Online Personal Book Catalog

Book Covers with Technology Project

by Terence W. Cavanaugh

Using technology to create book covers - visualization, writing, & technology.

Like it or not, just about everyone will judge a book by its cover. Part of the reason for this tendency to judge is that certain genres follow a set of guidelines for the display of books. It is easy recognize a Harlequin or other romance novel, usually by the style and elements on the cover. In this article I provide directions for a student activity in which they create covers of the books that they read. Designing book covers or jackets is a creatively fulfilling, performance based, authentic experience that integrates technology, media, and reading, and makes an excellent alternative to a book report.

Today's students need to develop skills in school such as global literacy, computer literacy, problem solving, critical thinking, creativity, and innovation as these skills have become critical in life (eSchool News, 2008). Using technology and media is an excellent way to engage your students in their reading. Research has found that adding visuals to verbal (textual and/or auditory) instruction resulted in students learning more than without the text and also resulted in significant gains in basic or higher-order learning (Metiri Group 2008). Creating book covers is a reading strategy for visualizing text, which is a proven way to improve reading comprehension (Puett Miller 2004). In addition to visualization, students are also integrating media literacy, writing, and technology. One book publisher, Penguin Books UK, has even gone so far as to create an entire collection of books, the 'Books by the Greats, Covers by You', with blank covers and is asking readers to send in their creations. Submitted covers are available online (http://www.penguin.co.uk/static/cs/uk/0/minisites/mypenguin/gallery.html). Use this site as a great place to get your students thinking about creating their own book cover project.

Book covers have different numbers of parts depending on the book type, for paperback there are only three essential parts: the Front Cover; the Spine; and the Back Cover. The online Book Cover Guide (http://www.readwritethink.net/student_mat/student_material.asp?id=60) is an excellent resource about book cover basic design for students. Depending on your student's abilities and resources you can either use existing online tools, such as Read-Write-Think Cover Creator, or standard word processing tools, like Microsoft Word, to create book covers. The Cover Creator (http://www.readwritethink.org/student_mat/student_material.asp?id=58) is a free online tool and limits students to selecting layouts, colors, and creating their own drawing.

Creating Covers with a Word Processor

Using a tool like Word is flexible and allows students options for creating the layout and colors, for example in addition to accepting their own drawings, Word will accept many formats of digital images, so students can either create or find pictures such as using a digital camera or searching on the web. Using a word processor and standard printer also allows your students to create actual size representations of book covers. The standard 8 1/2 x 11 in paper, when printed in landscape format, will produce a print out that can be the actual size of a paperback book's cover with just a little trimming.

Page Setup

To begin creating book covers with your word processor, changes in page setup are needed. In Word, begin with the File menu, then select Page Setup. In the Orientation section adjust the page by selecting the Landscape option for the page. In the Page Setup window, change the margins so that the numbers match the following: Top = 0.82"; Bottom = 0.5"; Left = 0.75"; and Right = 0.75" (see Figure 1), then click the OK button.

Figure 2. Sizes for the table/cells for the book cover.

On your word processing document page, insert a table that is composed of one row and three columns (or cells). These three cells will become the book's cover. The left cell is the back of the book, the middle cell is the spine, and the cell on the right becomes the front cover (see Figure 2). You will need to set the sizes of each of these cells to match that of an actual paperback book. Right click in the left cell (on a Mac control - click), then select the option for Table Properties. In the Table Properties window pop-up menu, choose the tab for the Row, and in the Size section, select the option for a Specific Height and set the size to 6.88", Exactly. Select the tab for Cell, and set the Preferred width to 4.25" (see Figure 3) and then click the OK button. For the next cell, set the width to 1", and for the front cover cell, set the width also to 4.25". A ready made template for Word with all of these margin and cell settings (see Figure 4) is available from the FRA web site (http://www.flreads.org/Publications/quarterly/samples/paperback_book_cover_template.doc).

Figure 4. Word template for book cover project.

The Front Cover

The far right hand cell is the front cover. The front cover of a book is usually the most graphic, including a design, drawing, graphic illustration, or painting that illustrates a part of the story or the characters. With the illustration are the title and the author’s full name, and some times one or two lines of text as a review or rating quote. Text should be designed with different kinds of colors, fonts and type sizes to give your book cover appeal. Usually front covers use sans serif fonts, like Arial and Tahoma, but don't feel limited to them. Look at all the fonts available and select one that makes the cover easy to read but could also reflect the book's content. Cover fonts should appear very clean and precise. Also on the front cover you should either find or create an image to use that reflects the story, the characters, or the setting. Students can draw their own images on paper and then scan or digitally photograph them or use a paint or drawing program. One fun option for many students it to photograph themselves for the cover design. Another option is to search for a representative image or set of images to use on the cover. A number of excellent online resources provide quality digital photographs that students can use. Once the image is selected or created, insert the image into the cell for the front cover. Next, adjust the size of the image so that it will fit within the front cover space by first clicking on the image and then moving the corners or sides (click and hold) to adjust the size. Place your image behind the text by right clicking on the image and then selecting the Order option, then Send Behind Text. Now using the Picture toolbar (right click on the image if your picture tool bar isn't showing and turn the tool bar on) or by right clicking and choosing Format Picture, you can also adjust your image by processes such as by lightening, cropping, or adjusting the contrast.

