Do kids judge books by their cover? You bet they do.

A few years back, I decided to try something different from the usual booktalks—with the hope of nudging my school students to consider those books that rarely circulated in our middle school library. As the eighth graders filed in with their reading teacher, they clustered around the tables and scanned the half sheets of paper I had laid out, each of which contained the Cataloging in Publication (CIP) summaries for those novels that seldom leave the library. The students perused more than 50 summaries for all types of fiction books. As they read blurbs of interest, they traded in the half sheets for the books. One boy’s face lit up. “This book sounds tight. I’m going to read it.” He handed over the sheet: “While searching for his birthmother, 15-year-old James, a championship diver, discovers who his real parents are and where his real home is.” I find the book, Berlie Doherty’s The Snake-Stone (Puffin, 1998), and offered it to the boy. Grimacing, he drops it on the table. “Uh uh,” he says. “No way am I reading that. That book looks lame.” On another day, I spotted a student who often frequents the library. “That’s the book you got for your birthday, isn’t it?” I inquired. “Are you already reading it again?” She laughed and removed the paper dust jacket taken from Libba Bray’s A Great and Terrible Beauty (Delacorte, 2003) to reveal that she was actually reading LBD: It’s a Girl Thing by Grace Dent (Puffin, 2003). Its bright cover depicts colorful thong underwear plainly visible above a pair of low-rise jeans. “This is a good book,” the girl smiles. “But the cover is way too embarrassing to carry around, so I put this other one over it.” After 10 years as a middle school librarian, scenarios such as these have convinced me that book covers play a prime role in the choices of readers. For publishers and retailers, book jackets are selling tools. They are designed to catch the reader’s eye, to cause the browser to select the book from the many available, and to purchase it over a competitor’s product. In the library, the covers of books act as selling tools in a different way. As readers browse the shelves, the covers provide the first impression for the books. I wanted to know how important these first impressions were, and my doctoral dissertation research provided an opportunity to explore this question.

And the survey says…

In the spring of 2005, I created a short, online questionnaire to capture data about middle schoolers and book covers, and after several pilot studies I posted it to SurveyMonkey.com. Each of the 608 students in a suburban middle school in north-central Texas received a consent form, resulting in 250 self-selected participants in sixth, seventh, or eighth grade. Fiction served as the focus of the study because, as librarian Ed Sullivan recognizes, “…Good cover art applies most to works of fiction, where serendipity plays a more significant role in readers’ choices. Readers who browse for recreational reading in nonfiction are likely to do so in a particular subject.” Since Quick Picks for Reluctant Young Adult Readers (selected by a committee of the Young Adult Library Services Association) is the only national list to consider cover art as a criterion, the study includes the fiction books for middle school from the 2005 Quick Picks list. Over the course of a week, participants reported to the school library to complete the short online questionnaire. Using a list of nine factors gleaned from the pilot studies, students checked how they “usually,” “sometimes”, or “rarely” select fiction books from the school library. They responded to the potential appeal of the covers from the fiction Quick Picks, and the results were analyzed quantitatively.

Yes, covers count

For the students in this study, covers impacted their selection of fiction books more than any other factor. The nine factors that most impacted student selection, in order from greatest to least, were: cover; title; reading the cover’s flap copy, summary, and/or other text; genre; recommendation from a friend; recommendation from a librarian; series; length; author. The five covers that received the highest votes can be found below.

Covers with the highest votes (2005)
Shooter Walter Dean Myers HarperCollins/ Amistad 2004 60.6 percent	The Boy Who Couldn't Die William Sleator Abrams/Amulet 2004 59.4 percent	Can't Get There From Here Todd Strasser Simon & Schuster 2004 57.8 percent	The Last Chance Texaco Brent Hartinger HarperCollins 2004 55 percent	TTYL Lauren Myracle Abrams/Amulet 2004 52.5 percent

Seventy-six percent of the students said that covers usually influence their selection of fiction books, and only four percent respond that they “rarely” consider covers. And it’s not just the cover art that’s important. The title is “usually” considered by 70 percent of students, and 67 percent of them are “usually” swayed by reading flap copy and/or blurbs on the book’s jacket. Young Adult author Neal Shusterman attests to the power of covers. According to Shusterman, when one of his books was first published, the cover wasn’t suited to the plot and had little interest for readers. When it was reissued with a different cover, sales increased. “I remember a book signing where both copies of the book were available. A kid was looking at the bad cover, and when I did a little book talk about it, he wasn’t interested. Then he picked up the copy with the new cover. I told him it was the same book, and he suddenly wanted to know more about it. He ended up buying it! It seems even when kids know the content is exactly the same, an attractive cover can garner their interest,” Shusterman says. Ty Burns, former chair of the Quick Picks committee and a librarian at the Clear Creek ISD in Texas, isn’t surprised. “In this age of students raised on the graphics of TV, movies, computers, and video games, book cover illustrations can make or break a book,” Burns says. “Teens today expect a book to grab their attention just like the movie trailers, and the cover art must deliver.”

