Mrs. Galbraith, Worthington Christian High School art teacher, is instructing her bookmaking students to put poems, which Mrs. Johnson’s junior English students wrote, into handmade books.“Books are meant to have something in them,” Mrs. Galbraith said. “God put His Word into a book.” Mrs. Galbraith’s students have made one book full of colored paper and another book full of poems or scripture verses.
After a semester focused on poetry, Mrs. Johnson’s junior English class was required to create two poems. “One of the poems had to be metered and rhymed,” Mrs. Johnson said. “The students had their own choice as far as the second poem was concerned.”
Junior Sara Katula was in Hilton Head, South Carolina when she wrote one of her poems. “I enjoyed writing the poem,” Sara said. “I was inspired by my surroundings.”
Mrs. Galbraith’s eighteen bookmaking students have been working on creating the paper that goes into their books; a cover; and a Japanese stab binding for their new creations. Japanese stab binding looks the same on both sides of the book’s cover. After these steps, the students must choose a topic to write about in their books.“Some students want to use their books as journals and only included one poem,” said Mrs. Galbraith. However, a handful of students decided to fill their books, using all sixteen pages, with Psalms, Proverbs, or poems written by Mrs. Johnson’s English class.
“In the Bible, the word ‘book’ is mentioned twenty times,” Mrs. Galbraith said. “I have books everywhere in my house. I love them.”
Stick-bound binding is yet another way students keep pages of their books from falling out. “It’s the same thing as Japanese stab binding,” Mrs. Galbraith said, “but a stick is included.”
When creating a book, there are several key steps. First, either a hard or soft book cover is needed. The cover will also need to be wrapped in some type of material. Secondly, the student must create pages to fill the book. Thirdly, a book needs several “signatures,” or sections of pages.Nature, summer, music, past memories, and animals are just a few topics that the junior English students chose to write about. “The poems are very interesting,” Mrs. Galbraith said.
However, some of the students decided to write their poems about noteworthy artwork, such as Vermeer’s Girl with a Pearl Earring.
“The students were quite imaginative,” Mrs. Johnson said about her English students’ poems. “There was a lot of variety in their poems. I was impressed by their efforts.”
About three weeks into the process, Mrs. Galbraith’s bookmaking students have added in the poems or Bible verses of their choice, and are now finished with their books.
