Book Log

Everything you need to create your own A5 book log.

This log was created for my 13 year old son to fill in each time he read a book, but can really be used for any age. The aim was to get him to think a little more deeply about the books he was reading, build up thought-out opinions on what was read, see how books he had read related to each other and to give him something to look at and help him remember a book months/years later.

The pages can be folded and stuck down, or printed double sided and cut in half. The pages need to be hole punched on the side with the larger margin, and can be gathered together in an A5 ring binder, or put between two sheets of hole punched card, cut to an appropriate size, and held together with string, ribbon or treasury tags (the string with the metal ends – I had to look up their proper name).

The binder, card and sheets can be decorated however you fancy, but these might give you a bit of inspiration:
https://raisinglittleshoots.com/calendar-of-firsts/
https://www.accessart.org.uk/sketchbooks-making-your-sketchbook-your-own/
https://s3-eu-west-1.amazonaws.com/assets.wattsgallery.org.uk/live/media/file/Eco-Friendly_Sketchbooks_ct1Xxiu.pdf
http://sewforsoul.blogspot.com/2015/04/fabric-notebook-cover-tutorial.html

The whole point is that the user makes it their own, getting joy out filling it in as well as from read the books themselves, and hopefully it will support their reading, encourage their passions and inspire them in finding their own creativity.

If you are planning to use paint, felts, sharpies etc. on the pages, I would suggest folding to prevent the marks going through to the other side and ruining your pages. You can also add the odd sheet of watercolour paper or such like to help illustrate your work if you are planning on using paints. Collage, printed sticky tapes and fabric are also a fab way to bring interest to your book.

Pages need to be printed at about a scale of 77% to fill space.

You might also like to make or buy alphabetical index stickers to stick on the side of each new section, to help with quick referencing, such as these: https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B000087L7F/ref=ox_sc_act_title_1?smid=A1WUUK7EBFTPLY&psc=1

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