![]() The beginning of picture books Around 600 AD, beautiful hand-sketched illustrations began appearing on parchment. The parchment would be treated in alkaline then written over in ink. Slightly before this time, in another part of the world, parchment such as calf skin, or deer skin, began to be used as it was less likely to tear, and there was a shortage of papyrus. This method was used until the 8th century AD. ![]() They would carefully wrap the scroll around a large piece of wood so it could be stored or transported and then unwound in a very grand gesture, to be read out loud. This technique was used for hundreds of years and the Greeks and Romans soon adopted it. This created a "page", which, when glued together, became a scroll. They did this by weaving together stems of a papyrus plant, then flattening the woven stems by pounding them flat. The ancient Egyptians were the first society to use "pages", as such. ![]() People needed to document their accounts, so in fact the very first written notes were more to convey maths than literature! Scrolls and "pages" But the earliest examples of "writing" – either on stone slabs or impressed onto pieces of bark – were more to record numbers, lists, or convey information. This is how fairy tales began and how language and spoken word found its power.Īlongside storytelling, there are many examples of older civilisations recording their lives, through cave drawings or stone carvings. Storytelling was a communal way of sharing joy and keeping the dark or danger at bay. Storytelling was a communal act: a retelling of daily life to teach a lesson, instil a warning or simply to entertain. Spoken word and cave drawingsīefore we had books, we had stories. But the journey of a book and how they first began is its very own cross-cultural, historical adventure that weaves its way around the globe. I’ve just always accepted that books are a kind of magic. When my daughter asked me, ‘But how did the first book begin?’, I didn’t have a coherent answer. Whether it’s a brand-new gift, or something we’ve borrowed from a fabulous library, or perhaps a long-loved family treasure creased from re-reading.īut there is a specialness that comes from holding a story and knowing that you can step in or out of it, whenever you wish. We all know that glorious feeling of clutching a book in our hands. Author Cerrie Burnell shows this is why stories are for everyone – whatever your background. A little history of reading: How the first books came to beīooks and storytelling have long been part of our human identity.
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