How to Cover a Textbook

In honor of the back-to-school season, I have a little quiz for you.

Lori has six children. Five of her children have finished high school and one has finished grammar school. If there are two semesters/year and if each child averages five textbooks per semester, then Lori:

• A)  Has covered nearly 5000 textbooks
• B)  Is an expert on covering textbooks
• C)  Has made nearly 1,000,000 bag lunches
• D)  All of the above

If you answered D, you are correct!  You get an “A” on today’s quiz.   Congratulations, keep up the good work!

Because I am an expert on covering textbooks, I thought I’d offer this photo tutorial.

Cut a seam down one side of a bag.

Remove the bottom of the bag and discard.

Now you have a long piece of paper to use as the textbook cover.

Fold over three to four inches on the length of the bag–toward the printed side.

Place the textbook just below the folded edge.

With the textbook in place, fold  up the bottom edge of the paper bag and create a crease.

Fold the bottom edge of the bag on the crease line determined above.

Place the textbook in the middle of the folded bag.

Open the front cover of the textbook.  Fold over one side of the prepared bag and thread the cover into the slot created.

This is what it should look like.

This is what it looks like on the inside of the front cover.

With the textbook closed, trim the right side of the bag if necessary.

Flip the textbook over.  The back of the book is now on top.  Again, with the textbook closed, crease the paper at the textbook’s edge.

The arrow above shows the creased line. Slide the back cover only to this line.

Again, slide the back cover into the paper bag. The back cover requires a bit more finesse to slide into the proper position.

The back cover now looks like the photo above.

Finally, add tape to the top and the bottom of both the front and the back of the textbook.

IMPORTANT: The tape is on the paper bag only.  Do not tape it TO the textbook!  

That’s it!  A perfectly covered textbook—no end of the year “damaged book charges”!

If you have a lot of books to cover, you might consider buying a roll of brown wrap available at craft and office supply stores.  One roll lasts forever and doubles as emergency gift wrap!

The above was the “Boys version“…If you have girls, you can use any pretty bag and washi tape and stickers and colored pens….