The Mysterious Benedict Society and the Puzzling Change of Skin Color.

I mentioned this briefly on Sunday, but it's so much more ridiculously stupid with visuals.

Sadly, I don't have access to the first book at the moment. 

So I'll start with Book Two.

From page 21 of The Mysterious Benedict Society and the Perilous Journey:

To Reynie's surprise, Sticky looked exactly as he'd looked a year ago:  a skinny boy with light brown skin, anxious eyes (though perhaps the anxiety came from not yet having recovered his breath), and a completely bald head.

On the inside of the book, the illustrations (which I do love) reflect that description.  This one is from page 17:

Benedict 2 cropped inside 

So far, so good, right?  Yeah.  Until you close the book and look at the front cover: 

Benedict2 with arrow

Erm, WHAT?  Let's look a little closer:

Benedict 2 close up 

Um, yeah.  So not right.  I mean, WHY?  Did his SKIN TONE affect the COLOR SCHEME? 

Book Three.  Same deal.

From page 9 of The Mysterious Benedict Society and the Prisoner's Dilemma:

Sticky looked to have suffered even worse.  His sweat-soaked clothes clung like a wet suit to his skinny frame; his light brown skin had gone a sickly shade of gray; and behind his wire-rimmed spectacles, which sat askew on his nose, his eyes seemed dazed and glassy.

Once again, the inside of the book looks right.  From page 41:

Benedict 3 cropped inside

But, again -- close the book and look at the cover:

Benedict3 with arrow

EXTREME CLOSE UP:

Benedict 3 close up  

As Travis over at 100 Scope Notes said, "it wasn’t enough to make him white, they made him albino with rosy cheeks".  I add to that:  WTF, Little, Brown?!  W. T. F.  Please explain.  But, really, the same question can be asked of us:  Poor Sticky has been bleached on these book covers since 2007 -- clearly readers have not made it clear to Little, Brown that this is a problem.  (Not that they should NEED to be told.  But, you know.  I figured that while I was slinging blame around, I may as well take my portion.)

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