The write start - Jennifer Hallissy 2010

Handmade Books
Guidelines for the Activities

THERE IS ONLY ONE THING you need to turn a young writer into an author: a book.

Handmade books are great to have on hand for when book-worthy inspiration strikes. Easy to make, they’re just as easy to fill up with ideas. From cover to cover, children can let their imaginations run wild.

And speaking of covers, here’s an opportunity to get really creative. While colored card stock is perfect for creating a rainbow assortment of books, there are endless other cover options as well. We have made book covers out of calendar pages, digital photos, sheet music, blueprints, scrapbook paper, cereal boxes, corrugated cardboard, and repurposed artwork. They may say you can’t judge a book by its cover, but, in my opinion, the jury’s still out on that one.

MATERIALS

∗ card stock (or other creative cover material)

∗ blank paper

∗ scissors

∗ hammer

∗ nail (or awl)

∗ string (I use colorful embroidery floss)

∗ embroidery needle

∗ decorative labels

HOW-TO

1. Crease the cover paper down the center and then unfold it. Lay the cover face down on a table. Lay blank pages on top of the cover. (If the inside pages are larger than the cover, trim them to fit.) Make a strong crease down the center of the blank pages. Align the cover and blank pages along the center crease.

2. With hammer and nail, make three evenly spaced holes down the center crease.

3. Thread the embroidery floss through a needle. Starting on the outside of the book, push needle and thread through the middle hole to the inside of the book, then out through the bottom hole to the outside, back in through the top hole to the inside, and back out again through the middle hole.

4. Tie a secure knot with the two ends of the floss on the outside of the book. Trim the ends of the string to about two inches long.

5. Close the book, and put a decorative label on the cover for the title and author information.

6. Happy writing!

Variations

For Scribblers: Pre-writers love to fill blank books with, what else? Scribbles! And luckily, all that practice does them a world of good, developmentally speaking.

For Spellers: Emerging writers enjoy making picture books, using drawings or stickers and familiar words.

For Storytellers: Storytellers can fill book after book with bright ideas. Keep a stack at the ready!

For Scholars: Scholars can incorporate elements of real books—such as a title page, a dedication, a table of contents, and an “about the author” page—into their handmade versions.