Friday Face-Off is an idea originally thought up by Books By Proxy which I stole from the fantastic The Tattooed Book Geek. The idea originally was to compare UK and US covers based on an assigned theme each week and choose the winning cover. I will be twisting it slightly: not specifically US and UK covers, just different editions.

This week’s theme is a cover featuring a horse:“Being born in a stable does not make me a horse.”

For this theme I have selected Michael Morpurgo’s War Horse.

Cover A:

Cover B:

Cover C:

Cover D:

Cover E:

Cover F:

Cover G:

And the winner is… A DRAW!

Covers F and G left me split this week. Cover F is striking with the white background and the vibrant red of the poppy flowers that make up the horse. With cover G I felt the monochrome palette visually striking, conjuring images of the bombs and mortars of war, with the few poppies creating a striking contrast.

What are your thoughts? Do you agree with my winner, or does one of the others work better for you? Let me know in the comments!

Next week I will be looking for a cover featuring a city: “That great condensor of moral chaos, The City.”