Book Arts Tuesday-Valentine Book to Make and Share

Here's a simple unfolding book to make for a valentine. I usually call the form a Who Am I? Book but this time instead of unfolding to reveal an identity, the final page completes the message. For me, Valentine's Day is about more than romance. Here's a wish for all my friends, known and unknown.

I used a small piece of grocery bag for the pages, a Trader Ming's box for the cover, and a ribbon and a button for the tie. Paper from the collage box decorated the cover and the writing was done with red marker.

You can print this PDF for directions to make the book. And here's PDF in Spanish. Thanks as always to Lourdes V. Pichardo and Laura Mason Zeisler, M.Ed for the translation.

Who Am I? Book for Women's History Month

Ideas for bookmaking projects come to me in all sorts of places. Last month I was at a talk by Tuskegee Airman James A. Sheppard at the Newburyport Public Library. He started by describing the history of African American aviation before World war II and showed a photo of the first licensed black aviator in the US—a woman named Bessie Coleman. I immediately knew she would be a perfect subject for March's bookmaking project in celebration of Women's History Month.

Here is a Who Am I? Book about her. This is a simplified version of the book I usually make with a grocery bag and a cereal box panel (directions here). For this one I used two sheets of used copy paper with writing on one side only.

You Will Need:

2 sheets used copy paper with writing on one side only
Piece of yarn about an arm's length long
Bead
Glue stick
Scrap paper
Hole punch

Make the Book:

Fold one of the pieces of paper in half the long way like a hot dog with the writing on the inside.

2. Open the paper, put glue on one half, close and smooth to help the glue adhere.

3. Repeat with the second piece of paper.

4. Place one folded piece so that it is tall in front of you. Place the second piece on top to form a large plus sign.

5. Take the bottom of the tall paper and fold it up over the sideways one.

6. Take the right side of the sideways paper and fold it over the bottom you just folded up.

7. Do the same with the left side and the top.

8. Take the two piece of paper apart.

9. Put glue on the center of the tall rectangle, place the sideways piece on top, and smooth to help the glue adhere.

10. Fold the book up.

11. Punch a hole in the center of the lower edge of the top flap.

12. Fold the piece of yarn in half.

13. Insert the loop end into the hole.

14. Open the loop, put the ends of the yarn through the loop, and pull.

15. Thread both ends of the yarn through a bead (I find it easiest to fold a small loop and twist it before threading) and tie a knot with the bead inside. Tie a second knot to make it secure.

16. To close the book, wrap the yarn around the book and tuck the bead under the yarn.

BESSIE'S BOOK

I was able to find a lot of information about Bessie Coleman both online and in books. She's a popular subject for children's books. I love the one I have—Fly High! The Story of Bessie Coleman by Louise Borden and Mary Kay Kroeger, illustrated by Teresa Flavin—filled with both information and inspiration. Here's how the book closes:

Daughter...aunt...walker...reader...dreamer...thinker...
student...pilot...speaker...teacher.
Bessie Coleman was all of these.
Like her mother, Susan,
Bessie knew how to plant seeds.
Her work in schools and churches
was as important as her daring spins and loops in the sky.
Across the U.S.,
some of Bessie's young fans grew up to be pilots.
Many others would remember her courage,
her smile, and her words:
"You can do something, too.
Keep trying! Fly high!"


Here are some online resources:
bessiecoleman.com

centennialofflight.gov

rootsweb.ancestry.com (photos)

GIVEAWAY:
Join in the celebration of Women's History Month and share a link, a book, or other information about a woman in history to be entered into the giveaway. There will be a random number drawing for each of two books:

and

The drawing will close on Friday March 23 at midnight.

Boston Bruins Who Am I? Book

I have joined Boston Globe columnist Brian McGrory on the Bruins bandwagon as they play in the Stanley Cup. You can read his great column, Jumping on the Zamboni, in today's Globe.

