Gifted - Variations on a Theme

I'm halfway through Nikita Lalwani's debut novel, Gifted, which just came out. It's the story of a young Indian girl now living in Wales. She is also a maths prodigy, being driven too hard by her father to succeed. It's sweet and funny and sad, and very good.

It's interesting to look at the cover designs for the UK edition (by design house Pentagram)...



..and the forthcoming US edition (designer unknown)...



..which are obviously variations on a similar idea.

The UK edition is more successful, I think. The colours are bolder and very appealing, and the numbers are well used, being both omnipresent but not obvious. The US edition is attractive, but I've seen covers like it elsewhere (the back view of the girl with pigtails is very reminiscent of the covers of a couple of other novels about growing up as part of a 'minority' group).

By the way, there's a short but interesting interview with Lalwani here.