Volume 1, The Vanishings.

The cover -- sure, why not start with the cover -- is a black background with hot pink and red lettering. It doesn't have a picture, exactly -- it has an abstract design, a dark pink bar with what green streaks that look like lightning, behind the words "LEFT BEHIND," and under that, ">THE KIDS<." There is no way to miss that this is a "LEFT BEHIND" property, the words are all caps and about an inch high. The names of the authors, Jerry B Jenkins and Tim LaHaye are also quite dominant, 30 points high, in orange. The actual name of this actual book, "The Vanishings," is only 18 points high, and superimposed over a large hot pink "1". "The Vanishings" doesn't even appear on the spine.

I don't know if I would have noticed this as a kid, but as an adult, I find myself sort of annoyed by the way this book has so little individual identity. Just going into it, I feel like I'm going to get an incomplete, unsatisfying story, because I'm obviously supposed to read the whole series. The important thing is not that this book is this book, but that this book is part of the Left Behind franchise.

Also, the abstract cover design doesn't strike me as very young adult. A quick search of Amazon.com reveals that most YA covers show -- you know -- people. In fact, the wildly popular Harry Potter series actually has different covers for the YA market and the adult market. The "adult" cover is a picture of a rock on a dark background. The YA cover is Harry on a broomstick. Or, look at a bunch of Stephen King covers compared to a bunch of R.L. Stine covers. Now check out the the cover of The Vanishings. It looks like an adult book, doesn't it?

(Also, I notice that the number of used books available -- 872 -- seems unusually high. Do kids actually like these books? A quick googling of, "do kids actually like left behind", reveals nothing illuminating, although PBS had a program about how the "No Child Left Behind" attempt to bring up the lowest students, combined with budget cuts, might be alienating gifted students. Which is a rant for another day.)

This book seems really short, even for a YA book. It's 148 pages including the "about the authors" afterword, and the section title, and the table of contents. But not the first two pages of indicia, or the dedication: "to our own kids." So, 143 pages of actual words.
The pages don't have a lot of words on them. Five sample lines have an average of 8.5 words each, and a typical page has 29 lines, so that's 257 words x 143 pages = 35,321 words. Which makes it about the right length for a "middle grade" reader, but a bit short for a "young adult" reader.

So, I don't know -- maybe they're not YA books. Maybe they're for 10-12 year olds. That makes the stark adult-type cover even more baffling.

The back cover blurb isn't terrible:

"In one shocking moment millions around the globe disappear. Those left behind face an uncertain future -- especially four kids who know find themselves alone.

As the kids search for help and for answers, they are told the truth behind the disappearances. But are they ready to believe it?"

As a 10-12 year old I might have been intrigued by a description like that. The blurb goes on:

"In this new series based on the best-selling book Left Behind, Jerry B. Jenkins and Tim LaHaye present the Rapture and Tribulation through the eyes of four young friends -- Judd, Vicki, Lionel, and Ryan. As the world falls in around them, they band together to find faith and fight the evil forces that threaten their lives."

Okay, good enough. I suppose, had these books been available in my church library, I would have picked this one up. It looks sort of scary.
I wonder a bit at the wording "as the world falls in around them" because "as the world falls down around them" or "as the world falls apart around them" would seem more idiomatically natural. Is there some special coded meaning to "as the world falls in"? Google says "probably not."

So, it's just an odd choice.

And thus ends the analysis of the outside of the book.

So far, I can imagine 10-year-old me picking it up and starting to read it. But -- I can't really imagine 10-year-old me buying it.

Somehow, I don't imagine these books purchased primarily by 10-12 year olds with their own birthday or babysitting money. I imagine them purchased by well-meaning relatives and given as gifts.