A book sits on a shelf in your room. Nobody knows it contains your secret summer treasures…

- Hardcover book you own but don’t need anymore (or buy one for a quarter at a yard sale.)
- White Glue & water solution. Not too runny – about two-thirds glue/one-third water
- Plastic container to hold glue solution
- Parent to help with cutting
- Utility knife (also called X-acto knife)
- Paintbrush for the glue solution
- Pencil or pen
- Ruler or other straight edge
- Couple of spoons that may get messy

1. You must keep at least one page at the front of the book for a later step, so decide how many you will leave at the front and then hold the rest of the pages together. 
2. Brush the outside edges of the book – top side and bottom with glue solution. Not too drippy and soaked, but enough to coat the pages.
3. Lay the book down and place a spoon or two (or a CD case or a small pad of post-it notes) between the loose pages you saved and the glued pages. This holds the loose ones off the glued edges and prevents them from sticking. Put something heavy on top for pressure. Wait for it to dry (15 to 30 minutes).
4. Remove spoons and open to the first glued page.  Using a pencil and ruler, draw a “frame” around all 4 sides of the page, about a half inch or 2 centimetres from each outside edge.  You will be cutting out the middle of your drawing, so make sure you leave a reasonably sized border for the size of your book.
5. WITH YOUR PARENT’S HELP use the ruler and the knife now.  You will cut into the pages of the book along the lines you drew. You will have to do a small stack of pages at a time and remove the cut paper as you go deeper into the book. 
6. Try to take your time with this – it makes a much neater job if you go slowly.  If the book is really big, do a little bit over a few days.
7. When you get to the last page of the book and have cut it out, stop cutting.
8. Remove any bits of paper still in the cut out section.
9. Glue the inside edges of the hole now.  Be generous but not soaking.
10. Re-glue the outside edges too.
11. Glue the top page edges too (the border) so that when you close the book this time, the page you saved at the front will be glued down to the top and cover the hole you cut.
12. Wait for it to dry again. No spacers needed this time.
13. Cut through carefully the top page that covers your hole. The inside may still be glue-wet, so let it dry now.
14. Fill it up with treasures and put it on your bookshelf!