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So, my brother recently had a suggestion for a post based on his experience as a parent of 4 and 6 year olds. He asked, "Is it a good idea to give a child freedom to choose her or his own books in a library or bookstore? Children choose based on cover, so how do you convince them that they will like a book even if they don't like a cover?"

The short answer is, if you are at the library, let your children choose whatever they want, within reason. Obviously you won't allow them to check out a biography on Charles Manson or Miley Cyrus, but maybe it's not the worst thing in the world if they bring home a Strawberry Shortcake or Sponge Bob book once in a while. In the bookstore, that's another matter entirely since it's your money walking out the door. I am very lucky (so far) in that my two reading kids have never asked for a book that I thought was not worth the paper it was printed on. If I were confronted with that situation I would suggest a trip to the library to see if we could find it there, or possibly they could borrow it from a friend. To me, the only real scourge of the book world are the books related to television shows and movies, in that order. But, as I have learned, if it is a book that will get a child to read and become comfortable with and even fond of the act of reading, then it can't be all bad. It can be a little bad, though, because these kinds of books have a lower vocabulary level as well as a less complex plot structure that requires less deductive and abstract thinking on the part of the reader.

The long answer is: I judge books by their covers all the time and so should you! Actually, I'm sure you do. As an art school drop-out and picture book aficionado, I have a raft of illustrators that I am drawn to, and sometimes they cross over into the world of chapter books and illustrate book covers and I am always ready to read and even buy the books they grace with their artwork. Also, I have found that the kind of book I will most often enjoy has a certain type of artwork - painterly, detailed, representational and colorful. I usually don't like book covers with bright colors and graphic designs instead of an original work of art. However, sometimes my instincts are wrong.

Here is an exampe of a book I judged by it's cover and avoided but now love. In June of 2006 Gideon the Cutpurse by Linda Buckley-Archer was released in hardcover in mass quantities and failed to sell well. By December, the stock was marked down to 50% off. I found the cover unimaginative and unrepresentative of a story that would interest me. I considered buying it at half-off, but ultimately decided not to, despite having read the plot description. In the summer of 2007 I was at the library looking for a kid's audio book to listen to, as I often do, and I found Gideon on CD. My standards for what I will listen to on audio are much lower than my standards for what I will read. I love listening to audio books and never fall asleep without one playing, often to my husband's annoyance. With an audio book I can be cooking dinner, cleaning, folding laundry, doing a crossword puzzle, playing with my toddler. When I read a book, that is all I do. Also, I will listen to almost any audio book read by someone with a British, Irish or Scottish accent, which this is. It is read by Gerard Doyle, who is brilliant and approaches Jim Dale (voice of the Harry Potter series) realms of greatness. I took it home, popped it in and was hooked.

I was so hooked that I special ordered the book, in hardcover and paid full price for it so that I could own it. By this time, the paperback had come out along with a new, attractive (to me) cover illustration and a slightly new name. When book two in the trilogy came out in December 2007, they used the artist who illustrated the cover for the paperback to do the cover and the book looks great, although not quite as magical as the first. These books now rank at the top of my list of 5 favorites and might not even be there if not for a change in the cover art and my low standards for selecting audio books...

An example of a book I read purely because of the cover art, and is now also one of my top 10 favorite books, would be Fly By Night by Frances Hardinge. Brett Helquist, who illustrated all covers and interiors of Lemony Snicket's Series of Unfortunate Events, and, in my opinion, saved the books from the remainder bins of oblivion, and Blue Balliett's books Chasing Vermeer, the Wright 3 and The Calder Game, as well as a really great picture book, Roger, the Jolly Pirate, did the cover for Fly By Night. As I had hoped, the cover art spoke for the astonishing imagination and wonderous world created by the author inside.