Sample locations of shared or public domain images:

· Classroom Clipart: http://classroomclipart.com/

· CopyrightFreePhotos.com: http://www.copyrightfreephotos.com

· FreeFoto.com: http://www.freefoto.com/index.jsp

· Gimp-Savvy: http://gimp-savvy.com/PHOTO-ARCHIVE/

· MorgueFile: www.mourguefile.com

· Open Photo: http://openphoto.net/

· Pics4Learning: http://pics.tech4learning.com/

Students should to pay close attention to the elements on their cover, including the placement of the text and position of the images. Make sure that the image doesn't interfere with reading the text, such as from having a dark image with dark text.

The Spine

The spine is the edge of the book that is seen when a book is shelved. Spines have a few information points: usually only the author’s name, the title of the book, and a publisher’s mark. The standard arrangement is the author at the top, the title in the middle, and the publisher at the bottom. Sometimes a small image that relates to the story may also be included. Here too colors, fonts, and type sizes can give the spine more appeal. For many people the spine is the first and only thing they see of a book in making a book choice, so students should try to make one that is attractive enough to get a reader to pull that book off the shelf. To identify who created the cover the student can add his/her own name or the last names of the group members to a text box.

Back Cover

The back cover of a book can be considered a form of booktalk intended to hook the reader into reading the book. Often with the story blurb is information from book reviews about the book or author. These blurbs or quotes can be written in either serif fonts (fonts like Times New Roman) or sans serif fonts. For instructions on how to write a book blurb for the back cover, see Marilynn Byerly's web site How to Write a Blurb (http://marilynnbyerly.com/marilynnbyerly/blurb.html). Here are paragraph by paragraph instructions for writing a book's back cover for a number of genres including romance, romantic suspense, mystery, science fiction, and fantasy. For example, Ms. Byerly suggests that a book blurb about romantic suspense story, include the following:

· First paragraph: Simple plot set up and main character's emotional involvement with it. What is the exterior conflict of the novel? (What are the hero and heroine fighting against and why?)

· Second paragraph: More simple plot set up and hero's or second lead's emotional involvement with it.

· Third and Fourth paragraphs: What is the interior conflict of the novel? (What tears the hero and heroine apart emotionally?) What must both must achieve or defeat and what do they have to lose? This can include plot set up, place set up, the important secondary characters, and the villain.

Back covers will often include information about the author, other books the author has written or short reviews. A great place to find reviews or quick author studies is at the Amazon.com (http://www.amazon.com) page for that book. Often there are reviews written about the book and students can select the review or rating of their choice to copy into their text. By selecting the author's name link they can see what else the author has published to find another book that might be worth mentioning.

Today all books have barcodes - so students can make their book covers look more real by adding their own barcodes to place on the back cover of their paperback designs. Use one of the online resources to create their own barcode and then either copy and paste or insert their barcode onto the back cover. Format the barcode image so that the layout of the barcode is Tight and place it so that it doesn't interfere with any other elements of the back cover.

Sample Online Barcode Generators:

· http://www.terryburton.co.uk/barcodewriter/generator/

· http://www.tristatelitho.com/barcode.htm

· http://www.tux.org/~milgram/bookland#online

Your book cover is now complete. Don't feel limited by the instructions; have students play with their options. They can add additional shapes, use Word Art, or use any other tools. I would suggest that when printing the covers, students use cardstock or heavy paper. The covers can then be trimmed and folded to look like real books and be placed on display. A sample completed cover for The Secret Garden (see Figure 5) in Word document format is available for download from the FRA web site (http://www.flreads.org/Publications/quarterly/samples/paperback_book_cover_sample.doc).

Figure 5. Book cover created for The Secret Garden.

