It’s time again for the Friday Face-Off meme, created by Books by Proxy, with weekly topics hosted by Lynn’s Book Blog. The idea is to put up different covers for one book, and select a favorite.
This week’s theme is: ““And, though there should be a world of difference between the smile of a man and the bared fangs of a wolf, with Joss Merlyn they were one and the same.” – a cover featuring an Inn/Hotel
It took me surprisingly little time to hit on a book featuring an inn–and it’s even October/Halloween appropriate! I offer Howliday Inn by James Howe. This is part of the Bunnicula series, but I read it first, and always seemed like the primary book in the series to me. Chester the cat and Harold the dog are sent to stay at “Howliday Inn” while their humans go on vacation, and the overactive imagination of Chester promptly decides villainy is afoot. The story is funny and delightful.
I like Harold’s expression here, and the inn is suitably spooky in the background…but I feel like the relative size of Chester and Harold is a bit off. Or that’s just a really BIG cat!
I like that this one suggests the plot a bit more…although only the text suggests anything spooky.
Not sure about the art style here, although this is the only one I saw that actually suggested howling.
This classic cover is my favorite. I think mostly I just really like Harold’s expression! And the setting looks a bit spooky without being over the top.
The second one suggests nothing much to me, although the house style may be more atmospheric for a US reader. I like the others, but as you say, the oldest is the best to my taste 🙂
So I take it these animals are not in a fun, “spa-like” setting for their time at the pet hotel. I like the cover of them in the car, for the realism of it, but they are all good in different ways.