In the design of how Invention would look, we approached the design of the cover as packaging for the book. The cover is the first part of the book that people see, and this is how the book would appear on a bookshelf.

On the front of the book jacket, the title of the book is printed in bold, orange letters to catch the attention of someone browsing the bookshelf. The other elements are drawn in a friendly, cartoony way to make the book more appealing and accessible to a young audience. Young Tim the Beaver is also featured prominently on the cover to symbolize his presence throughout the activities in the book.

On the back of the book jacket, the tree wraps around to provide continuity. Underneath the branch, large type briefly explains what this book is about with the expectation that someone in the store would want to flip through the contents of the book to see what was inside.

Underneath the book jacket, the cover has "Invention" printed in black ink, along with a line-drawing version of Young Tim the Beaver. Having the title printed twice in this way — once on the jacket and once on the cover — provides some nice three dimensional depth to the title when the book is viewed on the shelf.

Furthermore, something that makes Invention unique is that it allows the child to design their own cover. With the book jacket removed, the cover becomes the perfect surface to draw on, allowing the child to customize and make the book their own.

Appearing in the drawing section of the book, one of the activities is to design the cover for the book. Two practice pages are provided to allow the child to try out different ideas before implementing their design on the cover.

During one of the sessions where we play-tested with children, this activity was a big hit. The cover design on the right was produced by a girl in fifth grade. What's interesting about this cover design is how similar it is to the actual cover design, but in this case she hadn't seen the jacket cover design before she started drawing her own.