Emille's book shows that we should teach a skill then give young people the time and encouragement to be creative and do what they want to do. You never know what they might come up with - I hadn't thought of this. It's wonderful - well done Emille.
Just a quick post because I am thrilled that Serena is not only making books for herself but for her little sister too. (I'm hoping she might make one for me!)
Several of you have asked for the matchbox book template and here it is. Many thanks to Robyn Wells for designing it and sending it to me and saying that I could pass it on. You can look back through this blog to see what Y6 students have done with this design and for more inspiration you should see Robyn's mini zine Grass and Stars which is what got us all going in the first place.
The template needs a little explaining best given by Robyn;-
The (template) I'm sending you is called a work and turn, and it just means that you print half of what you want, and then take the stack of printed papers, turn them and then print the exact same thing on the other side. This means that the 8.5x11 pdf I sent you, actually has two templates on each letterhead 8.5x11. Once you are done copying/printing them out, you can just cut them down the middle.
I needed to play around with it a bit to make it work and suggest you print draft copies on scrap until you get one that you can hold up to the light and see the pages sitting neatly on top of each other. The pages are numbered 1-16 with 1 being the front cover (1-FC) page 2 is inside front cover (2-IFC)and so on.
'Out of the Blue is a poignant, gripping read. Val Rutt portrays beautifully how passion, pain and betrayal are evoked by an unexpected letter.' Jamila Gavin, author of Coram Boy