Judge a Book by its Cover: Multimodal Collages by Marissa Tessier

Parents and teachers often tell young people, “Don’t judge a book by its cover.” Yet, book covers often tell people, especially reluctant readers, what to expect in a book. Instead of discounting the value of book covers, encourage students to dive deeper into them to scaffold their expectations of the book’s genre, mood, and theme. Gabi, a Girl in Pieces by Isabel Quintero has a stunning cover featuring a collage of the main character Gabi, as well as many of her interests. Guide your students through the following activity to help them analyze the cover and create a version of their own. 

Begin by having students examine the cover of Gabi, a Girl in Pieces. Ask students the following questions:

• How is the cover of the book constructed? 
• What do you notice on the cover? 
• What might some of these symbols and pictures mean? 
• How is the title written? 
• What might the title mean? 
• What can you infer about Gabi based on the cover?

Students may notice and discuss the following: 

• Cut out parts of her body
• Overlapping images of her external body and her internal one
• Her smiling
• The jewelry she’s wearing
• The cookie and chips
• The books
• The arrow through her heart
• The crossed-out words in the title
• The color scheme

Through this activity, students will begin to see the cover through the lens of its parts, but also how those parts work together to create a theme or message about the story. 
Favorites Activity:
After examining the book cover together as a class, students can apply the same thought process they used for Gabi’s life to their own experiences. To do this, present students with a chart (pictured below) that asks them to consider the various favorites they have in their lives. Some categories might not be significant to students, and that is perfectly fine. This activity is aimed at scaffolding students’ thinking about what’s important to their own identity.

Personal Collage:
After completing the “Favorites Chart,” students can create their own book cover, using Gabi a Girl in Pieces as a model. Students can use photos of themselves, cut-up magazines, or other printed material to construct this cover. This collage can also be done digitally through PowerPoint or Google Slides for a technology element, or it can be done the old-school way. They should use their Favorites Chart as a source of inspiration for what to include in their collage. An example is pictured below. After they complete the collage, to extend the assignment, students can write a short paragraph that explains their choices. Some criteria to consider for assessment purposes include:

• Includes at least five images
• Chosen pictures represent a deeper importance
• Includes a title with your name
• Work is neat and well thought out
• Paragraph includes an explanation of at least three images

Other Variations:
Ways to adapt this to your curriculum or scope and sequence include the following:

• Examine various versions of the cover of a novel your class is reading! Don’t forget to include what that cover looks like in other countries.
• Recreate a cover of your current class read
• Practice public speaking by making a PowerPoint filled with interesting book covers. Have students create an explanation of what the book is about solely by looking at and analyzing its cover.
• Redesign a book cover from the point of view of another character not displayed on the cover.

Today's post is written by Marissa Tessier. Marissa is a recent graduate of Vanderbilt University's Peabody College Secondary Education English Program and has just started her masters degree in Reading Education. Upon completing her masters degree, she wants to teach middle school.