One of the dangers of bookcraft teaching is that it is made into a measuring exercise and nothing more. No one will question the importance of teaching children to measure accurately and to use drawing instruments competently, and it is certainly true that commercial artists, illustrators, printers and bookbinders are people who have to work to certain measurements. They are, however, people with trained eyes, eyes that can estimate within a fraction of an inch, eyes that are aware of the slightest deviation from the straight. This skill is not acquired by constant reference to a ruler, but by constant practice in judging whether a piece of binding, a line of lettering, looks right. This, it seems to me, is one of the first things children can gain from making books. They should gain, not only a sense of good proportion and some skill in estimating measurements, but a feeling of whether this cloth and paper go well together and a feeling for spacing and arrangement. They should, in short, gain an appreciation of the appearance of books—something we tend to forget in our preoccupation with their contents.

I have called this chapter bookcraft rather than bookbinding, because binding is only one of a number of processes in book production, and because I feel that whatever bookbinding is done in school ought to connect purposefully with other work. Writing and illustrating books should, in fact, come first. In my own school we made quite a number of books connected with various historical and geographical topics, and the children also made books on subjects which particularly interested them. These were illustrated, and thought given to the arrangement of writing and illustration. A title page was made for the beginning and a bibliography compiled. Where it was appropriate, we also made an index for the end. Finally we made and decorated a cover and bound the book. There are many ways of doing this. The simplest of all is to make a decorated paper cover and to staple the book together. For lower Juniors, this is quite a satisfactory method, and it does introduce and cause critical judgement to be exercised on most of the major parts of book production. As children see more books, however, and as their own books become more comprehensive and larger, more permanent forms of binding may be needed.

The first development from the stapled binding is to that of card-stiffened covers. The card is cut to about three-quarters of an inch longer than the pages of the book, and to a little less than the width of the pages. The card is covered with paper on both sides and one side can be decorated. It is best if the paper is pasted on to the card before the card has been cut accurately. Paper and card can then be cut together. Ideally this cutting should be done with a knife and steel rule, but it may be easier to do it with a guillotine, or, if numbers are large, it may be better to use thinner card which can be cut with scissors. On the reverse side of the card, placed as in the diagram below, is pasted a piece of paper of the size of those from which the book is made.

Cover board decorated and cut to size

Reverse of board showing the sheet of paper pasted in position.

When the two cover boards have been made, they should be left to dry out for about twelve hours under light pressure. When they are dry they can be placed in position and the book stapled or sewn. Sewing can be carried out as in the diagram.

Sewing the book

The finished book

If the book is a thick one, it is a good idea to make a series of holes with a bradawl before actually sewing. A strip of book-cloth or paper of the same length as the book and of a width to go round the spine of the book, overlapping about half an inch on each side, is then pasted into position and the finished book left to dry out under light pressure.