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The Paper Door · ages 6-8

Twelve Folds

The idea: doubling — every fold doubles the layers, so the next fold needs more paper.

Lan and Inkling step out of a paper door into a long school hallway in California in 2002. Inkling holds Kami. A boy, Sam, frowns at a folded lump of paper, and far down the hallway people unroll a very long strip of paper.

Read it

One story, three ways: Sprout for a new reader, Grower in short chapters, Reader as a full chapter book. Same plot, same ending.

Who is in this book

Every recurring character has a short tune, so you can tell who is on stage before a word is said. The tunes play only when you tap, and the Reading Access sound switch turns them off.

The Honest Page

Which parts of this story are true, stretched or made up?

True

  • For a long time people said that no piece of paper could be folded in half more than seven or eight times. Source
  • In January 2002 Britney Gallivan, a high-school student in California, folded one very long strip of thin paper in half twelve times, always in the same direction. The strip was about 1,200 metres long, the kind of paper on a toilet roll. Source
  • A month before, she worked out a rule for how long a strip must be for each number of folds. Every extra fold needs a lot more paper, because the layers double. Source
  • Each fold in half doubles the layers: one fold makes 2, three folds make 8, six make 64, seven make 128 and eight make 256.

Stretched

  • In our story the teenage girl folds her strip down a school hallway, on the same day as Sam. What we simplified: We do not know exactly where she folded or which day, so we put her in a long hallway in the background. She folds; she does not explain.
  • In our story a drawing on the notice board counts the layers. What we simplified: We made up that drawing so the cast could read it; the doubling it shows is real.

Made up

  • Sam, his grandpa, the school office and the paper door are made up. Kami, Mark, Cornelia, Presso and Crinkle are our own characters.

Tell it back

Tell the story in your own words: who was there, what went wrong, and what they found out. Then a fat little packet of paper, folded in half eight times goes on your belt.

Ring the hammer for someone

Pick this book for someone younger. The link carries only the book, and it will wait for them on the Green.

Across the Table → For the grown-up: the story in three lines, one question to ask, and one thing to do together.