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Janus Storybook

 Read one side while you show the kidlets the pictures and text on the other
  (+7)
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This came to me as I watched a pretty lady tell the Christmas story last night. She held the picturebook up to show the kids the pictures, then would have to turn the book around to see the pages herself and read the next lines.

Why not build a book with stiff (near-cardboard) pages, and hinged in the middle so that as the reader flips pages on one side, the other side's pages are turned at the same time?

This would allow the reader to look at his/her side continuously, while the kidlets watch the pages on their side without interruption.

The mechanics of this could be accomplished by a special type of hinge in the binding, having the pages pivot about a central rod. A top view of the book would look like an "X", with the spine in the middle.

I'm sure my explaination would benefit from a drawing. Any illustrious illustrator care to give it a try?

—csea, Dec 25 2006

Janus http://www.pantheon...ticles/j/janus.html
Double-headed Roman god of gates and doors [csea, Dec 25 2006]

So this doesn't happen? http://www.snopes.c...litics/bushbook.asp
:) [Zimmy, Dec 26 2006]

Samantha http://www.celebrit...thaj,Samantha,Janus
I was imagining a story book with one set of pictures for the children, and another one to keep Daddy happy. [zen_tom, Dec 26 2006]

(?) Alternate_20book_20...0classroom_20use_2e Simpler variant - just have the binding on top (like a flip chart) and print page N on page N-1's back. [jutta, Jan 14 2008]

[link]






       + It's harder to read upside-down than one would think, in my experience.
—Zimmy, Dec 26 2006
   

       Thanks for the links and comments, ha! I thought further about the hinge, and I'm pretty sure it's topologically unlikely to make the dual sheets without gluing halves together.   

       But using a stack of short hollow cylinders around the central spine rod, it should be easy to give each dual sheet 2 or 3 attachment points that don't interfere with eachother.
—csea, Dec 26 2006
   

       This was a similar idea which I posted, but I think it is similar enough to fall under the same heading. I spent a while on the description, so will import that text whole.   

       The format of books is an artifact of the days when printing was done in advance. One style had to fit all. A standard hardcover is good for a lone reader, or to a reader with one or two listeners sitting alongside. With more than two listeners, some cannot see the pictures or words. Often the class sits on the floor in front of the reader and is treated to a quick look at the pages after reading is done. The reader must physically reverse the book for this. The listeners must replay the heard words in their heads to match the letters that they can now see. Also, words adequate in size for one reader may be too small for a more distant assembled class. This classroom book is a flipboard. It has the same proportions as the original book, but scaled up. There is a hard back to go across the readers lap. Each large page shows both pages one would see on opening the normal sized book. This large double image occurs twice in each book, duplicated on facing pages.   

       Suppose I finish page 1 and 2. I flip it over, so as I sit, the page hangs down in front of my knees. On the reverse of the page I just read is page 3 and 4, now hanging in front of my knees. I have pages 3 and 4 in my lap as well - the duplicate. I read from this one, and the class (seated on the floor) sees the same words and pictures on the page hanging in front of my legs. Under page 3 and 4 I find pages 5 and 6, and page 5 and 6 are also on the back of the page I just read, to be displayed on flipping it down.   

       These books would be big and bulky. They would be more durable as well. Maybe booksellers like Amazon would arrange the creation of such books to encourage youngsters to read by making read-aloud sessions more fun and more educational. These flip-board books might represent the top 100 childrens books for the learning-to-read set.   

       Obviously one could accomplish a similar or better display with a slide projector or opaque projector. But books need to be low tech, especially in circumstances where class sizes are large and teachers are few.   

       bungston, Jan 14 2008
—bungston, Jan 14 2008
   
      
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