Judge a Book By Its Cover:
This week it’s all about judging books by their covers! Pick a book–any book, really–and search out multiple book cover images for that book. They could span a decade or two (or more)…Or they could span several countries. Which cover is your favorite? Which one is your least favorite? Which one best ‘captures’ what the book is about?
The second oldest book in our home is a copy of The Wizard of Oz, by L. Frank Baum, that belonged to B’s father. It is falling apart, having been read almost to death, but it’s a treasure for us. I’m getting ready to read a different copy of The Wizard of Oz to my second graders. Last year’s class loved it…actually adored it…so I’m looking forward to sharing that reading experience with this year’s group. With that on my mind, I chose the Wizard of Oz for my book cover search. I’m particularly fond of the copy of the book with Michael Hague’s illustrations (bottom row, on the far right). That’s the one I read to our own kids, and they loved the illustrations. Don’t each one of these book covers capture the story, though?
A Fondness For Reading 
Whichever cover The Wizard Of Oz has, it a great read – these covers are brilliant though.
E.H
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All are very good but I think the second one best!
Covered!
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What a fabulous idea for a post, and you chose such a great book to capture! I’m always amazed how the children really love good literature. They may enjoy Captain Underpants, but they adore and remember the Oldies. I think I may have to read this to my third graders now. (By the way, It hink I would’ve chosen Charlotte’s Web for my blog. That is one of my al time forever favorites. But, I don’t think the covers have changed much.)
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The covers are beautiful. My favorite is the black and white.
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They are all great covers but I think I like either the second one or the last one best!
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The most colorful colors I’ve seen so far. So cool.
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I also loved this book as a child. All the covers are beautiful that it’s hard to choose a favourite. But if I had to force myself to choose, I’d probably go with the very first cover. It’s very vintage-y. 🙂
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My favorite is the green one on the bottom. I thought of doing the Wizard of Oz too but I chose Don Quixote instead. My post is here.
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I like the new Puffin edition of the Wizard of Oz. It actually inspired me to buy it so I could read it 🙂
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I would love the see the Michael Hague edition. I have his illustrated edition of The Hobbit and it is such a beautiful book. I’m sure his Wizard of Oz is too.d
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I like them all. I wonder which I would choose if they were all on the shelf in front of me? I wonder which a child would choose?
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Hi!
They are all beautiful book covers! I would buy any of them. Thanks for stopping by my place. Have a great evening!
Sherrie
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these are covers are all amazing. I really like the first one though.
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Wow I think they are all neat. But if I had to choose, would pick # 7 – colorful and warm.
My post is up finally.
Happy Reading!
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The oldest books in my house right now are my collection of Oz books! I’ve been waiting for the right time to post about them because I love them so much. I need to do it soon! They were my mom’s books when she was a kid. I have 15 of them.
And I love the first cover the most because it’s the classic Cowardly lion.
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There’re all lovely! I think I like the turqoise one on the top best!
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Great covers. I think my favourite is the second-to-last one.
Happy Weekly Geeks 🙂
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I so agree with you, Erotic Horizon! It IS a great read!
Gautami Tripathy, I’d never seen that one before, and I like it, too!
Thanks, Bellezza. My first thought was of Charlotte’s Web, too, because you know how much I love that book! But you’re right. The cover hasn’t changed very much over time.
Vasilly, I really like that black and white one, too, although I’d never seen it before. It’s really striking.
Purplg8r, both of those are terrific.
Thanks, Suey. They really are colorful, aren’t they.
Claire, that first cover uses the original illustrations. That cover is very similar to the book that belonged to my father-in-law.
Pussreboots, that green has the original illustrations, too. They were just so good!
Becky, I think I’m going to have to buy it, too!
Kerry, the illustrations in the Michael Hague version are fabulous. We have a number of his books, including The Reluctant Dragon, and the illustrations are fantastic.
Kerrie, that’s a great question! When I read this book to my students, I should show them all the different covers and see which ones they like the best! Then they can design their own covers!!
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Thanks, Sherrie. It was fun to see how many different covers there are for this book! And many more that I didn’t use!
Erika Lynn, I like that Cowardly Lion on the first one, too.
Robin, that last one is our family’s sentimental favorite, although we love the ones with the original illustrations, too.
That’s fantastic, Kristen M! I can’t wait to read your post whenever you put it together.
Jo, I like that one, too, because it’s based on those original illustrations.
Maree, I love the castle-looking Emerald City in the background on that one!
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They all look so fun!
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What a great choice of book! In my opinion the second book cover is “the right one”, just because that is the one I know 🙂
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I love this book and I love each of the covers you picked. They do capture the heart of the story and would cause me to pick up the story to read if I had never heard of Oz. I especially like the very oldest looking one.
Thanks for the trip down memory lane!
*smiles*
Kim
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The first is my favorite. You should check out all the Oz material held by the Library of Congress. I believe some may be available online. Nice post!
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This was fun to look back at the different covers of the Wizard of Oz.
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Good choice! I’ve thinking of a book to choose for this weekly geeks but am having a hard time.
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They are all great, but I like the old look of the first one.
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That’s a great one, I didn’t know there were so many different covers!!
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What a great choice! Those covers are really different. I think the one we had when I was a kid is the sixth one, bottom row, far left. We had several in the series.
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I have never read Wizard of Oz. I should really do that. Beautiful covers!
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All the covers are so great!
I love the first one in the second row best 🙂
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Those are all lovely covers, it’s impossible to choose a favourite! 🙂
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That was a great book choice. When I was a child it was the second cover and so it’s my favorite although I would read that book with any cover!
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These are all great covers! My favorite is the first one because that's the one I read at my grandparent's house. I also really like the black & white one – very simple but beautiful.
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Thanks everyone for your fun comments! This was a great Weekly Geek idea. I loved seeing all the different book choices with so many different covers!
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