Binding Your Own Books

Our winter book projects are officially finished! I know some were wanting to know how we made our books, so here it goes! I learned how to make these when I taught in public school in Texas. My classroom days seem like a long time ago! So, I tried to remember the best I could how to make these, and through trial and error, I finally helped the kids to finish them. If you try to make books with your kids, I'm sure that you will find ways to improve on the directions I will attempt to give you here.

Here is Grant reading through his finished book.

The girls are sharing their books with each other. Everyone is very proud of the finished product!

Here is an example of the little books that Grant and Chloe made. I had them make theirs little, so as not to overwhelm them with large sheets of white paper that had to be filled up with words and pictures.

We started our project by brainstorming ideas. Then, the kids went to work writing. I was able to help Grant and Chloe finish their writing in the span of a week. The older girls took two or three weeks writing and polishing their writing. I typed up Grant's and Chloe's writing, printed out the pages, and cut the sheets of copy paper to the same size as small, sturdy sheets of cardboard that I had saved from something else. They then illustrated each page. You can see from the picture how the raw book looked. I then stapled the pages together. The older girls' books were written and typed entirely by them. They chose to make theirs sized 8 1/2 X 11. They also printed their pages front and back, so the effect was more like a real book.

Taking the sheets of cardboard, I used masking tape to bind the two sheets together. The cardboard sheets are not flush together. I taped them together leaving about a 1/4 inch gap between the sheets of cardboard. This picture shows the outside of the book cover. I then turned the cover over to the inside, placed the stapled part of the pages in the gap, and covered the staples over with another long piece of masking tape. The tape covered over the staples and taped the book down to the cover at the same time. I did this on both sides of the stapled binding.

Once the pages were in, I covered the outside of the book cover with contact paper. See this video for help in how to cut the contact paper to cover the cardboard securely. (The same video will teach you how to bind a book another way that I plan on trying next time.) You will have a square of raw cardboard showing on the inside of the book (the masking tape will still be showing as well.) Cut a square of contact paper to cover the large area of cardboard still showing. Then cut a narrow strip of contact paper to cover over the masking tape. If you look closely, you can see from the picture how I did this. I used contact paper that looks like wood, and you can tell from the "grain" of the wood where the paper has been folded or cut differently.

Here's another example that might help you see.

Once I finished covering the cardboard covers with contact paper, I cut sheets of freezer paper for the jacket cover. When cutting the length for the freezer paper, cut it the length of the book when it is open, adding 3 to 4 inches to each side. So, if your page width is 8 1/2, you will need to cut the length of the jacket 23 to 25 inches long. Cut the height of the book cover the same height as your book. So, if your book is 11 inches high, cut the freezer paper for the jacket 11 inches high. Then, wrap the freezer paper evenly around the book, so that it looks like a jacket cover. Heavily crease where the folds should be. Have your kids decorate the book cover and add "About the Book" and "About the Author" columns to the inside flaps. With my camera, I took head shots of the kids that they used above their "About the Author" columns. Lastly, I laminated the covers with thin laminating film, and attached them with tape, similarly to the way we find taped on jacket covers at the library.

I know this explanation may be very confusing, and I wish I had taken more pictures of the process, so that you could see more clearly how we made our books. Feel free to posts questions if you have them, and I'll try to explain better. I really think what makes the books so neat are the cardboard covers, the wood looking contact paper, and the laminated jacket covers along with the "extras", such as an "About the Author" column. Give them a try, and leave me a comment if you do! I'd love to see others' attempts at book binding.