As recipient of the Nebula Award for best Novel, the Yiddish Policemen’s Union is a novel authored by Michael Chabon. The book is a detective story that takes place in an alternate reality. In this world, the millions of displaced Jews from World War II have migrated to the United States and have settled in the Alaskan wilderness. While inhabiting the Alaskan wilderness, these new inhabitants experience challenges and obstacles that test their strength and persistence.

In my altered book, I used rough sketches to depict the events, emotions and actions that happened on the page, allowing the text to be communicated in a different way. I also highlighted words that were of significance to me. Words, that perhaps, conjured thoughts of my past when living in Canada in climates similar to Alaska. On other pages, I used a highlighter to cluster paragraphs into different shapes and forms.

The Chakras is a book about, well, the chakras of the human body. My modifications to it are illustrative, serving to give the reader some visual stimulation while reading what is, otherwise, a fairly boring book.

Editorial Board Review

Nicholas utilizes unusual symbols, reminiscent of Sanskrit.  The Sanskrit word “cakra” (written chakra in English) means “wheel” or “disk”. It has been described by many as a spinning wheel of light. Niko’s take on his altered book is a little different, but in no way less interesting. He takes a book he believes to be boring and then adds his own beautiful illustrations to it to get readers more interested.

One particularly interesting page involves pasting a Chakras graphic, with four words showing through – power, nature, life, body. Splendidly enchanting, Nicholas’ altered book engages the audience to explore the chakras theories as a vehicle to higher consciousness and personal empowerment.His unusual interpretation of an already unusual volume makes for a very interesting take on an altered book.

Some of you out there may not know, but it’s difficult to be a teenage girl. So many emotions run through you all at once that sometimes you just have to stand there and wonder what the heck is even going on. How can you even comprehend so many fragments of thought flying by all at once?

The found poem aspect of The Diary of a Lovesick Teenager helps to show these thought processes. A lot of times, you can’t even think complete thoughts. Getting out what you can is an accomplishment. The fact that found poems tend to consist of single words and short phrases really helps this altered book.

The original book is When It Happens, by Susane Colesanti, one of my favorite authors. The book is originally about high school relationships, so the theme of my altered book isn’t a far stretch from this inspiration. This Diary is all about showing what a teenage girl really thinks in all aspects of life.

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Allison’s altered book uses different mediums to achieve her message of the powerful and sometimes conflicting emotions of a young girl.  Through the use of drawings, pictures, and cutouts she takes us on a journey inside the emotional rollercoaster of excitement, anticipation, envy, self-esteem, and opportunity not taken.

This splendidly illustrated study is an informative and provocative view inside a teenage girl’s life.  The page entitled “Weird” is intensely revealing.  The Diary of a Lovesick Teenager is beautifully structured, friendly and enlightening.

I tried to pull from three different things from the 3 pages i chose. The first one, the flower growing from the bottom right, i pulled from an earlier drawing i did using the stem to lead you through the words. The second one with the boat, I found a meaning in the words i chose and then a picture online to fit the meaning. With that i drew it as best i could to go with the chosen words. Lastly for the one with the hand, I just found that line in the middle and got the image in my head right away so i decided to persue it. Just simply drew, then cut and pasted the hand onto it with the sentence showing through. The rest of the words highlighted i just felt went well with it.

Editorial Board Review

Gary’s artistic style really comes out in his altered book pages. In his “Returning” page, a flower sprawls across the page, circling words to make phrases like “Walk dusty streets” and “My eyes sleeping.” Another page has words like “riverbank” circled, with the drawing of a boat on a riverbank to accompany it. There’s some also more intriguing phrases the page, such as “In silence I battled.” It really makes you want to read more of the altered book to see if some sort of character emerges from the phrases found within the pages.

Boehm and Matsuda’s Flower Arranging by Number is an instructional guide to creating beautiful centerpieces and bouquets. In today’s culture, there is no bigger centerpiece for a woman than her hair. A woman’s hairstyle can say many things about her mood or personality. A bouncy and curly bob can say she is feeling fun and flirty. A polished up-do can convey professionalism. Thus, I altered this book to become “Nicole’s Hair Guide.” It is a fanciful pictorial of hairstyles.

I started with the cover and created a fun, flirty and curly up-do. By stapling and gluing hair extensions to the cover, I created a glitzy self-portrait with makeup and jewelry. I continued to the title page by pasting various pictures. In subsequent pages, I used permanent markers to delete words or phrases and create a new storyline. This method is called creating a “found poems.” I encourage other writers to create an altered book to expand their minds or grow in a new literary direction.

