6 - Pages of Sin

of forty or fifty.”
    “We love kabobs,” Rita said brightly. “We go through those sticks like crazy.”
    “Great,” I said. “And finally, you’ll need something to use as a weight. You can use a brick. Or a cast-iron frying pan. Something flat and heavy. And with these household items, you, too, can tighten a loose hinge on almost any book.”
    There were some actual gasps and I laughed. “I know. It’s thrilling. Okay, here’s our first victim.” I used both hands to hold up an old cloth-covered book by its boards, causing the text block to hang down limply.
    I walked along the rows of tables so everyone could get a good look at the damage.
    “Are you avoiding me?” Robin whispered when I got close.
    I leaned over and whispered, “Yes, you make me nervous.”
    She grinned. “I feel the power.”
    I rolled my eyes and kept walking.
    “That’s just sad,” Ruby said, staring up at the droopy old book.
    “Isn’t it?” I returned to the front of the room and glanced around, meeting all their riveted gazes—except for Robin’s, but I could hear her snickering. “Now I’m sure our librarians recognize this problem. Loose hinges. So many library books are checked out over and over again, then carelessly tossed into the return bins. Eventually, the hinges come loose, leaving the text block in danger of being torn away from the cover. So here’s how we fix it.”
    I slid one of the bamboo skewers through the small opening in the glue bottle and pulled it out. “See how the glue is evenly distributed around the stick? Doing it this way allows for a perfect amount of glue, every time.”
    Standing the book up in an open position, I inserted the glue-covered skewer inside the inner hinge of the front cover. I twirled the skewer a few times so that the glue was completely affixed to the inner paper, then pulled out the stick. I repeated the dipping, inserting and twirling action with the back hinge.
    “Be careful not to get any glue on the spine itself,” I said, pointing to the space between the spine and text block. “Otherwise, the book won’t open and close properly.”
    Then I grabbed two sheets of wax paper. “Slip one sheet inside the front cover and one inside the back. This will prevent any glue from sticking to the outside of the endpapers while the book is weighted down. Now close the book and take your bone folder . . .”
    As I picked up the next tool, I paused and waited for the titters and giggles to subside.
    “It’s made of bone,” I explained, holding it up for everyone to see. “It’s a great tool for smoothing cloth and pressing down paper folds. That’s why we call it a . . . bone . . . folder. See how much sense that makes? After you’ve said it a few times out loud, it won’t sound as funny. I hope.”
    “Nope, still sounds funny,” Sam said, and everyone laughed.
    I held up a popsicle stick and a tongue depressor. “If you don’t have a bone folder around the house, you could use one of these items.”
    “Oh, that’s smart,” Celeste said.
    “Or you can always use your finger,” I said, smiling.
    “I have one of those,” Sam said.
    We all laughed again. There was a comedian in every class.
    I showed them how to run the edge of the bone folder in the hinges of our newly glued library book so that the hinge wouldn’t lose its crease as the glue dried. Finally, I laid another skewer into the creased hinge of both front and back covers so each would retain its groove, then weighted the book down. “In ten minutes, this book will be as good as new.”
    The class applauded and I smiled. Book lovers are my favorite people.
    “Okay, let’s move on.” I grabbed a random book from Wanda’s collection and held it up. “We’ll be repairing torn pages and ripped spines next. If you’ll look at the book you picked out from the box, you’ll find something about it that needs repairing. Whatever you find, I’ll show you how to do a quick fix.”
    “But you gave me a perfect book,” Robin said, then frowned. “Oh wait. This page is ripped almost in half. Darn, I was hoping a perfect book would make me teacher’s pet.”
    Some people nearby chuckled. I pinned her with a look as I walked over to see her book. “Oh, that’s a nasty tear.”
    “The nastier the better, I guess.”
    “Definitely.” I glanced around at the class. “I tried to pick out books that had something wrong with them. So some of you will have torn pages, some ripped spines, a