My first post of 2021 is a look back at some of the young adult covers that caught my eye last year. I’m sure that I have missed a lot of great work (waves hands at everything that went on in 2020), so apologies if your favourites aren’t here. Happy New Year!
Agnes at the End of the World by Kelly McWilliams; design by Marcie Lawrence and Jenny Kimura; illustration by Tom Bagshaw (Little, Brown Books for Young Readers / June 2020)
All Our Worst Ideas by Vicky Skinner; design by Katie Klimowicz (Swoon Reads / August 2020)
Before the Ever After by Jacqueline Woodson; design by Theresa Evangelista; illustration by Stephanie Singleton (Nancy Paulsen Books / September 2020)
Black Canary: Breaking Silence by Alexandra Monir; design by Regina Flath; illustration by Jen Bartel (Random House Books for Young Readers / December 2020)
Black Girl Unlimited by Echo Brown; design by Carol Ly; illustration by Noa Denmon (Henry Holt & Company / January 2020)
The Burning by Laura Bates; design by Philip Pascuzzo (Sourcebooks Fire / April 2020)
Cemetery Boys by Aiden Thomas; design Liz Dresner; illustration by Mars Lauderbaugh (Swoon Reads / September 2020)
Clap When You Land by Elizabeth Acevedo; design by Erin Fitzsimmons; illustration by Bijou Karman (Quill Tree Books / May 2020)
Cloak of Night by Evelyn Skye; design by Alice Wang; illustration by DOFRESH; lettering by Vasava (Balzer + Bray / February 2020)
Coming Up For Air by Nicole B. Tyndall; design by Casey Moses; art by Pedro Tapa (Delacorte Press / December 2020)
Darius the Great Deserves Better by Adib Khorram; design by Samira Iravani; illustration by Adams Carvalho (Dial / August 2020)
The same team also created the cover for Darius the Great is Not Okay:
The Easy Part of Impossible by Sarah Tomp; design by David DeWitt; art by Samantha French (HarperTeen / April 2020)
Everything Sad is Untrue by Daniel Nayeri; art direction by Elizabeth Parisi; illustration by David Curtis (Levine Querido / August 2020)
Fable by Adrienne Young; design by Kerri Resnick; photograph by Sveltana Belyaeva (Wednesday Books / September 2020)
Felix Ever After by Kacen Callender; design by Chris Kwon; illustration by Alex Cabal (Balzer + Bray / May 2020)
Forest of Souls by Lori M. Lee; design by Laura Benton; illustration by Charlie Bowater (Page Street Kids / June 2020)
Furia by Yamile Saied Méndez; design by Laura Williams; illustration by Rachelle Baker (Algonquin Young Readers / September 2020)
The Good Girls by Claire Eliza Bartlett; design Diana Sousa; Illustration by Kaethe Butcher (HarperTeen / December 2020)
Goodbye from Nowhere by Sara Zarr; design by Alice Wang (Balzer + Bray / April 2020)
Grief Angels by David Owen; design by Leo Nickolls (Atom / March 2020)
Grown by Tiffany D. Jackson; design by Erin Fitzsimmons; illustration by Rachelle Baker (Katherine Tegen Books / September 2020)
Inkheart by Cornelia Funke; cover art by Karl J Mountford (Chicken House / April 2020)
Inkspell by Cornelia Funke; cover art by Karl J Mountford (Chicken House / April 2020) Inkdeath by Cornelia Funke; cover art by Karl J Mountford (Chicken House / April 2020)
It’s My Life by Stacie Ramey; design by Kerri Resnick (Sourcebooks Fire / January 2020)
The Kingdom of Back by Marie Lu; design by Kristie Radwilowicz; illustration by David Curtis (G.P. Putnam’s Sons Books for Young Readers / March 2020)
Lobizona by Romina Garber; design by Kerri Resnick; illustation by Daria Hlazatova (Wednesday Books / August 2020)
Nobody Knows But You by Anica Mrose Rissi; design by Molly Fehr; illustration by Hokyoung Kim (Quill Tree Books / September 2020)
Not So Pure and Simple by Lamar Giles; design by Molly Fehr; illustration by Jor Ros (Quill Tree Books / January 2020)
Sasha Masha by Agnes Borinsky; design by Cassie Gonzalez; illustration by Carolina Rodriguez Fuenmayor (Farrar, Straus and Giroux / November 2020)
Seasons of the Storm by Elle Cosimano; design by Jenna Stempel-Lobell; art by Pauline Boiteux (HarperTeen / June 2020)
See No Color by Shannon Gibney; design by Chelsea Hunter; illustration by Bee Johnson (Holiday House / July 2020)
Shielded by KayLynn Flanders; design by Regina Flath; art by Alex Dos Diaz (Delacorte / July 2020)
The Silence of Bones by June Hur; design by Katie Klimowicz; art by Kasiq Jungwoo (Feiwel & Friends / April 2020)
Smash It by Francina Simone; design by Gigi Lau; illustration by Benjamin Wachenje (Inkyard Press / September 2020)
A Song of Wraiths and Ruin by Roseanne A. Brown; design by Jessie Gang; art by Tawny Chatmon; lettering by Martina Flor (Balzer + Bray / June 2020)
The Stepping Off Place by Cameron Kelly Rosenblum; design by Catherine San Juan; Illustration by Michaela Goade (Quill Tree Books / July 2020)
The Sullivan Sisters by Kathryn Ormsbee; design by Chloë Foglia; Illustration by Pedro Tapa; lettering by Danielle Davis (Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers / June 2020)
Ten Things I Hate About Pinky by Sandhya Menon; design by Sarah Creech; photograph by Jacob Pritchard (Simon Pulse / July 2020)
I think this works well with the covers for Menon’s previous books, especially 2017’s When Dimple Met Rishi, designed by Regina Flath.
When Dimple Met Rishi by Sandhya Menon; design by Regina Flath (Simon Pulse / May 2017)
These Vengeful Hearts by Katherin Laurin; design Elita Sidiropoulou (Inkyard Press / September 2020)
This is Not a Ghost Story by Andrea Portes; design by Alice Wang; illustration by Francesco Bongiorni (HarperTeen / November 2020)
Tigers Not Daughters by Samantha Mabry; design Laura Williams; art and lettering by Beatriz Ramo / Naranjalidad (Algonquin Young Readers / March 2020)
Traitor by Amanda McCrina; design by Faceout Studio (Farrar, Straus and Giroux / August 2020)
Watch Over Me by Nina Lacour; design by Samira Iravani; illustration by Pippa Young (Dutton / September 2020)
The Whitsun Daughters by Carrie Mesrobian ; design by Samira Iravani; lettering by Maricor/Maricar (Dutton / August 2020)
A Wicked Magic by Sasha Laurens; design by Dana Li (Razorbill / July 2020)
Winter, White and Wicked by Shannon Dittemore; design by Hana Anouk Nakamura; illustration by Ruben Ireland (Amulet / October 2020)
The Year After You by Nina de Pass; design Casey Moses; art by Elena Pancorbo (Delacorte / March 2020)
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