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Hair is, to some, a very important aspect of life as Nichole shows this through her altered book. She is able to take a book originally about flower arranging and making it into a story about hair. Her selected phrases on her altered pages develop more of a story than just a found poem. There are some powerful phrases: “The pleasure of a bountiful harvest is always joyous,” for example.

Nicole’s cover is the most striking of all – it includes its own hairpiece and necklace, giving it a lot of depth. Nichole also managed to put a lot of herself and her personality in the book by including pictures of her with a lot of different (and sometimes crazy) hairstyles that represent hairstyle changes through different eras of American history.

The story talks about these girls who envy each other and who would like to be one another. The theme of my altered book is to show the naivety of these girls. The first page represents a Barbie painted in red w/ gray lines streaking through the some lines. This is a definition of these girls and how I am catching them reading through the lines. The next page is a representation of the girls being a like and how they rarely differ. The Milk duds page is just creativity within itself. It has no symbolic meaning at all. It’s just the spice page.

Editorial Board Review

Katlyn’s book is an entertaining, convincing and sobering look that deals with the pressures of peers and society experienced by school aged young women.  Her use of found poems and images strikes to the heart of the matter and depicts their struggles.

The techniques employed in illustrating Katyln’s theme stir emotions and express complex psychology that moves the audience.  The Milk Duds page is especially whimsical and enjoyable.

Editorial Board Review

Gay’s book is a naturalistic journey through personal memories. Using different mediums to illustrate these reminiscences, Gay utilizes acrylic paints, water colors, and pastels along with items found around her. What follows is an enchanted look at timeless experiences within her life. One can almost feel of the ocean’s spray and grit of the sand as you view the page entitled Beach. The brilliant colors of fall are reminiscent of walks in the park with leaves crunching underfoot in Leaves. And lastly the Rosemary page literally brings the pungent scent to mind when immersed in the beautiful imagery there.  A compelling portrait of fond memories.

The Robinson Crusoe created by Daniel Defoe is a tale about sin, God’s chastisement, and repentance.  I have altered this book to be a tale of the will and the affirmation of the self through the struggle against indifferent forces of nature. This new piece I have renamed Superman Crusoe.  Its namesake is drawn from the idea of the Superman as described by the book Thus Spake Zarathustra by Frederic Nietzsche.  The idea of a Superman, who creates and asserts his values against all obstacles, resonates strongly with me.

With the help of an architecture student, Ian Elmore, I converted the original binding into a ship sinking into pages of the book, and the pages of the story into an opening scroll folded to resemble waves.  I wanted to emphasize the sailing imagery because it is well suited to capture the concepts of individuality and the strength of the will.

Editorial Board Review

Melanie has created a visual design that surprises the audience with its complexity and beauty even before taking in the stirring found-poems.  Utilizing pages torn from the book, the author creates and builds a representational icon that embodies her meaning and rationale. Clever use of cosmetics, pencil, and the book itself, expertly manipulated by the author, has rendered a memorable piece of art.

A highly descriptive work, it befits the topic and emits a feeling of reverence for it. It is a thought provoking book that you will want to look at over and over again.

Cloud Atlas takes a journey in almost every form of nature. When some hear the word nature, we think of being outside or more physical approaches. Cloud Atlas does just that and then more. Some of the alter pages deal with nature in a physical aspect (clouds, trees, storms, water, animals), while other deal with nature as being an emotional state (the nature of having freedom, dealing with death). These are things that are all part of human nature.

The cover itself brings out the humorous nature that every person is attracted to; people tend to be more attracted to humor more than any other type of emotional state. The comical cover will attract readers to take a journey through physical and emotional natures that we experience on a day to day basis.

Editorial Board Review

Jeff’s book is an interesting look at physical and emotional natures through the use of photo imagery and drawn images. Using such techniques as pasting a found picture to illustrate his found expressions to using markers to draw by hand the illustration of the words and found poem within the pages of this book.

Jeff’s work reflects the impact of nature and insight into psychological nature through the creative process of this work.  Cloud Atlas approaches the subject with realism, respect, and creativity, providing a balanced view of both natures.

This is a book that questions traditional religious beliefs, based in Christianity; challenging readers to view spirituality from a different perspective.

Editorial Board Review

Spiritual Awakening is a powerful and thought provoking exploration that questions religious conviction. Using striking contrasts in color, Eric achieves a visual clash that reflects conflict with organized faith and natural spirituality. Eric’s work is visually compelling and beautifully crafted to penetrate the veil of accepted doctrine and provoke the audience to divine the truth.

As the following examples will reveal, each student was assigned with the task creating an altered book, along with providing a summary and quote on the book. The following pieces showcase three example pages from each student’s altered book.

Please continue on to see some of our students’ altered books!