How to Contact School Books

When it comes to covering school books, there are a few ways to do it.

Contact

My contact experience isn’t always positive, however I have gotten better at it over the years. The secret is to work on a very flat surface and work in sections. After cutting the paper with backing attached (as per figure below), peel one side up, leaving the backing on the other side. Place the spine of the book to cover in the correction position, then quickly fold the book down, spine to edge and smooth out. Remove the other side backing and repeat process.   

Book cover

Clear and coloured plastic book covers are a great idea and can be purchased from stationery stores. The only problem I found with these is they sometimes come off when handling which tends to annoy my kids so I have moved away from using book covers.

Paper

Wrapping paper or brown craft paper can be used to cover books.  It’s easy, cheap and can be customised for each child.  I use brown craft paper (you can get rolls from places like Officeworks, Kmart, BIG W, Target) and the children use stickers and drawings to personalise their books. 

I’ve detailed below how to cover books with paper or contact.

1. Place open book down on the paper and cut to size allowing at least 5 cm around the edges.

2. Cut a triangle on each corner down to the corner point of the book.

3. Cut a 1 cm rectangle where the spine of the book will be.

4. It should look like this.

5. Fold in the sides of the paper or contact and stick down (with tape for paper) on the inside of the book cover.

 

Decorate paper with sticker, photos or images.