Accordion Book on bird shapes

At some point, I would like to pen the book “What the well-equipped child needs for school” on the lines of the article penned by Bertie Wooster.  If I consider the items my child has been asked to take to school over the years, apart from the regular school books and stationery, no doubt it will be quite a lengthy document.  

Over the years,  advising him on school assignments, I realize that such assignments are here to stay, and may only change in terms of complexity and content. The sooner the child gets exposed to working on a theme and creating an original piece of work regardless of how simple it may be in the initial years, the better.  Children are admirably open to ideas and are always willing to work hard. They are only bogged down if adults around them reflect such energies and it’s up to us to keep the energy positive and creative.  There are only two things I insist on – a.  be original,   don’t go on the beaten track just because everyone else does so, and b. never hesitate to go the extra mile because it almost always is worth it in terms of learning something new for oneself.

Almost always assignments need to be presented in the form of a document. We’ve tried out several kinds of documents, the standard stapled pages with thicker card stock on the covers, or using a twig and rubber bands, or charts etc. over the years. I’ve found that for young people, an Accordion Book is one of the best types of presentation formats especially when one is not sure how the document will eventually be displayed in the class – an Accordion Book can remain as a flat book, it can be hung up, or it can be displayed on a table with its folds opened out. 

Now comes the tough bit – contrary to its appearance, the Accordion Book has to be one of the most difficult books to make. I only realized this when I went for one bookmaking class a few months ago, and had taken along one of my accordion books to show the instructor. She pointed out several grey areas –  I had been completely ignorant of paper grain, the need to choose the right thickness of paper, and most importantly the need to fold the accordion pleats neatly(not easy without a bone folder which I did not have at the time). Although I did not learn how to make an accordion book in that particular class, I came away with some new knowledge, and promptly made use of it to make a blank book for Anant’s maths group project. Although I’m still not happy with the result because of the paper I used,  I think it serves as an example of this type of book and its uses. 

How to make an Accordion Book

I don’t want to reinvent the wheel – so I would advise the reader to go through any literature on handmade books to understand how to make an Accordion Book. The principle is basically using a sheet of paper/card with four folds and extending it depending on the number of pages required.  Just visualize a rectangular piece of paper kept in landscape fashion – fold the paper into half  to get a crisp crease, unfold, and then bring each small edge of the rectangle to the centre crease.  If you stand it up it and fold it inwards at the centre crease you have an accordion. Now depending on the thickness of the main paper, you may or may not want to attach thicker cardstock to the first and last folds.  It’s been pretty easy so far, but here’s the most important tip that very few sites mention. If you need more folds what happens? Of course logically, one makes more sets of four folds and attaches them. That’s where things get a bit messy because you need a bit of an overlap to be able to glue two sheets together, and the dimensions start going horribly wrong. The only redeeming factor in this present book is the folds – the instructor advised me to keep a quarter inch for overlapping sheets in order to get crisper folds  (it really helps to talk to such people – they can clear your doubts in a second). 

So my advice  - before you make the folds in a sheet of paper/card,   keep  a quarter inch margin and then make the four folds. In the first  sheet you may need to trim the quarter inch away, but in the other sheets, the quarter inch can be used to attach it to the previous fold neatly to be able to extend the Accordion Book.  This is really important to avoid ugly creases and having to patch folds up with strips of paper – it will never stand as well as it should then.

Theme and treatment

The theme for a summer holiday group Maths project was Geometrical Shapes in Nature – parents were expected to assist the group of four children  to come up with displays and documents to illustrate the theme.   I suggested that he could combine his hobby of birdwatching in some way for his part of the project work.   As we discussed it we realized that birdwatchers rely a lot on shapes and silhouettes for identifying birds. He sorted out his photographs and looked for birds where this is particularly vivid. Using his printouts of his own photographs of a few birds, he drew  accompanying illustrations and used a red pen to highlight the main shapes that are evident when watching the bird. Then it was a matter of referring to some bird books and writing a bit of text. The drawings were stuck onto the accordion book, and the text written into it. It was designed to be a hung up, but could also remain flat and open out like a book. I used thicker paper made of camel dung for the covers,  and a   bit of cotton cord from a paper bag as a closure. 

Proper consideration of paper/card thickness, paper grain and a paper folder are essential tools for constructing an Accordion Book

An Accordion Book can be kept upright on  a table. This present one was designed for hanging up so the text runs vertically. Be aware of how you would like the text to read before starting work.

An Accordion Book can also be used flat like a book. Pictures have been stuck with masking tape to create a "scrapbook" effect.

A view of the handwritten text.

Using original photographs and hand drawn illustrations by the young author gave a completely different dimension to this assignment.

It was wonderful to see how the assignment just grew under our eyes and took a life of its own.  It was incredibly  satisfying  for him to be able to use original photographs and illustrations and experiences for this assignment, however simple it may seem.  There was an honesty about it that could never be taken  from any readymade chart or book and for me that was a relief having read and heard of parents actually purchasing custom made projects for school holiday assignments from local shops. 

I would never trade in an opportunity to be part of such a process of creating along with my child and helping him understand the value of experiences and originality. It is so intimate and special and silent – nobody else might even guess at what’s happening – just  like planting a seed of thought in the child’s mind and you watch  them actually stretch out and reach upwards themselves.