaki: Akata Witch (TBR) — Illustration, co-credited with designer Jim Hoover.
• Agata Wierzbicka: Sadie (TBR) — Illustration, co-credited with designer Kerri Resnick.

Books for which I still need to locate cover artist credits:

• Anna Dressed in Blood (TBR, TBR:YARC)
• Born Scared (TBR, Review)
• Fire Boy (TBR:YARC)
• The Girl in the Locked Room: A Ghost Story (Review)
• Hell’s Game (TBR:YARC)