Teens value a good book cover

"For teens at my library, covers sell--they sell big time. A perfect example of this would be the L. J. Smith's Night World series. I still had the covers from the late 90s. There was nothing wrong with these paperbacks, they had some minor self wear, but the still looked very good and hardly circulated. I had a teen come in and ask me for the Night World books and I showed her to that series. At first she insisted that those weren't the books, the ones she was looking for were much newer. When I finally convinced her that they were indeed the same books, just with older covers, she refused to check them out. On a whim, I went out and purchased the new covers. Unlike the original nine books, these had been combined into 3 larger volumes...those three books are flying off the shelves and have holds on them. The old ones sit there sad and lonely. Even if we offer them as an alternative to waiting for the new ones, teens prefer to wait for the good covers...it has proven to me just how much covers matter to the teens coming into the library. It is sad, but I can tell how well an new book will circulate based on its cover."

-Melissa, a teen librarian at a public library