Alternative Book Cover: Coram Boy

For a college assignment on the book 'Coram Boy' by Jamila Gavin, it was required to design an alternative cover for the book. The book tells the gripping story of Meshak, a son of travelling merchant that sells pots and pans. But the more sinister side to the story is that his father also bribes parents into selling him their babies claiming he will give them a better home. But in fact, he either sells the kids for money as slaves or prostitutes, or kills them.

I came up with the design below.


The explanation is pretty straightforward; the outside world knows nothing more than that their children are in good health and Meshak's father is a simple merchant, hence the daisy up top. The world likes the picturesque façade, and thinks nothing more of it than just that (the daisy seems nothing more than a simple daisy).
But the real truth is in fact that behind that façade, a gruesome, child-trading world corrupted by money is growing, hence the skull with dollar-signs as front teeth, and the fetus in place of the brain.