Standards

Having students create their own representation of books covers is an activity meets a wide range of standards, including national and state standards for language arts and reading. For example creating book covers with images and text can be used to meet the national Standards for the English Language Arts in that students are using strategies to comprehend, interpret, evaluate, and appreciate texts(3), they using the different writing process to communicate with different audiences for a variety of purposes (4); as they employ variety of technological resources (8) and media techniques to create, critique, and discuss texts (6) (IRA & NCTE 1996). The activity meets state standards across grade levels in a number of areas including the reading process, the writing process, communication, information and media literacy, and technology (FL DOE 2007). Students are using technology to enhance communication as they apply word processing and multimedia tools to create their new book covers (LA.8.6.4.1, LA.8.6.4.2). In the reading process students are identifying a the purpose of text features and graphic representations (LA.4.1.7.1, LA.7.1.7.1). In writing, students are using the technology to write and publish for an appropriate audience and purpose (LA.8.3.5.1). Once created, the new covers allow students to communicate about a book in an information presentation that uses technology and graphics (LA.6.5.2.2). This activity can also help students better comprehend text as they organize it in creating a new consumer product that has production elements (LA.4.6.1.1, LA.1112.6.1.3, LA.910.6.3.1).

Assessment

I've included a sample assessment rubric to use with your students to evaluate their covers (see Table 1). There are also other excellent online tools and resources for rubrics. For example, instructors can create rubrics using online tools such as Rubristar (http://rubistar.4teachers.org/) and Project Based Learning (http://4teachers.org/projectbased/). Other sites have already created book cover rubrics, such as from Read-Write-Think (www.readwritethink.org/materials/bookcover/bookcoverrubric.pdf) or the Rubric Machine (http://landmark-project.com/rubric_builder/index.php).

Table 1. Rubric for evaluating paperback book cover project.

CATEGORY	3	2	1
Front Cover	Includes an illustration, title of the book, and author's name. Font and colors reflect book’s contents. The graphic illustrates some scene from the book.	Includes an illustration, title of the book, and author's name.	Does not include illustration, title, AND/OR author's name.
Back Cover	Provides information the story or characters that generate interest (booktalk). Provides some author, review or rating information (quotes) and has barcode for book.	Provides information the story or characters that generate interest (booktalk). But lacks review or rating information (quotes) or barcode.	The back cover does not relate or barely relates to the story
Spine	Has a color or interesting graphic, provides at least the author’s last name, and full title of the book.	Provides the author’s last name and title of the book.	Provides only the book title.
Illustration(s)	Illustrations are creative (drawings or photographs) and were a good size to fit cover.	Illustrations selected are appropriate and are a good size.	Illustrations selected were too large or too small or were drawn and/or colored carelessly.
Text	Text font and color are appropriate for book. Back ground and text colors do not interfere with reading. Two different font structures are used.	Text is readable, but font has issues or only one font type is used.	Text font is inappropriate and difficult to read.
Neatness and Effort	The book cover is easy to read, has no distracting errors.	The book cover is fairly readable but the quality is not too good on some parts.	Very messy and hard to read.
Use of Time	Class time was used effectively. Student worked at home as well as at school.	Class time was not always used effectively, but student did do some additional work outside of class.	Class time was not used effectively and the student put in no additional effort.

As a follow-up to creating book covers, try a movie posters development project for the movie version of the book. The web site Big Huge Labs as an online tool designed for making movie posters (http://www.bighugelabs.com/flickr/poster.php) by uploading images, selecting design styles, and then writing in the poster elements using a form.

References

eSchool News. (2008). Creating the 21st-Century Classroom. eSchool News. Retrieved April 30, 2008 from http://www.eschoolnews.com/resources/creating-the-21st-century-classroom/

FL DOE (Florida Department of Education). (2007). Reading/language Arts Standards for Florida. Retrieved May 5, 2008 from http://etc.usf.edu/flstandards/la/index.html

IRA & NCTE (International Reading Association & National Council of Teachers of English). (1996). Standards for the English Language Arts. Retrieved May 3, 2008 from http://www.reading.org/resources/issues/reports/learning_standards.html

Metiri Group. (2008). Multimodal Learning through Media: What the Research Says. Retrieved April 4, 2008 from http://www.cisco.com/web/strategy/docs/education/Multimodal-Learning-Through-Media.pdf

Puett Miller, C. (2004) Teaching Students to Use Visualization. National Education Association: Classroom Management. Retrieved May 6, 2008 from http://www.nea.org/classmanagement/ifc040518.html

Web locations mentioned in this article

Amazon.com: http://www.amazon.com

Classroom Clipart: http://classroomclipart.com/

CopyrightFreePhotos.com: http://www.copyrightfreephotos.com

FreeFoto.com: http://www.freefoto.com/index.jsp

Gimp-Savvy: http://gimp-savvy.com/PHOTO-ARCHIVE/

Marilynn Byerly's How to Write a Blurb: http://marilynnbyerly.com/marilynnbyerly/blurb.html

MorgueFile: http://www.mourguefile.com

Online Barcode Generator: http://www.terryburton.co.uk/barcodewriter/generator/

Online Barcode Generator: http://www.tristatelitho.com/barcode.htm

Online Barcode Generator: http://www.tux.org/~milgram/bookland#online

Open Photo: http://openphoto.net/