The SKP In Person

I have to say, it was so exciting to me to visit the mobile library of the Sketchbook Project in person here in Toronto last night after work.  My sister Janine went with me and we both happily checked out a bunch of books in the two hours we were there, as many as we could before they closed for the evening.  (The books are small and only about 32 pages long, so you can read through them quickly.)

It's a simple process:

The library card is a small business card with a bar code on it.  You register your name and scan the card to choose a book using their laptop (by author's name or by various categories such as theme or "local"), then Steven or Sara pull the book from the shelf, together with the one beside it to give you a random choice.  Steven is the founder of the project, they are a husband and wife team, touring around with the trailer for the summer, driving it from city to city.

Here's another view of the inside of the trailer, with Janine waving for the camera.

We met this nice lady named Katie who showed us the book she made for the Mysterious Maps project.

She bound her sketchbook into a hardback book cover the same size, what a great idea.

All her pages were beautiful but this one of the solar system strung on wire threads simply took my breath away - totally awesome!

We also met Tracey, who made a lovely little book filled with fabulous photos of her cat, The Dude.

Once you have your book selections, you sit at one of the nearby tables and peruse through it.  Here I am with Tracey and Katie (at the opposite end of the table) and another lady, doing just that.

My sister's friend Wayne joined us about half an hour before we were done and at first, he didn't seem too interested in looking at any of the books, said he didn't need to get a library card.  But he took a look at a couple of the ones we had signed out and were passing back and forth and got hooked.  Here he is reading my book:

I tell you more about some of the sketchbooks I saw in tomorrow's post. I think you will be as amazed as I was at the variety and talent contained in these little books!