Do you have a kid who LOVES to dress up? Some kids have fun dreaming up a Halloween costume each October, others seem to live their lives in one costume or another, but ALL kids love to peruse pictures of themselves in costume. Why not harness that enthusiasm to get them writing?

Our newest mini-book, Me, Incognito!, gives your dress-up enthusiast the tools and inspiration to create a record of their best costumes in mini-book form. Whether it's a retrospective of their Halloweens from toddlerhood to now, or a record of the costumes they've loved on a random Tuesday, they'll love to create and share a book about themselves... in disguise!

 Here's how: 

1) Start by making a book filled with black pages (cut black card-stock in half vertically to create pages measuring 4.25" x 11"). If you need more detailed instructions, reference our Step Book instructions, but use black paper and don't cut the pages down to size. We've shown our mini-book using a tagboard cover and a plain black paper cover. Use whatever you like!

2) Select and print costume photos at the printer of your choice. You'll eventually be cropping these down to 3" squares, so keep that in mind when you're selecting photos. (Pro tip: Once your photos are printed, a 3x3 Post-it makes a great template for cropping your photo!)

3) Download and print our Me, Incognito! printable here. Cut out the elements you want to use, and plan your layout before you glue down any of your pieces or photos. Our printable gives you lots of choices for colors and words. Don't feel like you need to use them all - they're just there to give you choices!

4) Write about each disguise. What was special about it? Why did you choose that particularly costume? You'll see that we've included fill-in-the-blank cards to get you started, or you can choose completely blank cards to do all the writing yourself. Have fun!

5) Have fun adding adjective flags and year labels to decorate your book! 

6) Once you're finished, be sure to find someone special to read your book to! Enjoy remembering all of your special disguises and sharing your book with someone important to you. 

We LOVE to see your mini-book creations! If you're on Instagram, tag us using @rubyreadsbooks and #rubyreadsminibooks.