I was a huge hockey fan as a teenager but my interest waned when I went to college. It was hard to get my girls dorm mates to watch hockey on the shared TV. Plus the league had doubled in size a few years before and I had trouble adjusting. Growing up in New Jersey, I was a Rangers fan. My parents owned a luncheonette/corner store with my aunt and uncle. We sold magazines and the rule was that if I read them very carefully, I could bring home magazines and then return them. I read two hockey magazines a month. With only six teams in the league and two magazines a month, I knew the players well. In choosing my favorite Ranger, I went for the best looking one—Rod Gilbert who was also an excellent player. And if he weren't a Bruin, my favorite would have been Bobby Orr.

And now here I am loving the 2010-2011 Bruins. And what better way of jumping on a bandwagon than by making a book? In this case a Who Am I? Book about one of the Bruins players. I usually use a grocery bag panel for the Who Am I? Book but I wanted this book to be smaller. I used two sheets of used copy paper with the writing sides glued together and a coffee filter box. I found the Bruins logos and photo online.



Directions for a Who Am I? Book

in Spanish

I am... Book

Last month, I gave a series of workshops at the Cutler School in Hamilton, MA. At their request, I designed the projects around their theme for the year: Be responsible/Be respectful/Be your best.

I made this book with the second graders. I used the Who Am I? Book form in which four flaps open to reveal a center image. For my sample the front of the flaps said:

Front of flap:
1. I am responsible when I
On other side of lifted flap:
prepare for my classes.

2. I am respectful when I
listen to others.

3. I am my best when I
help others.

4. I am
Susan

I used the back panel of a grocery bag for the pages and a front or back panel of a cereal box for the cover which was then covered with papers from the collage box. The blue strip in the middle with the yellow and white leaves came from the chopstick sleeve at a Thai restaurant. Velcro was used for the closure. If the order in which the pages are read matters to you, you should number the pages. Also noticed how I fixed an error on Susan. For some reason, I first wrote it with a small s. I wrote an upper case S on a small piece of grocery bag and glued it over the small S--an easy way to fix a mistake.

Written Directions

In Spanish

See all the pages on flickr

Who Am I? Artist Book

I recently visited the Bowen Cooperative Nursery School in Newton, MA. The four year old class was learning about artists and we made a Who Am I? Book. I made a few adaptations to my usual presentation to suit the age of the children. Folding into thirds can be difficult so I drew pencil lines on each paper to serve as guides during folding. The paper was 10.5" (with lines at 3.5" and 7") by 16. 5" (with lines at 5.5" and 11"). We had plenty of adult hands to help and the kids did a terrific job. Here are directions for making your own Who Am I? Book. You can see photographs of the sample I made here.

Opening Day

http://www.makingbooks.com/whoami.shtml

Last year I was making books at the Bryn Mawr Elementary School in Auburn, MA on Opening Day of the Red Sox at Fenway Park. Everyone was dressed in Red Sox garb and the school cafeteria served hot dogs for lunch. One class made a Who Am I? Book and most of the class planned to make their books about Red Sox players. It is a reminder that children need to spend time writing about their loves and interests as well as curriculum material. This month's links are websites relating baseball and curriculum, but children can make books about their favorite stars of other sports, bands and singers, actors, actresses, dancers, and musicians. I made my book from the back panel of a grocery bag (the one without any writing). I used a cereal box for the cover and velcro instead of yarn. It's about one of my favorite Red Sox players, Jacoby Ellsbury.

LINKS

Major League Baseball
http://mlb.mlb.com/index.jsp
A good place to research players and teams.

Take Them Out To the Ball Game!
http://www.education-world.com/a_lesson/lesson107.shtml
Education World has a page with lots of links to sites for using baseball across the curriculum, including the text of Abbott and Costello's Who's On First? and several sites for baseball math.

Science of Baseball from the Exploratorium in San Francisco
http://www.exploratorium.edu/baseball/index.html
Lots of good stuff including how to find the sweet spot on a bat, an experiment with bouncing and temperature, how to throw different pitches using a styrofoam ball, and much more.

Math Baseball
http://www.funbrain.com/math/index.html
Answer addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division problems and hit the "Swing" button. Correct answers are hits. Whether it is a single, double, triple, or home run is based on the difficulty of the problem. Wrong answers are outs and the game lasts for three outs. There is a choice of levels from easy to superbrain and it can be played with one or two players.

Adapted from the April 2008 issue of Making Books Monthly
Free subscriptions available at makingbooks.com.