Bookmaking With Kids

Despite the fact that fully half the kids in one of my library book-
making classes this fall were still in diapers(!), even I have to admit that some children really are too young to make a book.

Happily, infants, crawlers and toddlers can listen, look and, of course, chew on board books. And a new blog devoted to just that niche has just made its appearance.

Called readertotz, it’s written by author/illustrators Lorie Ann Grover and Joan Holub. They kicked off the blog on December 1st with a feature on Leslie Patricelli’s board book, BIG Little. The blog also includes an age-appropriate playlist and a monthly book suggestion for older siblings.

Their hope, down the road, is to help establish an award for infant-toddler books that’s equivalent to the Caldecott and Theodor Geisel awards.

Welcome to the blogosphere, readertotz!

I recently had the opportunity to write a little photo essay looking at work by some very young bookmakers for a wonderful book-arts journal called The Ampersand. It’s a quarterly publication of the Pacific Center for the Book Arts, available free to PCBA members.

The editor has kindly given me permission to reproduce my article here. Called The Littlest Bookmakers, it looks at the whys and wherefores of teaching pre-reading, pre-writing kids to make books of their own. Click here for a download. Hope you enjoy it.

Bookmaking With Kids has been honored with an Arte y Pico award, for creativity. The kudos came from a blog that’s on my read-every-day list, Magpie Musing, with this remark: “If you have kids or work with kids, you’ll want to go see what she’s got to suggest for book arts projects with said kids.”

Many thanks, Maggie!

The award stipulates that recipients pass it along to five other blogs notable for their creativity, design, interesting material and the like. What a pleasurable task! Here’s my list of ongoing favorites or new discoveries:

Musings from a Muddy Island is a British blog packed with glorious photos of author Juliet’s daily walks along the shores of Mersea Island, some 70 miles northeast of London. It’s been a source for me of interesting books to read and thoughts to ponder on cherished topics like typography, writing, publishing and more. A special thanks to Juliet for alerting me to Alexander McCall Smith’s new novel-as-podcast, Corduroy Mansions. I listen every day!

Blogging@NYPL is the uber-blog of a group of blogging librarians at the New York Public Library. It’s a must-read if you love New York, if you love libraries, if you love history and if you love the thought-provoking jolt that comes from having fascinating information uniting all those interests served up daily. I especially look forward to posts in series that focuses on things handmade.

That single, once-a-week page of short book reviews in The New Yorker magazine is never, ever enough for me. That’s where The Book Bench comes in. Featuring contributions from NYer eight writers, it satisfies my need for more reviews that I can trust, plus lots of literary news.

Bibliophile Bullpen is a breezy grab-bag of literary news, pointers to good reads elsewhere in the blogosphere, interesting oddities (like a pictorial archive of women bookbinders circa 1913!) and Joyce’s astute observations. One post that made me smile was her eclectic Thanksgiving list of people and things worthy of thanks, including Barack Obama, the Maine coastline, Stephen Fry, Hugh Laurie, Ruth Reichl, National Public Radio and nutella, among others. What’s not to like?

Last on today’s list is not a bookish blog! It’s called swissmiss and it’s mostly about design, with great illustrations and lots of posts about typography. Eye-catching photos like this ampersand-shaped cutting board are typical of Tina’s blog, and always make me smile.

I bought these little handmade beauties this past weekend from Bookmaking Buddies, a quartet of 12-year-olds who are absolute aces as volunteers at Bookmaking With Kids events.

They’re a different breed of bookmark. Very festive, I think. And a terrific way to use up luscious, medium-size scraps.

You can see one in use by clicking the picture at the right. I’ll be displaying mine in a martini glass so that anyone unwrapping a book in my house can choose a bookmark.

Now that I’ve retired my political buttons for the year, I’m free to advertise my other convictions. Here’s a handful that I was planning to give as gifts. But I’m thinking of keeping two of them to wear on days that I teach in libraries.

Which reminds me: I’ll be doing an Improv Bookmaking session for kids tomorrow, Friday December 19th, starting at 3 p.m., at the SFPL Mission Branch, 300 Bartlett Street.

NB: The buttons are from All This Is Mine, discovered at the holiday fair at the San Francisco Center for the Book.

Read this litany slowly, please, and savor the words:

Abbey, acorn, adder, aisle, allotment, almond, altar, apricot, ash, ass, bacon, beaver, beech, beetroot, bishop, blackberry, blacksmith, bloom, bluebell, boar, bramble, bran, bray, bridle, brook, budgerigar, bullock, buttercup, canary, canter, carnation, carol, catkin, cauliflower, chapel, cheetah, chestnut, christen, clover, colt, conker, corgi, coronation, county, cowslip, cracker, crocus, cygnet, dandelion, decade, devil, diesel, disciple, doe, drake, duchess, duke, dwarf, elf, emperor, empire, fern, ferret, fungus, gerbil, goblin, goldfish, gooseberry, gorse, guinea pig, hamster, hazel, hazelnut, heather, heron, herring, holly, horse chestnut, ivy, kingfisher, lark, lavender, leek, leopard, liquorice, lobster, magpie, manger, marzipan, melon, minister, minnow, mint, mistletoe, monarch, monastery, monk, mussel, nectar, nectarine, nun, nunnery, oats, otter, ox, oyster, newt, pansy, panther, parish, parsnip, pasture, pelican, pew, piglet, plaice, poodle, poppy, porcupine, porpoise, porridge, poultry, primrose, prune, psalm, pulpit, radish, raven, rhubarb, saint, sheaf, sin, spaniel, spinach, starling, stoat, stork, sycamore, terrapin, thrush, tulip, turnip, vicar, vine, violet, walnut, weasel, willow, wren.

Now: Care to hazard a guess about what they have in common?

These words were cut from the new edition of the Oxford University Press’s Junior Dictionary, making way for such additions as bungee jumping, voicemail, chatroom and other modern essentials.

Many children’s classics would be very odd indeed without those excised words:

Who will walk with the Walrus and the Carpenter now?

What of Pooh’s littlest playmate?

Who will Mr. Jeremy Fisher invite to dinner?

And what’s in the pot, nine days old?

Click the link to keep reading more…