How to Make a Personalized Alphabet Book

 

How to Make a Very Personalized Alphabet Book for a Favorite Child

 

by Alice Jane-Marie Massa

 

 

At last, the pages of the red alphabet book were being turned by Lanie’s little hands as she “read” the book to me over her Mickey (Mouse) phone. Of course, my two-and-a-half-year-old grand-niece was pretending to read by identifying each photo. What a thrill to hear her enjoying her Valentine gift!

 

            Lanie’s Alphabet Book was the third collaborative effort of my sister and me. After I wrote the text, Mary selected the photos, purchased the materials, and put the book together. With my sister in Colorado and me in Wisconsin, we had numerous discussions over the phone to decide on all the details of our 36-page book.

 

Would you like to make a very personalized alphabet book for a favorite child of yours? If so, please read on for steps and suggestions, as well as the sample of the text which I wrote for our alphabet book.

 

Step 1: Down a sheet of paper or in a computer file, write the alphabet; beside each letter, write a word representing someone special or something special in the child’s life.

 

Step 2: Beside each letter and word, note if you already have a photo or will need to take a photo of the person, place, or object. (While my sister took the great majority of the photos for our book, Lanie’s parents also provided a few photos for our project.)

 

Step 3: Write the very personalized text for each letter of the alphabet. (I suggest that you follow my pattern of a basic sentence of the type: A is for Auntie. Then, write another sentence or two which the child can learn to read at a later time.)

 

Step 4: Purchase the needed materials from Hobby Lobby or a similar store. (For this book, we purchased the larger size Post Bound Album which measures approximately 8.5-by-11 inches. The cover has an inlay for a photo. Since the book was a Valentine gift, we decided on a red album with pink refill paper. Additionally, Mary selected a special Valentine paper for the title page and the final page. Throughout the other pages, she placed heart stickers to decorate the plain pink pages that slip into plastic archival-safe, top-loading page protectors. While ten plastic page protectors come with the album, Mary bought an additional package of 25 “sleeves” since our alphabet book included 36 pages. Two pages fit into each sleeve of the album.)

 

Step 5: Select font style and font sizes for the text of your book, and type the text. (Besides choosing Chalkboard as the font style, Mary worked with a myriad of font sizes from 20-point to 72-point. Since for my sample below, I am using only 12-point type, if you would like to know all the specific font sizes which we incorporated, please leave your request in the comment section of this Wordwalk blog; and I will e-mail you the information about the selected font sizes. In addition to typing the text which you have written, type a letter border for the bottom of each page: my sister made the border of four sets of the capital letter and lower-case letter, pertinent to each page.)

 

Step 6: Print out the text on your chosen color of printer paper; cut the blocks of text for each book page. After placing the text block at the top of the page and the photo below the text, put the letter border at the bottom of each page. Then, use half-inch mounting squares to affix the photos and text to the book pages. (For the print-outs of the text, Mary used white paper which she later cut to place on the pink sheets.)

 

Step 7: Finally place the completed sheets into the page protectors–two sheets per page protector.

 

Step 8: Enjoy giving your hand-crafted, very personalized alphabet book to a budding reader!

 

For content ideas, please read the following text which I wrote on January 18. After the cover and title page, an asterisk will indicate the onset of a new page of the alphabet book. You will notice that some letters have multiple pages: you need not limit yourself to just one page per letter. Also, try to include some alliteration and questions.

 

 

Cover (with inlay for photo of Lanie holding a book):

 

Lanie’s Alphabet Book

 

Title page:

 

Lanie’s Alphabet Book:

 

A Valentine Gift for Lanie and Caden

 

 

Created with love for Lanie and Caden,

 

from Auntie Alice, Zoe, and Mammar

 

February 14, 2016

 

 

* A is for Auntie.

 

Auntie Alice hopes Lanie will like this A-to-Z book

 

and says, “Happy Reading!”

 

* B is for Bubba.

 

This beautiful Dalmation

 

is a best buddy of Lanie.

 

Lanie has given Bubba more than 101 hugs!

 

* C is for Caden.

 

Lanie says, “Caden Boy is my little brother,

 

but he is growing bigger and bigger.

 

Caden James likes cereal.”

 

* D is for Daddy.

 

Lanie says, “My daddy helps me to fly!

 

He plays with me,

 

reads to me, and makes me giggle.

 

I love you, Daddy!”

 

* E is for elephant.

 

Lanie has a lavender elephant in her room.

 

What does a real, gray elephant eat?

 

* F is for___ (Lanie’s surname).

 

Lanie says, “Our family name is___ (surname).

 

Daddy is___ (full name).

 

Mommy is___ (full name).

