As I’m weeding the youth collection in my public library, I am finding some gems. I know the old adage is “you can’t judge a book by its cover”, but really? If you had never heard of Little Women before and you saw this audiobook cover, what do you think the story would be about? Something disconcerting and yet intriguing, judging by the glassy-eyed stare of these girls! Little (Zombie) Women!
So this week I’m recommending a simple activity that can be used with many books: redesigning the cover. If your library has some ugly book covers (I know mine has several), ask kids to read the book and make a new cover that shows the main characters in a key plot moment. It’s a great way for kids to demonstrate reading comprehension (those Key Ideas & Details of the Common Core? Got it covered!) and it can be a nice alternative to or an option for a book report.
With new book covers designed by fellow students, those ugly books may have a renewed life, because even if we shouldn’t, we do judge books by their covers.
Guess Who Is Out of the Den?
