Read it Now!
Reformatted Print It Yourself (PIY) Books
What are PIY Books? Print It Yourself books!!
Our family loves books! Unfortunately, like many homeschooling families, we ran into the problem of how to store all of the books we have, need or want. Let's face it, there are only so many empty walls to build bookshelves on in our home. To combat this problem while providing our children with even more classic quality reading material, we started reformatting some public domain e-texts that we couldn't find locally. This was a big hit with our kids because they could read great books that weren't available to them, they could help make the books themselves and they knew if they ever got tired of the book, they could give it away or just put it in the recycle bin. Phew, no more book shelves to build!
Print It Yourself (PIY) Books
Enjoy public domain books that we have reformatted to fit younger readers and littler hands. With just a bit of time and effort we have managed to create nice PIY books for our kids at a fraction of the price and all the convenience of a library in my home. To make the most of our reformats you will need the following:
- a .PDF reader - to read the files. Need a free one? Click here.
- a printer (a laser jet is most economical) - to print the files
- a comb binding or other binding machine - to bind the book
- a laminating machine (cool or heated is fine) - to make book covers more durable
- a paper corner rounding punch if your laminating sheets don't come rounded already. This prevents o.3ml and o.5ml heat laminating sheets from snagged your skin or even your linens when you read in bed.
Simply print out the pages from the .PDF file, fold in half print side out and stack in order by page numbers.
You may choose to use the black and white cover that comes in the file or choose the colour cover option file provided below. You may want to print the covers using card stock for stability or laminate them for extended use and durability.
Bind all pages using a comb bind spine, binding machine, a hole-punch and report folder with prongs, or any other binding method of your choice.
Reading Selections
Picture Books
In Johnny Crow's Garden, Illustrated by L. Leslie Brooke
In Johnny Crow's Garden - w/Colour Cover
Chapter Books
The Adventures of Grandfather Frog by Thornton W. Burgess
Find the Big Book of Narration resource for this story here.
The Twins Series by Lucy Fitch Perkins
The Dutch Twins (Grade III)
The Dutch Twins (Grade III) - Colour cover
The Belgian Twins (Grade VII)
The Belgian Twins (Grade VII) - Colour cover
FAQ About PIY Books?
Have you changed the text of the books at all?
We have reformatted texts from various Public Domain resource collections on the internet. We have not altered the content of the texts but rather changed the appearances of fonts, graphics, and layouts.
Why do you go through all the trouble to reformat old books?
Simple, my kids like to read GOOD books...and lots of them. Many books in the public domain are GOOD books, all be they old, they are still good! Many titles we want are just not available from publishers yet. Also, many publishers are located in the U.S. so we Canadian folks must import everything across the border and pay duty on many foreign goods. Sometimes making it yourself (and being able to share it with others) seems much easier and nicer.
We constantly encourage our children to think for themselves. Many times the tools to help them do that can't be found in the average bookstore. What costs me a bit of time, gives my children the gift of knowledge.
Are you just too cheap to buy the books?
By no means. It does cost money to print your own materials, but what we have done is create access for our kids, and yours too, to more books that are timeless, uplifting, and child-friendly. Hopefully over the course of the next ten years or so we will have a bigger collection of books than the average homeschooling family could EVER afford to buy or store in their home. And just think, when you are done with the book, you can pass it along to another family or recycle it guilt free.