Students
Want to become a published author? Have your own book for your own bookshelf? A book you can call your own? I can help. I work with students like you and teachers like yours to help them make published hardbound books. More than 3,000 students now have books in their desks or lockers, on bookshelves at school or home, or at Grandma’s house from my workshops. Each book shows off its colors and its story, wherever it is. Even if it’s snuggled up against others books on a shelf, its title and name show off on the spine. Your book could be a collection of your poetry, a research paper, or about a social studies topic, such as an ancient civilization. You might write your own fun fiction book, even written in a foreign language, if you want.
Teachers
This bookmaking workshop can tie in with your existing lesson plan—a research topic, poetry studies, writing a children’s story in a foreign language. I introduce how to make the books and help with the editing when you’re ready. They can even be created online, eliminating the need to print pages for final copy. After the hardbound published books are received, parents, family, and friends come to a celebration where the student authors read excerpts from their newly published books. I have done this process with kindergarten students (who make a collaborative book with each student contributing one page) to high school students who wrote children’s stories in Latin.
Other
The same process can work with any group who wants to write books. For example, twenty senior citizens in my home community recently wrote about their experiences during World War II—either in Europe or the Pacific or at home—raising Victory Gardens, saving steel and nylon, or using ration books. Middle school students joined the project—called Smoky Valley Writers—and partnered with the writers to input the stories on computers, scan their photographs, and prepare the books for publication. The families love them, and they are being given the status of family heirlooms. Some are placed in school and public libraries where they are available to the public. Kids and older people working together? Beautiful to watch. Students learned about World War II and seniors developed a keen appreciation for the young people while benefitting from their computer skills. The project was funded through the local Arts Council, grants, corporate sponsors, civic clubs, and individual contributions.
Contact me
If you’d like more information about how I can help you with a bookmaking project, please contact me using the form below:
