Everything I Know How to Do, I Owe to the Klutz Books
How else would I have learned to do magic tricks, make friendship bracelets, or braid hair?
When I close my eyes I can see my childhood bookshelf. There’s the light blue Laura Ingalls Wilder box set, the copy of Anne of Green Gables, Little Women, the “Dear America” books with the built-in fabric bookmarks (in retrospect, possibly problematic or at least historically questionable), the copy of the The Care And Keeping Of You, an American Girl book that was wordlessly handed to me when I was 9 years old. There’s all of my dad’s old cartoon and comic books that got passed down to me, a stack of Judy Blume paperbacks, and years of Highlights magazines.
But there’s a part of the bookshelf where the books don’t sit nicely side by side. The books are slightly oversized and jut out at odd angles because of the plastic pouches attached to the spiral wire that binds the book. That’s right, it’s my collection of Klutz books.
The first book Klutz Press ever published was Juggling for the Complete Klutz, which arrived in the world in 1977 and came with an attached mesh bag full of little beanbags. I did not own the juggling book, but I did come into possession of several other books in the Klutz family, including Klutz: Cat’s Cradle, Klutz Nail Art…
