30 September 2008

Bookmaking Bookies

Periodically, the kid lapses into babytalk, and she'll ask me to read her a "bookie". Each and every time, I tell her "it's a book, a bookie is a person who takes bets." Think she's the only four year old who knows what a bookie is?

A bookie is another word for bookmaker - but a bookmaker can also be a person who makes books.

So, "bookmaking with kids": teaching the science of gambling or the fine craft of creating bound books?

I digress. I've plugged it before, but my sister-in-law has a blog on crafting books with children. Go visit. She's got great ideas.

8 comments:

FreshHell said...

Ha ha. Digress away!

the mama bird diaries said...

My husband calls eggs... eggies. And it drives me simply mad.

Anonymous said...

*laugh* I BELIEVE...she just might be THE only 4year old who knows what a 'bookie' IS!!!

Mayberry said...

Ooh, how did I miss this before? Clicking over now.

Robbin said...

On that, I have a book recommendation for you:
http://www.amazon.com/Bookmakers-Daughter-Memory-Unbound/dp/1557288216/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1222809617&sr=8-1

Written by the daughter of a bookmaker. Who's mother did at first think that he "made books", not "made book."

Cathy said...

Thanks for the referral, Magpie!

For those of you who'd like to try bookmaking with your own kids, take a look at the projects in my back-to-school post here. Rubber band books also make a good beginning.

I have two favorite books about bookbinding. One's a memoir called A Degree of Mastery: A Journey through Book Arts Apprenticeship by Annie Wilcox. She was the first woman apprentice to master bookbinder William Anthony at the University of Iowa and her book is a lovingly detailed account of the restoration and conservation of a book she worked on.

The other is a mildly erotic novel called The Sixteen Pleasures by Robert Hellenga. It's about a 29-year-old American who journeys to Florence to join the "mud angels" who worked to save the millions of books damaged in the 1966 floods. How can that be titillating?, you're thinking? Well, it turns out there's this long-lost volume of erotic sonnets ……!

Anonymous said...

Your kid has a great career awaiting her.....

Anonymous said...

One of my favorite treasures is a book made by cutting regular size paper down and then folding and stapling (*easy easy easy). My daughter wrote a little book titled: My Mommy Duz Things. It described what I did. Each day.

I wonder what we will do as digital takes over. I can't tuck that in my wallet -- digital works. This one has been with me for 20 years. The little book.