Miniature Book Making with Chatterbooks

We made miniature books in Chatterbooks

The Year 7 Chatterbooks club were inspired by the British Library’s blog about the Infant’s Library created by John Marshall more than 200 years ago. He had the idea of helping children learn to read by creating miniature books for then to read to their dolls. Miniature books were so popular that Charlotte Bronte’s first book, created when she was 12, was a miniature book in which she wrote a story for her younger sister Anne. Charlotte and her siblings went on to make many miniature books. The library in Queen Mary’s Doll House contained almost 600 miniature books, written by well-known authors such as J.M. Barrie (Peter Pan) and A.A. Milne (Winnie the Pooh).

With this in mind the Chatterbooks students had a go at making their own miniature books. The girls produced beautiful books – which given that they were having to create them via a Zoom talk, alongside a pre-recorded video on paper folding and a slide presentation was even more impressive! Well done girls!

If you’d like to have a go at making your own miniature books, have a look at the British Library’s website for instructions. Click on the link: https://www.bl.uk/childrens-books/activities/make-a-miniature-book

You can also see some of your favourite children’s authors, such as Jacqueline Wilson, Katherine Rundell and Jospeh Coelho, with the miniature books they created and listen to them bring their stories alive in their readings. See here: https://www.bl.uk/childrens-books/activities/miniature-books-by-your-favourite-authors