George Orwell’s seminal novels 1984 and Animal Farm get redesigned covers courtesy of artist Shepard Fairey [OBEY]. If these covers don’t make kids want to read the books, I don’t know what will. Other than teachers forcers them to read them and love them and take umbrage against the state.

From the Penguin Blog:

This edition is not the Penguin Modern Classics edition. This edition is the one we want to get into the hands of school kids, to grab their short attention spans. So yes, putting the key words - Big Brother, Thought Police, Room 101, Ministry of Truth - in there is important, but that is no reason to leave the story or the characters out. The great thing about Nineteen Eighty-Four is that it is so unsettling, it is so terrifying and bleak (and not much fun as satire, either). To get that across we need to know what’s at stake - what Big Brother is opposed to. We need Winston and Julia, their hopes and love, their humanity. Without Winston and Julia there is no tension, no story.

[via]