When you make art proof of virtue, you can make it feel like a drag, advice columnist Eleanor Gordon-Smith writes. Instead, encourage him to develop his own sensibility
Read more Leading questions
My eight-and-a-half-year-old son is a voracious reader and budding writer. I am very happy that he enjoys reading and want to help him find the next good read. Unfortunately he’s extremely easily influenced by cover art. He will unwrap a gift book and immediately dismiss it and refuse to give it a go if he doesn’t like the cover. He doesn’t even read the blurb. When I was still reading to him, we had a pact that he had to listen to at least one page, and that’s how he was introduced to many of his favourite books despite initial reluctance. I completely understand the appeal of great illustration, but now that he reads chapter books, I wish he could get over the two least important pages. How can I help him not to judge a book by its cover?
Eleanor says: I totally appreciate the virtue of getting him to see beyond the cover, but on the other hand … could you just change the cover?
What’s he attracted to in a cover? Iridescence? A dragon? A cool dude? He could make a new cover! A collage, even a collage from other books. He could make a dozen all-purpose covers, ready to be stuck on to whatever book you’d like to give him next. Or he could redo a particular cover after saying why he doesn’t like the one they gave it; or you could cover books in brown paper so he never sees the cover, and have him design one once he knows what the book is about. Coloured foils! Laser eyes! Give him a director’s chair.
