Judges book by cover

As I have proved in a conclusive test, right here on this blog, it is possible to judge a book by its cover. I even showed that one can do it with an almost meticulous, fine toothed accuracy. This all was a few years ago now, but I'm sure you could find the account of this engaging test. I dare you to look for it. It's somewhere out there in my 1,450 posts, nearly all of whom live on the island of lost blogposts, sunbathing, drinking coconut waters, and idly dreaming that maybe someday someone will wander along and read them just one more time. 

I try and get around to visit every lost post occasionally, but there are so many, and I'm only one person!

But despite the fact that it is clearly possible to accurately judge a book by its cover, one can become over confident. One can be rash and filled with hubris and make a horrible, embarrassing misjudgement. This very thing happened to me today!

I was emptying a bin of books that were in transit from my library to another of our branches when I came upon a slender picture book entitled Cinderella Babysits. There, on the cover of this little book, Princess Cinderella is outside in a meadow in front of her castle, on her own, taking care of a little girl.

"This is ridiculous!" I cried out to whoever happened to be within a hundred feet of me at the time. "Cinderella is a major Princess. She's not going to be left with menial jobs like babysitting! Who would write such a patently absurd book as this?"

As a co-worker gathered round I opened the book. It quickly became apparent that the child in question was related to Cinderella's Fairy Godmother. Clearly the Fairy Godmother had asked Cinderella to watch her niece or something. I don't know exactly as I was simply trying to get the gist of things. All I know is that if her Fairy Godmother wanted a favor there was no way Cinderella was going to farm that job out. She'd be crazy to mess with her Fairy Godmother. It all made perfect sense, and clearly, in my rashness, I had gravely misjudged this book by its cover. My co-worker had to agree.

Maybe one day, when I have a spare 48 seconds, I should read the whole tale of Cinderella Babysits. It actually looked pretty good.