Books to Read

Here are some books to help you make your own books and learn about the history of books as well as some picture books that are about books and bookmaking.

How to Make Books
Bookworks: Making Books by Hand

Gwenyth Swain. Minneapolis: CarolRhoda Books, 1995.
This has a good introduction about the history of books and clear directions for making several forms of book, as well as paper making, marbling, and printmaking techniques.

Making Books That Fly, Fold, Wrap, Hide, Pop Up, Twist and Turn
Gwen Diehn. Asheville, NC: Lark Books, 1998.
This book has lots of fun projects (Gypsy Wagon, Treasure Chest, Starburst) with information about different kinds of books through history.

Making Mini Books
Sherri Haab. Klutz Press, 2002.
A fun book from Klutz Press with lots of ideas for making small books and materials to help you get started.

How To Make Pop-Ups
Joan Irvine. New York: Morrow Junior Books, 1987.
This is a great place to learn how to make pop-ups. Joan Irvine has written two other books on pop-ups- How to Make Super Pop-ups and How to Make Holiday Pop-ups

Pop-O-Mania: How to Create Your Own Pop-Ups
Barbara Valenta. New York: Dial Books for Young Readers, 1997.
What makes this book special is that it is a pop-up book that teaches you how to make pop-ups.

Multicultural Books To Make And Share
Susan Kapuscinski Gaylord. Newburyport, MA: makingbooks.com, 2004.
This is a revised version of my first book. It's written for teachers but the directions are simple. There are sixteen projects from four continents.

Hands-On History: Middle Ages
Susan Kapuscinski Gaylord. New York: Scholastic Professional Books, 2002.
This is my newest book. It's about life in the Middle Ages with sections on Who They Were, Where They Lived, What They Wore, What They Ate, How They Worked, How They Played, How they Learned, and How They Worshiped. There are directions for making a girdle book and lots of other interesting activities like heraldry, weaving, embroidery, helmets, pendants, and illuminated letters.

Super Pop-up Reports for American History
Susan Kapuscinski Gaylord. New York: Scholastic Professional Books, 2000
This is my second book. It's for teachers too but kids ten years old and over should find it easy to use. It tells how to make a book that opens to form a building with four rooms. The book tells you how to use it for American history reports but you can make doll houses and other fun stuff with it too.

Books About Book History

Books And Libraries
Jack Knowlton. New York: Harper Collins Publishers, 1991.
Books and Libraries tells the history of books and libraries from Mesopotamia and Egypt to Europe and colonial New England.

Eyewitness: Book
Karen Brookfield. New York: Dorling Kindersley Publishing, 2000
Part of Eyewitness Books series, this book has lots of great photographs of books from ancient times until today from around the world.

The History of Making Books
New York: Scholastic, Inc., 1996.
This interactive book has sections on Ancient Writing, Asian Ingenuity, Arabic Treasures, Parchment, Illuminated Manuscripts, Paper, Printing, Bookbinding, and more.

"Paper" Through the Ages
Shaaron Cosner. Minneapolis: Carolrhoda Books, 1984.
This easy chapter book introduces writing materials of the past- stone, clay, papyrus, wax, parchment, and paper- and the people who used them.

Scrawl! Writing in Ancient Times
Geography Department. Minneapolis: Runestone Press, a division of Lerner Publications Company, 1994.
This guide to early books includes chapters on the development of writing, writing materials, papyrus, parchment, and paper, the scribes, and the survival of ancient literature.

The History of Making Books. New York: Scholastic, Inc., 1996.
This interactive book has lots of illustrations and information on Ancient writing, Asian Ingenuity, Arabic Treasures, Parchment, Illuminated Manuscripts, Paper, Printing, Bookbinding, and more.

Bibles and Bestiaries: A Guide to Illuminated Manuscripts
Elizabeth B. Wilson, The Pierpont Morgan Library. New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 1994.
I love this book. It has a detailed description of the process of making an illuminated manuscript from making the vellum to binding the book and information on the "Best- Selling Books" of the Middle Ages. It's illustrated with examples from manuscripts in the Pierpont Morgan Library in New York.

