What's Wrong With This Cover?

Can you spot the error?

A number of new subscribers joined recently. If you’re one of them, welcome! Every two weeks I write a bookish trivia question, and that’s what we’re on this week. If you’re looking for book lists, you might enjoy our recent Easter/spring list here.

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We’re switching the trivia up a bit. Next time I’ll test out a three-tiered question with easy, medium, and hard versions. But this week, I’m offering not can you guess the book, but can you guess what’s wrong?

Below is the cover of the in-print edition of The Mouse and the Motorcycle by Beverly Cleary. Did HarperCollins not think to have the illustrator read the book before commencing with the cover art?

The Mouse and the Motorcycle is an endearing classic, a great independent reader for upper elementary students and a solid read-aloud choice for younger kids.

We follow twin coming-of-age(ish) stories of a young boy and a young mouse who bond over a motorcycle, and who both long for freedom. By the end, they understand that freedom works best within constraint, and that far from being an escape from responsibility, freedom actually exists for the sake of responsibility. Beverly Cleary wrote two sequels that are not nearly as good, but The Mouse and the Motorcycle is excellent.

If you’ve read the book with your kids recently, perhaps you know what’s wrong with the cover. If you haven’t, and if you have a son who has read the book at some point in his life, no matter how long ago, try asking him, and I’ll bet he spots the error.

To check your answer, compare with the first edition cover illustration, here.

(Hint: look for a color, which is repeatedly referenced in the text of the book, prompting intense resentment toward HarperCollins by one of my kids.)

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