My kids love writing books. Usually I give them some paper, they tell me the story, I write it out and they illustrate. Then I staple it all together. We have given a few as gifts because, well, they're pretty hilarious...
Beckett wrote a book that his teacher read in class and even kept on the classroom bookshelf!
So for his birthday/end of year gift bag situation, I thought I'd make books for his friends. Blank books they can write and illustrate themselves.
I looked for a tutorial and most of them wanted me to buy specific supplies. Like an awl and some special thread. I finally saw
one where you use a sewing machine to bind the books and while it was still too complicated, I went for it.
I also chose to pre-print some stuff on the books, so everyone knew what to do.
The inside reads:
For:
Beckett House Publishing, Inc.
A Division of Teacher and Teacher Press
Copyright 2012
All Rights Reserved
To make the books, I used four pieces of paper plus one more with the preprinting. For pre-schoolers, the ten pages are plenty for a story. Beckett's stories are usually about four pages. I used a piece of cardstock for the cover.
I then trimmed about 1/4" off 2 sides of the inside paper and and folded it in half. That way the pages don't stick out when you put them together. I then placed a ribbon on the back and stitched down the crease:
To finish the ends, I tied the two threads in a knot. For the ribbon end, I pulled the thread through to the back and knotted it. Once that was done, I folded the cardstock cover and the interior pages in half. And used some double sided tape to stick them together.
A completed book:
And here's the final book with a large pencil and a picture of Mr. Beckett. For the wrap I used some strips of paper and 3" x 3" squares of blue. The text reads: Write Your Own Book!
Nine down, sixteen to go!
If you look at the top pic, you'll notice that I made one where I sewed the whole book together. My sewing machine didn't want to do perfect stitches, so it was better for me to sew the inside and glue it together, so you can't see any messy stuff. I wish I could do that for my house!
