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Senior Book Jacket: A Senior Narrative Book Jacket by Andie Burns (2015)

My short story revolves around an 8-year old girl named Anna Bevy, whose parents have encouraged her from a young age to follow her passions. When she started building things using Legos, they latched on and assumed that she wanted to become an architect. For years she built up, demolished, and rebuilt a city of entirely yellow skyscrapers. One day her younger brother, Owen, accidentally pushes one tower into the others, destroying the entire city. Anna is heartbroken, but when her parents defend Owen's actions and brush off her feelings, she accuses them of treating her like an adult, rather than the child that she is. Anna's parents realize that they set their expectations too high, and that it was unrealistic to push their own goals onto their young daughter.

When creating my book jacket, I wanted to illustrate the contrast between the child's and the parents' wishes. Anna, who wears a dress covered in sunflowers in the story, represents youth. She chooses to make her buildings yellow to reflect the sunflowers, because they make her happy. I wanted to have those sunflowers growing from the bottom of the page. To balance them out, I added an upside-down skyline at the top of the page, pushing down and blocking the flowers. It represents not only the physical buildings, but also the dark and oppressive feeling that Anna associates with trying to live up to her parents' expectations.
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