A rant? In my book? More likely than you think--
Oh, forget it. It's very likely, especially if you read Morbo. Full of em. I'm a mouthful.

Me: not knowing how to accomplish the book cover because I generally avoid books with these kind of covers in book stores

Also me: Wants to try it out anyway

And it turns out the inspiration for this cover was published way back (not that way back) in 2007 when I was 5.

I don't know if I accomplished it, and it's admittedly not my best. But I did try and make it as similar to your wish as possible... 😁
It looks kind of empty so the second option does have the subtitle.

At first I want to put the subtitles as a straight line, but figured this looks more...adult-ish. Yes, that's how I'm going to describe these kind of covers from now on; adult-ish

Update: Fonts at the Front

Tell me if you want any changes.
Anyway, thanks for checking out my graphics! 😘