Inspired by actual events in World II, this middle-grade novel tells the story of an eleven year-old Czech girl, who, because of her Aryan features, is taken from her family by German soldiers for “Germanization”– to be re-educated, renamed, and adopted by a German Nazi family.
The art director asked for a fairly straight forward treatment, somehow using a close-up of the character, with perhaps a distressed texture somewhere to evoke the historical nature of the book. As luck would have it, I happened to have in my archives some photos I took a few years ago of a young girl which seemed to match the character perfectly. Below are two of the alternated ideas presented.
CLIENT: HOUGHTON MIFFLIN
ART DIRECTOR: SHEILA SMALLWOOD
