Peters said she always tries to elevate the idea of “book-based craft” by finding a way to make each project less cookie-cutter. Projects are meant to be in the hands of the reader, not a facilitator, so they differ from the typical prompts children might find at the end of books. Her goal is “to make a visible connection between the value of hands-on learning and the value of introducing literacy at a young age and how those two can support each other.”
She’s mostly using children’s books, but Peters wants the instructions to work for people of any age. To make sure pre-teens are not put off by using children’s books, Peters was careful with her language. For instance, instead of printing “go ask your parents,” instructions state, “find these materials.”
In the past couple of months, Peters has completed 15 of these book-based maker projects and has received…
