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Make Your Own
Picture Books
Wouldn't it be great if all your
toddler's and preschooler's favorite songs and nursery rhymes came
available in sturdy, inexpensive board books that arrived at your door
the very day your child asked for it? Well until this happens you
will have to make your own -- with paper, clip art or
magazine clippings, glue stick, and either a computer or a good marker. Now
before you panic over your "limited" artistic abilities and hit the scroll button, stop and consider this: nothing
is more exciting to a young child than a book that you and he make
together. He will never care that your artistic ability isn't worthy
of hanging in an art gallery. What he will care about is that you
took the time to help him perform an impressive bit of magic-- turning a bunch of
plain old stuff into... a book. His book.
So here's what you do, first, decide
if this is a project for the computer or for the markers, scissors, and
some old magazines.
On the Computer:
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To generate your book, you can use Microsoft Word
or some similar word processor software (or Publisher, if
you have it). Whichever program you use, you will need to
adjust the page set
up so that your page is in landscape mode (not
portrait). This is important or you will end up with one
very tall and skinny book.
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The next important layout
tip is to remember that the left side
of the page (or monitor screen) will be page one, and the right side
will be page two (then 3 and 4, then 5 and 6, and etc.).
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Now type in the lyrics to the
song (or nursery rhyme), and try to divide them up into natural segments. (By
pauses, sentences, whatever.) It will end up spread out
over several pages.
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Now go back and add in some
clip art. If have a digital camera, you could even try
taking your own images. Just do the best you can with what
you've got. Involve your child in the process of choosing
images, this will make it much more special.
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Now print your pages.
After the ink is dry (to avoid smearing), fold the pages in
half, so that printed sides face each other.
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Then, take your glue stick
and smear the blank page backs with glue and stick them
together, so that the back of "page two" sticks to the back of
"page three", the back of "page four" will stick to the back of
"page
five", and so on. ( You may want to lay the book together,
to see how it will look, before applying the glue.)
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Be sure to let the pages
dry, propped open, so your book doesn't accidentally stick shut.
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You can now make a cover
page. As you make your cover,
be sure to put the back page of the cover on the
left side of your page (or monitor screen), and the front cover on the right hand
side of the page. It's important that it gets laid out
this way because once you print it out you will be folding it so that the blank
sides are together (this is the opposite of how you've been
folding the rest of the pages).
-
 After you print out your
cover, fold it in half, and put the rest of the book inside it
(like a cover on a kid's school report, or as if the cover were
a file folder, and the book were the file pages). Now glue the
blank side of your cover to the blank back-side of your "page
one" and glue the back cover page to the back of the last page
of your book. Let dry.
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If you want, you can staple
the spine of your new book -- to give it added strength.
Voila! You're done.
Now you can read your book with your child -- again, and again,
and again, and....
Without A Computer
Basically, you will follow the
instructions above, except that you will be laying out your pages by
hand. You can either use regular weight paper (as above), or
you can use construction paper.
For images, you can clip images
out of old magazines or newspapers and glue them on the page.
Or, you can simply hand draw some simple pictures. Don't worry
if you make an "oops" or if your drawing skills are limited to stick
figures. To involve your child in the process, you can
(depending on their age), have them do the drawing or simply
scribble a background before your draw, or let them smear some glue
around on the page to attach the clip art. You can even decide
to decorate your book with stickers or stamping. Even if you
do all the art, let your child help you decide what to do.
"Should I draw a big moon or a little moon?" "Should I
draw a face on it?" For a child, to be a part of
the process is like being allowed to work some serious magic!
Abracadabra... a book!
Some Final Thoughts
I first did this project with my
son --who happens to be my third child. I don't know why I
didn't think of it before! Our first creation was our own
edition of "The Farmer in the Dell", and he never tires of dragging
it out and singing the song while flipping through the pages. Usually there is a little tug on my
sleeve and a request of "Read Farmer a Dell? ...Pleeeease."
Then we snuggle up on the couch together and belt out two or three
repetitions. Who knew that one afternoon's brainstorm would
turn into something so precious, and so treasured.
Note: Of course
you can do this project as several sheets of paper just stapled
together. I had done this kind of book before many times with
my kids. But in my experience, these just don't have the same
magic as the project described above. The stiffer pages, and
the more authentic book like appearance give it that extra magic --
a "real" book.
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