This is a story writen in 1995 by a 2rd grade student. We took the student’s text, and merged it into a Tex template I created. I would then convert it using the TeX progam, and printed it double sided. Once the pages were folded in half it create a 5x8 sized book the went home with the student. They had written and seen published their first book.
% This is the second brookside book format for Susan Gettenger.
% Started: Wed May 24 22:16:19 EDT 1995
% Last Revised: Time-stamp: <95/05/24 22:19:52 john> maintained by emacs
\documentclass[12pt]{article}
\usepackage{t1enc}
\usepackage{times}
\usepackage{setspace}
\iftrue
\input 2up.tex
\targetlayout{twosided}
\TwoupWrites
\special{landscape} %% This works with Rokicki's dvips
\targetlayout{Booklet} %% Booklet printing with 2-sided printer/copier.
% \targetlayout{booklet} %% Booklet printing with 1-sided printer/copier.
\fi
\makeatletter
%\def\myskip{\vskip 5.0 in}
% If the child wants the illustrations on the top of the page, surround
% each page's text with the following:
% \vbox{ \myskip
% Text goes here
% }
% Then check the otput to see that it is offset correctly.
%% PAGE NUMBERING:
%% Adjust page numbering if using booklet layout option.
\setcounter{page}{0}
\def\next{\if@leftpage\else\stepcounter{page}\fi}
\@ifundefined{target@stop}{}{\next}
%% PAGE PARAMETERS:
\setlength{\parindent}{10pt} % paragraph indent
\setlength{\parskip}{4pt plus 1pt minus 1pt}
\setlength{\topmargin}{10pt}
\setlength{\headheight}{22pt} % height of running head
\setlength{\headsep}{50pt} % distance between header and text
\setlength{\textheight}{8.2in} % height of text on page
%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%
% Place Definitions HERE!
%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%
% What is the student's grade? Enter a number.
\def\grade{ %<WHICH GRADE>
2
}
% What is the title of the story?
\def\title{ %<TITLE>
The Leprechaun
}
% What is the Student Author's name?
\def\author{ %<AUTHOR>
Mary Ellen Amato
}
% Who is the Student's teacher?
\def\teacher{ %<TEACHER>
Mrs. Proskin
}
% What is the Month and Year of the story?
\def\month{ %<MONTH>
April
}
\def\year{ %<YEAR>
1995
}
% Is this book dedicated? If so fill the information in
% here.
\def\dedication{ %<DEDICATION>
To my mom
}
% What would you like to say about the author? Type as many
% lines as you want. Just be sure there is a close bracket
% "}" after the end.
\def\abouttheauthor{ %<DESCRIPTION OF AUTHOR>
Mary Ellen is an eight year old second grader who enjoys gymnastics.
She also likes to play basketball with her brother Patrick and
sister, Jenna. Reading and writing are her favorite subjects in school.
Mary Ellen hopes to be a famous gymnast and compete in the Olympics.
}
%% Page Style:
\pagestyle{myheadings}
\markboth{\title \hfil by \author \hfil}{\title \hfil by \author \hfil}
\begin{document}
\thispagestyle{empty}
\begin{center} \Large \bf
\vskip 1.5in
{\Huge \bf \title }
\vskip 0.35in
By
\vskip 0.35in
{\LARGE \bf \author}
\vskip 1.5in \Large \bf
Brookside Elementary School
\vskip 0.35in \Large \bf
\teacher
\vskip 0.35in \Large \bf
\month{}/\year \hskip 1.5in Grade \grade
\end{center}
\doublespace
\newpage
\centerline{ \LARGE Dedication }
\bigskip
\LARGE
\dedication
\newpage
%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%
%%%%%%%%%% Place the Story Here %%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%
%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%
Once upon a time there lived a girl who once saw a Leprechaun. She
was AMAZED. She introduced herself but the Leprechaun ran away because he
was a baby. He escaped from Ireland.
\newpage
But it was the wrong day anyway. Baby Leprechauns can't go out on St.
Patrick's Day anyway.
\newpage
So the king and queen of the Leprechauns had a meeting. They had a big
search. Every single Leprechaun tried to find him, but nobody could. the
mother and father of the baby Leprechaun were terrified.