Librarians rule, sort of

Librarians as readers’ advisors don’t always fare well in the eyes of their students, according to some research. In a 1992 study by researchers Gerlach and Rinehart, students at this thankfully unnamed library viewed it as a boring place where they were likely to get into trouble. Although surely none of our libraries are guilty as charged, more than a few of us may be pleased to learn how well librarians fare in this study. For these 250 middle schoolers, the recommendations of librarians received virtually the same mean rank as the recommendations of friends. In fact, 27 percent “usually” seek the recommendation of a librarian, and 50 percent “sometimes” do. This is high praise indeed coming from middle schoolers, who are arguably among the most social creatures on the planet. And while these positive findings are reassuring, librarians must constantly strive to earn this trust. To be credible and knowledgeable, we must constantly read a wide variety of books for children and young adults. Librarians set the tone that creates a community of readers in the school, thereby nurturing lifetime readers.

One for all, and all for one

Possibly the biggest eye-opener in the study is that no significant difference exists for gender, grade level, or the level of reading enjoyment. Covers are the number one factor that impact the selection of fiction books no matter if the student is a boy or girl. Covers have the same effect on sixth, seventh and eighth graders. Covers are the top choice no matter whether the student states that he loves to read, likes to read, or doesn’t like to read. If you’ve walked the halls of any middle school recently, you’ll know that vast differences exist between students. Middle schoolers run the gamut from tall, muscular boys with facial hair and deep voices to short, scrawny boys who squeak almost as often as they talk. Some girls may be fully developed with womanly figures, while others have baby faces and no discernible body curves. Yet for all this diversity, students in this study were remarkably like-minded. From sixth-grade girls who don’t like to read to eighth-grade boys who love it, a cover is the top factor these readers say they consider when choosing fiction.

So what?

Research holds little value if it doesn’t pass the “so, what?” test. Outside of an academic interest, are the results relevant to libraries? Because this is one study in one library, it may not be generalized beyond the work at hand. But assuming that covers do influence the readers in your school, what are the implications for your library program? With a nod to Ranganathan, how can you use covers to help match every reader to his or her book? Step back and look at your library as if it were a bookstore. Are there displays of eye-catching, colorful books? Do you change these displays often and shelve books face out when possible? Viewing your circulation as sales and yourself as a salesperson may provide a new frame of reference. If your “sales” could use some punch, solicit student help in creating displays. Is your taste in music different from your students? Then the covers that appeal to you may not tempt them. Or maybe your displays are great, but your readers need a little more assistance before making a selection. Good salespeople know their products and listen to their customers. They are friendly and helpful, but never intrusive or pushy. Retool your collection. Knowing that book covers are important to students should impact your collection development. Much like cleaning out a closet, an ongoing process of weeding books gets rid of a library’s clutter. Unattractive, outdated, and worn books may be recycled and replaced by those more likely to circulate. Often older books are reprinted with updated covers that may, for the first time, catch the eyes of your readers. While positive, professional reviews should drive the selection of new books, the covers of books may be a point of consideration. After selecting books from reviews, base your final decision on the potential appeal of the books’ covers, especially when slim budgets demand that every book count. Involving students in this part of the selection process provides valuable opinions and creates ownership.

Take me to your reader

School librarians play a lot of roles, but not all of them are unique to your campus. You are a master teacher, a curriculum expert, an instructional leader, and a technology facilitator, but it’s likely that other professionals in your school are as well. But chances are that you are the only readers’ advisor for your students. Try the following ideas to make the most of your unique role and to bring good books and readers together:

• Booktalk “ugly” books.
• Show the current and previous Quick Picks books (or those of other awards and lists) and then ask students to talk about which covers hold more appeal.
• Invite readers to guess the genre of books based only on cover art and design.
• Cover the day’s booktalking selections with brown paper bags so students can’t see the jacket until you’ve hooked them on the book.
• Collaborate with English and art teachers on a project where students will use skills of summarization and design to create new covers for old books.
• Pull identical books with different covers.

Finally, dispel myths that students hold about book covers. As Carolyn Caywood notes: “Today’s teenagers have been exposed to marketing from birth and expect to be able to decipher product packaging. When they look at the cover of a book they assume it describes its contents” (SLJ August, 1993, p.58). Your students may be fascinated when you show them books with inaccurate or misleading covers. Many readers wrongly assume that the author designs the cover and writes the flap copy, so they see the logic when they realize that the author’s first chance at a reader begins on page one. By raising their level of awareness, students may begin to consider other factors in addition to cover when they select fiction books. Not only have students shown that book covers are important, but they have also reinforced the role of librarians as readers’ advisors. With the awareness of how students choose books, we may help them become more adept in their selection. Hopefully, these readers will find books that they will remember long after they forget the librarian who helped them. Gerlach, Jeanne M. and Steven D. Rinehart. 1992. “Can You Tell a Book by Its Cover?” Reading Horizons. 32 no. 4 (Apr.) : 289-298. Sullivan, Ed. 1998. “Judging Books by Their Covers: A Cover Art Experiment.” Voice of Youth Advocates. 21 no. 3 (Aug.) : 180-2.