The Paper Door · ages 6-8

The Carpenter's Hat

The idea: not every fold starts with a square — the newspaper hat starts from a long sheet.

Lan and Inkling step out of a paper door into a London printing room in 1871. Inkling holds Kami. A girl, Nell, holds up a long sheet of newspaper, a man works the press behind her, and a picture on the wall shows a man in a folded paper hat.

Read it

Sprout 299 words Grower 978 words · 8 chapters Reader 3586 words · 10 chapters

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

Kami Paper becomes a new shape with every fold, and it only cuts where it is told from CreaseTots
Lan a child of the Green Goes first; makes a friend in a minute
Mark The lines tell you what to do — dashes fold, solid lines cut from CreasePals
Cornelia Bring one corner to meet the other corner, exactly from CreaseTots
Crinkle Smooth a crooked fold out and try again; the crease remembers from CreaseTots
Presso Hold the paper still and press the fold flat so it stays from CreaseTots
Inkling a child of the Green Names what she notices

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

In Lewis Carroll's book Through the Looking-Glass, which came out in London at the end of 1871, John Tenniel's picture shows the Carpenter wearing a folded paper hat. Source
Printers, carpenters, masons and painters wore folded paper hats. Printers wore them to keep ink out of their hair, and could fold a new one when a hat got inky. Source
The box-shaped printer's hat starts as the simple pointed newspaper hat, folded a few more times. Some workmen's hats were folded from a square, and some from a longer sheet. Source
Tenniel's pictures were drawn on wood and cut by engravers, the Dalziel brothers, so they could be printed in the book. Source
The paper hat takes five folds: one in half, two corners down to the middle, and two brims up, one in front and one behind.

Stretched

In our story the picture of the Carpenter hangs on the wall of a printing room the day before the big printing. What we simplified: We do not know which room printed the proofs, or on which day. Mr Tenniel himself never comes into our story.
In our story the carpenter's hat is a simple pointed hat. What we simplified: The hat in Tenniel's picture is the box-shaped kind. We kept the simple first part, the newspaper hat, which is where the box hat starts.

Made up

Nell, her father 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 paper hat folded from one long sheet of newspaper, with a little ink on the brim 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.