Stitch by Stitch: Ordering Reasons for a Bookbinding Workshop

Let's Make Our Own Books

1Every spring, our school holds Hobby Week, when each student chooses a workshop to join on Friday afternoon. This year, I think one of the workshops should be bookbinding, the craft of sewing or gluing pages together to make a book. A bookbinding workshop would be easy to set up, it would help us with our writing, and it would give every student something to keep.

2First, the workshop would be easy to set up. Bookbinding does not need fancy machines. A simple book can be made with folded paper, a needle, thread, and two pieces of cardboard for the covers. Our art room already has stacks of paper and cardboard, and Ms. Okafor, our art teacher, has a box of thread left over from a weaving unit. She told me she learned to bind books when she was in college and would be glad to teach the workshop.

3Second, making books would help us with our writing. In fifth grade, we write stories, poems, and reports all year, but most of them end up in a folder. If we bound our best pieces into books, we would have a reason to revise them carefully. Last year, Mr. Patel's class made a small book of poems for the school office, and he said his students checked their spelling more closely than ever because they knew visitors would read it.

4Most important, every student would leave with something to keep. Posters and science models often get thrown away at the end of the year. A sewn book is sturdy and small enough to fit on a shelf at home. Students could fill it with drawings, a journal, or family recipes. My grandmother has a notebook she stitched together when she was ten, and she reads from it every time I visit.

5Bookbinding is an old craft, but it is a useful one. For all of these reasons, our school should add a bookbinding workshop to Hobby Week. Let's give students the chance to turn their own words into real books.