 

My brother is Caden James___ (surname).

 

I am Lanie Ann___ (surname).”

 

* G is for geraniums.

 

Auntie Alice likes to grow geraniums

 

in her container garden.

 

What color is this great geranium?

 

H is for house.

 

Lanie says, “This house is my home

 

in___, ___ (city, state).

 

My house is at ___ (specific street address).

 

* I is for ice cream.

 

Lanie says, “I like ice cream!”

 

Do you like ice cream

 

in a cone or in a dish?

 

* J is for jacket.

 

Lanie has a pretty

 

Sophia jacket.

 

The jacket is lavender and pink.

 

* K is for kiss.

 

What a sweet, big sister!

 

Lanie gives her little brother a kiss!

 

* L is for Lanie.

 

Lanie likes lots of friends.

 

Lanie is a lovely and loveable

 

little girl.

 

* M is for Mommy.

 

Lanie says, “Mommy makes

 

yummy mac and cheese for me.

 

I love you, Mommy.”

 

* M is for Mammar.

 

When Lanie is at home in Michigan

 

and Mammar is far away in Colorado,

 

Lanie says, “I miss you, Mammar.”

 

* M is for Monkey.

 

Monkey is Lanie’s very special best buddy.

 

Monkey likes to be with Lanie

 

all the time.

 

* M is for Mickey and Minnie.

 

Lanie can talk with Auntie

 

and Mammar on the Mickey phone.

 

Lanie says, “Mickey and Minnie are

 

two of my favorite friends.”

 

* N is for Nana.

 

Is Nana with Princess Sophia?

 

No, no, no!

 

Nana is with Lanie

 

who is wearing her Sophia costume.

 

* O is for oatmeal.

 

Lanie says, “This bowl of oatmeal

 

has blueberries andstrawberries.

 

This bowl of oatmeal

 

is for my daddy.”

 

* P is for Pappar.

 

Lanie says, “Pappar comes

 

on a plane from Colorado to visit me.”

 

In this picture, Lanie and Pappar

 

are playing in the backyard.

 

* P is for Papa.

 

Papa is posing for a picture

 

with Lanie and Deegan.

 

Smile!

 

* P is for puzzles.

 

Lanie likes to put together

 

all of her puzzles.

 

How many puzzles does Lanie have?

 

* P is for Piggy.

 

Who likes to put pennies

 

in this pink Piggy?

 

* Q is for quilt.

 

Take a quick peek

 

at Lanie’s quite lovely quilt.

 

* R is for rabbit.

 

What really is this rabbit‘s name?

 

“Thumper!” Lanie replies.

 

You are right.

 

* S is for Sophia.

 

What is sweet Sophia singing?

 

Do, re, mi, fa, Sophia, la, ti, do!

 

* T is for tunnel.

 

Lanie says, “Crawling through my tunnel

 

is lots of fun!”

 

Caden will soon be crawling

 

through the tunnel, too.

 

* T is for train.

 

Lanie and Caden have a train

 

with tunnels and bridges.

 

Toot-toot! Choo-choo-o-o-o!

 

* U is for umbrella.

 

Two little umbrellas are sitting side by side.

 

Are you waiting for a rainy day

 

to hold one umbrella

 

up, up, up so high?

 

* V is for violin.

 

Lanie says, “My daddy plays the violin.

 

I like my daddy’s violin music.

 

Bravo, Daddy!”

 

* V is for Valentine.

 

Happy Valentine’s Day

 

to Lanie and Caden!

 

How many hearts can you count on this page?

 

* W is for wagon.

 

What color is the wagon?

 

Who is pulling the wagon for Lanie?

 

* X is for xylophone.

 

An xylophone is an instrument

 

that has chiming musical tones.

 

Ding, ding, dong.

 

* Y is for yellow.

 

Here is one of Lanie’s pretty, yellow bows.

 

Is the yellow bow from Minnie’s Bow-tique?

 

* Z is for Zoe.

 

Zoe is Auntie’s puppy.

 

Leader Dog Zoe says, “Hurray for Lanie!

 

You read all of your book from A to Z!

 

Now, please say your alphabet

 

along with me.

 

* A B C D E F G H I J

 

K L M N O P Q R S T

 

U V W X Y Z

 

Thanks for saying the alphabet with me!

 

Good night, Lanie!

 

Good night, Caden!”

 

 

NOTE: Many thanks to my sister for her time and patience in crafting such a special book so that my text could be part of the book for Lanie and Caden!

 

Enjoy writing, crafting, and reading books for your little ones!

Alice and my “Best of Show”–Zoe

 

February 17, 2016, Wednesday

 

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