Breaking into Print: Before and After the Invention of the Printing Press
Stephen Krensky. Boston: Little, Brown and Company, 1996.
Breaking into Print tells how the book changed from the hand-lettered manuscripts of the monasteries through the development of the printing press to today. There is a timeline of the history of printing at the back.

Johann Gutenberg and the Amazing Printing Press
Bruce Koscielniak. Boston: Houghton Mifflin Company: 2003.
This lively picture book presents lots of information about the process of printing and its development by Gutenberg in a friendly humorous way.

Gutenberg
Leonard Leverett Fisher. New York: MacMillan Publishing Company, 1993.
This book tells about Gutenberg's life and the invention of the printing press.

Fine Print: A Story about Johann Gutenberg
Joann Johansen Burch. Minneapolis, MN: Carolrhoda Books, 1991.
The story of how Gutenberg invented the printing press is told in this chapter book.

Story Books About Books

Anna the Bookbinder,
Andrea Cheng, illustrated by Ted Rand. New York: Walker and Company, 2003.
This is a warm and touching story of family love with lots of details about bookbinding. Anna's Papa is a binder with a bindery in his basement where Anna spends much of her time. He does quality work and works hard to compete with big binderies with lots of employees. Anna surprises her father by stitching an important commission when her pregnant mother goes into labor.

St. Jerome and the Lion
Margaret Hodges. New York: Orchard Books, 1991.
I chose this picture book because Jerome is the patron saint of librarians. He governed a monastery in Bethlehem by day and translated the Bible into Latin at night. The story itself has nothing to do with books but it is a good one with beautiful illustrations by Barry Moser.

Marguerite Makes A Book
Bruce Robertson. Los Angeles: J. Paul Getty Museum, 1999.
This beautiful picture book tells of Marguerite, a girl in medieval Paris. Her father illuminates books and she helps him finish an important commission of a Book of Hours for Lady Isabelle.

The Flame of Peace
Deborah Nourse Lattimore. New York: Harper Trophy, 1987.
A young Aztec boy, Two Flint, braves nine evil demons and brings the magic flame of peace to his people. While this isn't about books, the illustrations in this picture book were inspired by and are in the style of Aztec manuscripts. A nice touch is the page numbers which are written in Aztec as well as Arabic numerals.

The Sailor Who Captured the Sea
Deborah Nourse Lattimore. New York: HarperCollins Publishers, 1991.
In this picture book about the Book of Kells from Ireland, three brothers leave their trades to become scribes in the belief that the completion of the book will save their people from Viking invaders. The book is out of print but the story can be found in the collection, The Sailor Who Captured the Sea and Other Celtic Tales, published in 2002 by HarperTrophy.

The Man Who Loved Books
Jean Fritz. New York: G.P. Putnam's Sons, 1981.
This picture book is the true story of St. Columba who founded the monastery on Iona which produced many books. It is told in Jean Fritz's lively style and simply but beautifully illustrated by Trina Shart Hyman.

Across A Dark and Wild Sea
Don Brown. Brookfield, Ct: Roaring Brook Press, 2002.
Another story about St.Columba also known by his Irish name Columcille.

The Shipwrecked Sailor: An Egyptian Tale with Hieroglyphs
Tamara Bower. New York: Atheneum Books for Young Readers, 2000.
Based on a story found in an ancient papyrus scroll, this picture book tells of a shipwreck on the island of the soul and a happy homecoming. One line on each page has been translated into hieroglyphs. The illustrations were inspired by papyrus scrolls.

James Printer: A Novel of Rebellion
Paul Samuel Jacobs. New York: Scholastic Press, 1997.
This children's novel tells the story of James Printer, a Nipmuc Indian and apprentice to Samuel Green, master printer at Harvard College in 1675. Samuel Green's eleven year old son Bartholomew tells an exciting story of King Philip's War with lots of details of the printer's world.

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