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The Klutz Build-a-Book school program is now in its fifth year of expansion. Hundreds of students and their parents have been equipped with the materials, instruction and inspiration to build their own, one-of-a-kind, Klutz books. In an hour or so of creative family time, the students turn a blank Klutz book and inexpensive arts and crafts materials into priceless family treasures.

The cost per student of the program is $6 and includes all the necessary materials. A minimum order is for 25 students. A portion of the cost can be kept by the school, enabling the program to serve as fundraiser, family event and literacy event all in one.

About the Build-a-Book Event

HOW LONG DOES IT TAKE? About an hour or two on an evening or weekend. For the volunteers setting it up (just a couple), figure on six to seven additional hours (depending on how much effort you want to put into promotion). You should start planning about five to six weeks in advance.

HOW DOES KLUTZ HELP YOU PROMOTE YOUR EVENT? You can order a complete kit that includes the Chairperson's Handbook (with an invitation template), a vinyl banner, a classroom poster, a front office display, balloons and a video. You'll get all the tools you need to actually do the job.

WHAT'S THE MOST IMPORTANT THING NEEDED? A parent volunteer or staff person who can organize and promote the event. Like any school event, a Klutz Build-a-Book event is best run by a small set of volunteers, the more excited the better.

WHICH SCHOOLS CAN PARTICIPATE? Any school — public or private, kindergarten through high school — can order the materials and host a Klutz Build-a-Book event. The only requirement is enthusiasm.

WHAT DO I GET WHEN I ORDER? An individual Build-a-Book Little Kit for each student participant. Each kit is all you need to build one book. It contains a glue stick, a blank 4-inch-square book (ten pages long), dozens of foam shapes, some googly eyes, assorted fancy corrugated papers and a mini gel pen.

About the Books

WHAT ARE KLUTZ BUILD-A-BOOK BOOKS? These books are not like regular ink-on-paper books; they are different. Klutz Build-a-Book books are "built" — not just written or illustrated. They may start life as blank, wire-o bound books, but they end up as multi-dimensional "wonder projects" whose pages are enriched with all sorts of (glue stickable) things. No student — no matter what his or her reading or interest level — is intimidated by a blank page when holding a glue stick and arts and crafts materials.

WHAT CAN THE BOOKS BE ABOUT? Anything that fits between a student's ears can fit between the covers of a Book Factory book. The range is limitless.

HOW LONG DOES IT TAKE TO MAKE ONE? Anywhere from 45 minutes to 5+ hours. It all depends on how you want to do it. Great books can be done no matter what.

WHO CAN MAKE A BOOK? Anybody. Kindergarteners to high school seniors. Any language, any skill and any interest. It's a true universal.

Some History and Book Factory Gossip

The Klutz Book Factory began as a response to visitors on field trips to Klutz headquarters. Our offices are located in Palo Alto, California, and student groups often tour them. But, unfortunately for them, we don't actually make our books here. They're made in factories all over the world. What we do here is (mostly) talk on telephones and work on computers. Very boring to watch.

So, we decided to dedicate some space to a build-a-book studio. We filled it with arts and crafts stuff and small blank books. Once we opened it, the field trips spent about two minutes watching us on our phones and about two hours building their own books in the space next door. (Who wants to watch when you can do it yourself?)

We soon started seeing some amazing books come out of the studio—far more interesting than our own. And we learned that a glue stick can be a wonderful implement in young creative hands. We saw books with toothbrushes in them, books with shark teeth, feathers, spoons, magnets, spaghetti and, once, a yellow rubber ducky. We saw books on pranks, siblings, school, vacation, dreams, dogs, geese and ghosts. We also learned that no matter how much we liked these books, there was no way we could get the owners to part with them. Hundreds of books were made in the studio. None were left behind.

It didn't take too long before the obvious dawned on us. After having created books for 25 years, it was time to let someone else take a turn.

Our book-building studio, which we re-named the Klutz Book Factory, was soon booked to the gills with field trips. In order to meet the demand, and to enlarge the program, we decided to create a Book-Factory-in-a-box, a Book Factory to go. With that, we began working with classrooms and schools, helping them host Klutz Build-a-Book events in their own auditoriums and multi-purpose rooms, using our materials and experience.

Today, we host Klutz Build-a-Book events in schools throughout the country and Canada (in association with our Scholastic partners). Also, we opened a permanent Klutz Book Factory in Manhattan, at 557 Broadway, as part of The Scholastic Store (212-343-6166). The Scholastic Store (914-725-7201) at 450 Central Park Avenue, Scarsdale, New York also hosts a permanent Klutz Book Factory. These retail Book Factories are available for birthday parties, classroom field trips and drop-in studio hours.