Customer Reviews

A Book of One's Own: Developing Literacy Through Making Books

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This book is the first of Paul Johnson's 2 books on developing writing skills in elementary school kids through book arts. The book is useful in two important ways. First, it contains a good number of easy to follow instructions for a wide range of relatively simple paper folding and paper engineering bookmaking strategies. Someone with little experience in book arts can easily make these books. For that practical aspect alone, this book is an excellent resource.

But the second reason is perhaps more important. Johnson makes persuasive arguements for integrating the act of writing with the making of books. The book structures provide creative points of departure that tap into visual and spatial modes of learning. Johnson gives sound reasons to employ such strategies in "publishing centers" found in many elementary classrooms. He gives many practical tips about what one can expect from various age-groups of kids and the degree of facilitation required by the adults in charge.

For a day to day reference and useful tool for unit and larger curriculum planning this is a gem. Johnson's second book, Literacy Through the Book Arts expands the theory dimension of A Book of One's Own. For teachers who truely want to pursue integrated curriculum strategies I highly recommend both of Johnson's books.

I have used Johnson's book to explore possibilities for both my kids' book-making projects (and facilitating projects in their elementary school classrooms) and those of my college students (I teach printmaking and book arts at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill)

Read Johnson's books and you'll be hooked!

I found this book to have lots of great ideas for folding paper and putting together some cute books. But what I found lacking in the book was any real substance regarding the content of the children's books. The emphasis was clearly on the appearance of the projects, and the author had little to nothing to offer as far as how the books affected the writing level of the children, except for quantity. Quality was overlooked. I found a later book by this author much more informative. This was Literacy and the Book Arts. I bought A Book of One's Own to fill in the gaps about making some of the children's books he referred to in his later book.

Paul Johnson, Senior lecturer in Art at Manchester University, Director of The Book Art Project initiated by the Crafts Council in 1986 and funded by the Gulbenkian Foundation, distills his extensive classroom experience with 3yo-18yo into multiple books: Literacy Through the Book Arts, Pictures & Words Together: Children Illustrating and Writing Their Own Books, New Pop-Up Paper Projects: Step-by-step paper engineering for all ages and this A Book of One's Own. Also see Pop-Up Greeting Cards Origamic Architecture by Masahiro Chatani for more advanced students.

Second edition A Book of One's Own chapters: story making, books from one sheet of paper, publishing, multicultural and special needs, books with nursery and infants, book styles and formats, collaborative books, Asian side binding, hardcover for Chinese concertina and European style books, decorative binding, cover design. The illustrations for folding instructions are precise, the writing prompts "what should she find but . . ." evocative, eliciting imaginative responses from the student author, and classroom anecdotes are helpfully instructive. He reimagines bookmaking, bookbinding, writing, illustration and design as integrated learning whether one pursues non-fiction nature study, fiction, how to books, journal.

A 5yo and I recently spent 4 lunches informally making and writing books. Her ability to absorb the format requirements (folding, pagination, margins, page layout, scansion, colophon, lettering vs. printing) surprised me. By the third session she insisted "I can do this myself, I'll remember this as long as I live" and proceeded with faint input on my part. Perhaps children have a greater capacity to learn and produce tanglible art than we imagine. Paul Johnson's perceptive contribution to interwoven functional learning deserves celebration. The 5yo and I had fun making books together.

Questions: what could go there? Text or picture? We placed our hands over the space on the page which was empty: text block, foreground, middleground, background. We discussed design, asking if the frame told the story and the two page spread exhibited equipoise. Perspective was discussed. What happens? Then what? A paper copier published multiple copies for an edition. Single sheet books easily reproduce on a copier. With bookmaking children develop literacy, math and manipulative skills in paper engineering, design awareness, fitting story arc from meeting characters taking them through an adventure to returning them home safely into the fixed number of pages and the page size limitations of the book form, lettering as an art form, perspective drawing, design literacy. What better way to encompass learning in an unified cohesive fashion? Bookmaking coordinates paper folding, storytelling, drawing, delightfully fun for both student and guide. Energizing exciting encouraging learning. 5 stars

Teaching should be such that what is offered is perceived as a valuable gift and not a hard duty.

It is the supreme art of the teacher to awaken joy in creative expression and knowledge.

Albert Einstein