I've been looking forward to the Paul Johnson classes at San Francisco Center for the Book for months. He comes to teach at the Center every 2 years to share his wisdom about teaching kids literacy through bookmaking, and last time he came I couldn't take his classes. I often find that books I learn for children are books that I end up using in my own work. I had taken a class from Peter Linenthal, where I had learned about origami or lotus books. I ended up turning it into my book Disconnecting Constellations.
February 2nd arrived and I braved my way through the rain to the Center for the first class I had signed up for, "Children's Favorites." The class was basically, what cool things can you do with a single sheet of paper. I'm sure most of you reading this blog are like me, you know tons of one-sheet book structures, but the thing about Paul is he takes these forms just a little bit further. He cuts out doors or shapes to create one-sheet animal books or combines two one sheet books for a more elaborate book. He's always playing and pushing the form to see what new structures he can come up with from a single sheet of paper. He's also thinking, "okay, how can I use this with Kindergartners, with third graders, with middle schoolers, can I use it in my own artists books that I'll sell to special collections." I knew I would take away a lot of cool structures for my teaching, but I was also hoping to take away structures for my own personal work. Sure enough, that's exactly what I got. And what's more, I took away a new way of thinking: how can I push a single sheet of paper to create a magical world of play and discovery. There's a lot of joy in a single sheet of paper!
Today's class is "The Magic of the Movable Book: Children as Pop-Up Engineers." I can't wait!
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