A pixie in a red pointed hat sits on a spotted toadstool under a thin crescent moon, a striped kitten in his arms and a squirrel scampering past. That is the cover of Happy Days in Pixieland, a 60 page activity book written, illustrated and designed by Claire Maraldo of Made in Pixieland, the Kent maker of pixie prints, papers and decorations. Inside are colouring pages, a spot the difference, a paper angel to cut out and collages of vintage treasures, all printed on 100% recycled uncoated paper.
When the finished copies reached Claire, Mike summed it up in a sentence: “It really is such a unique book and a real different publication from all the other children's books we print.” Claire asked the questions most makers of illustrated activity books ask sooner or later, so the sections below answer them with this book as the evidence.
Hardback or paperback for an activity book?
Claire started out wanting a hardback. Our first quotes were for an A5 case bound book and a 210mm square version (both still options on our illustrated children's book printing page), and when our sample pack arrived she fell for one of its hardbacks, but worried it “wouldn't lay flat enough for the activity pages in A5”. Mike pointed out that a landscape A5 opens flatter than a portrait one. Her reply was emphatic: “I can't tell you why but I have a strong aversion to landscape format.”
The answer came from the same sample pack. A perfect bound A5 paperback in it, with a 300gsm silk cover and thick uncoated pages, won her over: “it does seem to open quite flat and the spine is nice and strong when manhandled, I'm impressed!” Happy Days in Pixieland followed that recipe. If your book is meant to be drawn in, handle real examples before you decide; our pointers on making a glued spine picture book open well explain what to look for.
Which paper takes pencils and paint?
The 56 inside pages are 170gsm uncoated, made from 100% recycled fibre. It is a heavy, absorbent sheet with a soft natural white and the faintest fleck, so felt tips and coloured pencils grip it rather than skating across. The line drawing opposite the autumn collage, a pixie racing under a tree with a lantern in hand, is there to be filled in, and the stock invites it.
The cover works the other way: 300gsm silk, matt laminated outside, tough enough to survive a pencil case and a bedroom floor. The square 6mm spine carries the title. Pairing a protected cover with a thirsty inside paper is a sound formula for any book that children will scribble in.
Will photographs look flat on recycled uncoated paper?
They will look softer than on screen, and that was Claire’s main worry. Around 12 pages carry photographs of vintage toys, seed packets and keepsakes, and she wanted them “to look quite light and bright if possible but not too saturated”. Mike was straight with her when she saw her first bound copy: ink soaks into recycled uncoated stock far more than into silk or gloss, so pictures lose some of the punch they have on a monitor. He even sent photos of the same brochure printed on both papers so she could judge the gap for herself.
She kept the paper, because she loved how it felt, and changed the files instead. Having brightened her photographs heavily in anticipation of dull results, she realised the proof looked bleached, so she pulled them back. A set of unbound flat sheets came next, then a final tweak of brightness and saturation across a few pages. For your own book, never over correct in advance. Print a proof on the real paper, then adjust what you see.
The cover is perfect by the way. Love the paper stock on cover and inside pages too so I'm pleased with my choice.
Claire, author and illustrator of Happy Days in Pixieland
How do you give a paperback the charm of an old annual?
Claire’s design does it with a handful of details. A band of red, printed with a woven texture, runs down the spine and a few millimetres onto the front, so the paperback borrows the look of a cloth bound annual; the title sits along it in white capitals. Behind the front cover sits a printed repeat pattern of smiling suns and clouds reading MADE IN PIXIELAND, and more full page patterns, red cottages, holly and snowdrops among them, punctuate the book. The first page offers a scroll that reads THIS BOOK BELONGS TO, with a dotted line waiting for a child’s name.
Then comes a welcome letter on aged paper, signed by Claire, explaining that she spent many happy days creating the book in her cottage in the Kent countryside. The pages that follow mix watercolour scenes, line art and photographed vintage objects, and the Make a Paper Angel Decoration spread even suggests copying the page to make a whole flock for the mantelpiece. Any of these ideas could travel to your own book: a printed inside cover adds no pages at all, and a name plate on page one turns each copy into somebody’s own. Our advice on covers that charm young readers and their parents has more.
What happened when it went on sale?
The books reached Claire in October 2020. That same afternoon she listed the book in her Etsy shop and on Instagram, and wrote to us that “sales have been steady all day and night!” The copy in these photographs, marked 1st edition 2020 inside, still opens flat and bright four years on. Before you settle the paper for your own activity book, ask for the sample pack that helped Claire choose and test it with the pens and paints your readers will use.
PaperbacksA5, 44 pages, perfect bound£246for 100
Product cataloguesA5, 28 pages, stapled£166for 100