Book Review: Not For Sale

So, I read the book Not for Sale (by David Batstone) last week. I feel compelled to write about it, because I feel compelled to do something after reading it. It was one of the most eye-opening and horrifying books I have ever read.

Not for Sale gives a clear picture of the modern slave trade. Yes, slave trade. Happening today. Right now. Did you know that there are 30 million slaves today, more than at any other point in history? And they're on every continent -  especially Europe, Asia, Africa, South America, and here, North America. I had heard of "human trafficking" before, and I had a general idea of what it entailed, but before I read this book I had no idea of the scope of the problem nor of the horrifying atrocities it perpetuates. I became so distressed while reading this book that I actually had to stop for a while.

It'd be hard for me to even come close to explaining everything as well as this book explains it, so I'm just going to direct you to the book (and its organization)'s website, here. Check it out - the info page I've linked to has a lot of stuff straight out of the book.

I also highly recommend checking your local library for the book. That's where I found the copy I read (which I just picked up on a whim), and I'm really glad I did. I'm not done thinking about this - I'm going to figure out a way to help. I have to, after reading that book. I won't be able to forget it.

The Quiet Book Round-up!

All right! You've made it! I've subjected you to a million days of quiet book pages, and it is finally the end. Today I'm going to post all the pages, from beginning to end, so you can get a sense of how the whole book flows.

So, without further ado, the quiet book!

The lion page:

  
The barn and farm animals finger puppets page:

The apple tree and the dinosaur:

The car page:

The ladybug and the flowers:

Mr. and Mrs. Potato Head page and accessories:

The weaving page:

And the back!

So here's some technical how-I-did it: For the base of each page, I used the standard 9x12 felt sheets. I used felt for pretty much everything in the book, except the lion's ribbons, the car pocket, and the ladybug's wings (which were made of a spotty red fabric backed up with black felt).  I used sew-on snaps for the apple tree and the ladybug, velcro for the dinosaur, and big white buttons for the flowers. Most things in the book I sewed with my sewing machine; the very small or detailed things I sewed by hand. I'm planning on binding the book by sewing three small button holes on each page and the holding everything together with three three-inch metal binder rings, as soon as I can find some that big. And...I think that's everything!

Added in May: I finally got around to finishing the loops. I sewed three button holes on each page, and then used shoelaces for the loops. It works great!

 

This was a really fun project and I highly recommend it to anyone thinking about making one!

To download the entire Quiet Book template, click here or on the picture:

Here are links to all the quiet book pages:

The Lion (Texture) Page

The Farming Page (with finger puppets)

The Apple Tree Page and the Dinosaur Page

The Car Page

The Ladybug Page and the Flower Page

Mr. & Mrs. Potato Head Page

The Weaving Page

The Quiet Book Round-up

The last page of the Quiet Book!

Okay everyone, thanks for hanging in there this whole time! Today I want to show you the last page and back cover of the quiet book.

Though the last page is actually a very simple concept and easily executed, it's actually pretty fun to play with. It's a weaving page:

All I had to do to make this page was measure the felt, cut out strips, and sew the edges down the top and left side. And done! It's actually pretty fun to play with, too. It's more complicated than it looks to weave all the strips together. So it should hopefully be pretty entertaining.

And here's the back cover of the quiet book:

As you can see, I sewed our last name on to the bottom left corner, in case we ever leave the book at church or something:

Ta-da! That's the whole book. I'll post a big summary post with all the different pages tomorrow, and a little bit more information about how I actually made it. :)

To download the free Weaving Page quiet book template, click here or on the picture:

To download the entire Quiet Book template, click here or on the picture:

Here are links to the other quiet book pages:

The Lion (Texture) Page

The Farming Page (with finger puppets)

The Apple Tree Page and the Dinosaur Page

The Car Page

The Ladybug Page and the Flower Page

Mr. & Mrs. Potato Head Page

The Weaving Page

The Quiet Book Round-up

Mr. Potato Head - Quiet book pages 10 & 11

Thanks for hanging in there with the quiet book pages! We're getting close to the end, I promise. As I mentioned, I love having this quiet book for church. Today I have for you the Potato Head page.

On the left is a simple potato head body which can be dressed with all the different accessories stored in the pocket on the right. Some of the quiet book potato heads I've seen have velcro on the body and on each accessory, but I decided to go a simpler route. Since the page is felt and all the accessories are made of felt, they stick together. Unless you pick the page up and shake it around. Which hopefully no one will be doing. Although, with kids, I can't rule that out.

Here's some of the ways Mr. (or Mrs.!) Potato Head can be dressed up:

And here's all the different accessories:

There's three sets of eyes (black, green, and blue), two sets of ears (one with earrings, one without), three hats (black bowler cap, yellow baseball cap, and a bonnet), two sets of shoes (blue and pink), two mustaches, two mouths (smiling teeth and big red lips), two noses (a big orange one and a smaller pink one), and a purse. They all store away in the clothes bucket, which closes with a snap so nothing falls out (thanks to my friend Jill for that idea!).

This is one of the few pages I did actually use a template I found online; the original template can be found here. I used the body, the arms, and some of the accessories. It helped a lot. I made some of my own accessories, and made a new template for them.

I really like this page; I think it'll be a fun one to play with. :)

To download the free Mr. Potato Head quiet book template, click here or on one of the pictures:

To download the entire Quiet Book template, click here or on the picture:

Here are links to the other quiet book pages:

The Lion (Texture) Page

The Farming Page (with finger puppets)

The Apple Tree Page and the Dinosaur Page

The Car Page

The Ladybug Page and the Flower Page

The Weaving Page

The Quiet Book Round-up

The Ladybug and the Flowers - Quiet Book pages 8 & 9

(I quite like today's post title. It sounds kind of epic. Like you're about to hear a cool story.)

Today is, as the title epically states, about the ladybug page and the flower page!

Both of these are classic quiet book pages. We had them in my mom's quiet book when we were kids, and I definitely wanted them in the quiet book for our kids.

The ladybug unzips down the middle, and its spots snap on and off. So, you can store the spots inside.

Ta-da!

On the flower page, all the flowers are double layered and attached with buttons. So, you can button on and off all the different colors, and change them around how you want.

The flower pot also doubles as a pocket, in case you wanted to store the flower petals inside. 

 And that's the story of the ladybug and the flowers! :)

To download the free Ladybug Page quiet book template, click here or on one of the pictures:

To download the free Flower Page quiet book template, click here or on the picture:

To download the entire Quiet Book template, click here or on the picture:

Here are links to the other quiet book pages:

The Lion (Texture) Page

The Farming Page (with finger puppets)

The Apple Tree Page and the Dinosaur Page

The Car Page

Mr. & Mrs. Potato Head Page

The Weaving Page

The Quiet Book Round-up