\newpage
Every person who lived in Ireland caught one because they did not know how
to get out of the traps from the people.
\newpage
Then a nice person came by. His name was St. Patrick. He got them out of
the cages. He cared for Leprechauns so he came with the Leprechauns. If
a person came by, St. Patrick would say, "No, don't look them up. They are
our friends, even though they do silly stuff to us."
\newpage
They were excited for him to be with them. So they looked and looked. They
never found poor baby Leprechaun.
\newpage
Years went by. Then right when they woke up, the poor little Leprechaun
was right in front of them! They were so happy! They had waited ten
years.
\newpage
Everyone said, "What changed in you?" People said, "Did your eyes, no
maybe your hair changed?"
"Nope, it's that I am bigger so now I can go out on St. Patrick's Day.
Yeah!" They lived happily ever after.
\bigskip
\centerline{\Huge \bf THE END}
\newpage
\centerline{\LARGE About the Author}
\bigskip
\abouttheauthor
\end{document}
Here I created the cover page for a cassette tape box. I enter the text into a template, processed it with TeX and printed the result. Once I cut out the output, I inserted it into a cassette case as a table of contents. All the arranging and sizing was done by TeX. Below you can see what it looked liked printed.
% This is the Template file for new cassette tapes.
% File: cas-320.tex
% Started: 30 Jan. 1999
\documentstyle[tape]{article}
\renewcommand{\globaltapeid}{\footnotesize\sf John\\Moore}
\begin{document}
\album{side.1}%
% Here is an example {\small {\bf My Friend \hfill Side 1\\ The Pig\\[1mm]
{\small {\bf RagTime %< FIRST SIDE TITLE short>
\hfill Side 1\\
the Musical %<FIRST SIDE TITLE short continued>
}\\[1mm]
\begin{enumerate}
\item Ragtime (excerpt)
\item Goodbye My Love
\item Journey On
\item The Crime of the Century
\item Gettin' Ready Rag
\item Henry Ford
\item Your Daddy's Son
\item New Music
\item Wheels of a Dream
\item The Night That Goldman Spoke at Union Square
\item Gliding
\item "Till We Reach that Day
\item What a Game!
\item Coalhouse's Soliloquy
\item He Wanted to Say
\end{enumerate}
}%
% In the title break it up if it is long by using \\
{\normalsize\sf RagTime
}
{ the Musical
}
%%----------------------------------------------
\album{side.2}%
% Here is an example {\small {\bf My Friend \hfill Side 2\\ The Pig\\[1mm]
{\small {\bf RagTime %< SECOND SIDE TITLE short>
\hfill Side 2\\
the Musical %<SECOND SIDE TITLE short continued>
}\\[1mm]
\begin{enumerate}
\item Buffalo Nickel Photoplay, Inc.
\item Our Children
\item The Show Biz
\item Back to Before
\item Make Them Hear You
\item Wheels of a Dream (reprise)
\end{enumerate}
}%
% In the title break it up if it is long by using \\
{\normalsize\sf RagTime
}
{ the Musical
}
%Tape types: KIDS, ROCK, EASY, JAZZ, three letters or less.
\maketape[\sf
%<TYPE OF TAPE>\\%<TAPE NUMBER>
SHOW \\ 320
]{side.1}{side.2}
\end{document}
This is what the finished output looked like before being placed in the cassette box.
This is a poem my son wrote one day and wanted to publish. So I was able to format the poem and print it for him using TeX. Below you can see what the finished page looked like.
% This is the poem tolly made up in second Grade.
\documentclass{article}
\usepackage{times}
\begin{document}
\Large
\title{Blue is my Poem}
\author{By Tolly Moore}
\maketitle
\pagestyle{empty}
\begin{verse}
Blue is the sky, full of clouds.\\
Blue is my ears, when ally is loud.
Blue is my lips, when I've been in the pool.\\
Blue is the ocean, the water is cool.
Blue is the water, in it's solid form.\\
Blue is the rain, that falls in a storm.
Blue is my favorite color in bed.\\
Blue is the sadness which forms in my head.
\end{verse}
\end{document}
This is what the finished output of the poem looked like.
Written by John F. Moore
Last Revised: Wed Oct 18 11:01:32 EDT 2017