Making books with kids
On Saturday, a group of Abers put on a workshop for kids at one of our local libraries in Victoria, BC. A group of 8-12 year-olds signed up to make books with us. We supplied the paper, pencils, stickers and pipe cleaners, and they supplied the stories.
I was excited to attend, though a little unsure of how I could help make books, having no experience with this myself. However, I didn’t have to fear - the kids wrote out their rough drafts, and then we used smaller thicker paper for the final copies, which we bound with pipe cleaners and they decorated with drawings, stickers, and magazine collages.
Their creativity was astounding: stories ranged from a magical kingdom called Animalia, the “true” story of WWII, a Titanic love story, and stories about lady pirates and gypsies. There were also several haunted house stories (one with a shark!), and one with a pumpkin that grew so big it took over a town.
When I see so many local kids hanging out with cell phones and MP3 players, and I communicate with my own 13-year-old brother using MSN, I worry that children don’t take joy in reading and writing the same way I did (and still do). These children proved me wrong - they couldn’t wait to write their own books, and many even asked for extra pages in theirs so they could write more when they got home. I can’t wait to see their first novels listed on AbeBooks.
