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The Stravaganza Series
These are the old Stravagana by Mary Hoffman book covers.
You can see The New Stravaganza Covers at the link. I sincerely don't like them. Putting faces on the covers takes away my ability to shape the world she describes to my own satisfaction. Moreover I feel like something magical is quite, quite lost.
The old covers spoke of Italy but not Italy. They helped me fall in love with Talia, a world of secrets and intrigues and magic and heroes and heroines.
I have no doubt the new covers are meant to capitalize on the Twilight Movie and the hope that young teen readers will see these covers and be drawn to another world about teenagers and magical happenings. But now I regret not having had the money to buy the books with the old covers when I had a chance.
I don't want to see white faces on the covers. I don't want the protagonists' looks spelled out plainly by photography. The world building in these books is a fine craftsmanship. It builds upon Italian history and geography. I learned about real aspects of Italy even as I became engrossed in the plot of this other Italy, the magical Talia.
The faces on the covers are far too modern. They take away from the secondary characters who help make the books what they are.
I'm going to refresh my memory and then come back and write up reviews for the first three books in the series.
![](http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v187/witchwillow/books/9782266159142.jpg")
You can see The New Stravaganza Covers at the link. I sincerely don't like them. Putting faces on the covers takes away my ability to shape the world she describes to my own satisfaction. Moreover I feel like something magical is quite, quite lost.
The old covers spoke of Italy but not Italy. They helped me fall in love with Talia, a world of secrets and intrigues and magic and heroes and heroines.
I have no doubt the new covers are meant to capitalize on the Twilight Movie and the hope that young teen readers will see these covers and be drawn to another world about teenagers and magical happenings. But now I regret not having had the money to buy the books with the old covers when I had a chance.
I don't want to see white faces on the covers. I don't want the protagonists' looks spelled out plainly by photography. The world building in these books is a fine craftsmanship. It builds upon Italian history and geography. I learned about real aspects of Italy even as I became engrossed in the plot of this other Italy, the magical Talia.
The faces on the covers are far too modern. They take away from the secondary characters who help make the books what they are.
I'm going to refresh my memory and then come back and write up reviews for the first three books in the series.
