Arabella and Araminta stories by Gertrude Smith with XV pictures by Ethel Reed - poster
The pattern
This still is filed under Lettered cover hook.
Define
The cover is the hook, and the hook is lettering: a title treated as an image.
Mechanism
Type as bait. The words are drawn so they stop the hand before the contents are known.
Verdict
A journal, book, or issue must sell itself on a rack or a feed
Why it works
The alternating black and red letters are set by rhythm, not by meaning, which forces the eye to travel the whole block instead of stopping at the title, so the price line at the foot gets read as part of the pattern. The black dress is one unbroken poster-flat shape covering a third of the sheet, giving the design a mass that survives being seen at distance and through glass. Doubling the girls into near-mirror twins converts a book title into a memorable device, and the fifteen-picture count does the honest work of telling a buyer what they get for two dollars.
Steal this when
Use this when the illustration or design is the actual reason to buy and the author's name is not a draw. Lead with a single arresting flat shape, credit the maker as loudly as the writer, and state the countable deliverable and the price in the same typographic voice as the title.