A couple of years back Hannah received a Create Your Own book kit at a birthday party. We since have purchased a couple more kits for the kids to write in. The concept is simple yet awesome. The kit comes with two blank books in it. One a traditional book, the other one with a hole cut in the front to have a main picture be seen throughout the book. The books are nice because they have a hard cover which the kids can draw on, and the larger book has lines underneath a picture box. For older kids you would need to either line a couple of extra lines per page or have them type on the computer and then paste on the page as three lines per page is not sufficient for that age.
Anyways, it gives them a much greater sense of accomplishment to be writing a "real" book than just stories on notebook paper. Hannah even wants to do a whole series on the Adventures of Sally the Cat - I'll put some pics from hers on hopefully tomorrow. It is a great project for summers to encourage Language Arts skills without being workbook-pagish about it. I'm sure these will also become treasures to re-read as the years go by.
