 Hi, my name is Allison Farrell and this is my studio. I am the author and illustrator of the book The Hike. And in The Hike, one of the main characters named Ren brings a sketchbook with her. She uses the sketchbook to make drawings of some of the things she sees and does in The Hike. And you can see little cutouts in the book that show this. Here's Ren's sketchbook and she's drawing instructions for how to make leaf baskets here. And if you look closely over here you can see Ren with her sketchbook in her lap as she's making a leaf basket. Now I love drawing too and I also love sketchbooks. They're the best way to practice drawing and have fun drawing. So I thought I'd show you my collection of sketchbooks. These are just some of the books in my studio. These are maybe a bigger size book that I have but I also have these. Sometimes it's nice to have a tiny book to stick in a bag or a backpack. This is my preferred size sketchbook. I like something that I can hold easily in my hand and take along with me. I also like having an elastic band on this one. But I use sketchbooks all the time and sometimes I use them to sort of have fun making an observational drawing or a drawing of things that I see in the world like for example a drawing of trees. Sometimes I draw people that I see or places that I visited. But I also love mostly using sketchbooks for things from my imagination. As you can see here I love to draw all kinds of characters and just make up characters from the world around me. Another nice feature in a sketchbook can be pockets. In this pocket I just kept some extra paper that I made a little painting with. So I thought today maybe we could make sketchbooks together. Here's what our finished sketchbook will look like. You can put a pocket in if you want. Boo! It's nice to have a cardstock or a thicker piece of paper for your cover. Any color you want. Some computer paper or a sketchbook paper. A stapler. Tape for making a pocket. And a glue stick. Fold your cover paper in half. And fold your interior paper in half. And then just put them together and staple them along the folded edge. Then I open the cover carefully and make a nice fold so the cover opens and closes well. I'm measuring out the pocket for the interior now. Cutting it up and I'll put some tape on it so that it fits right here. I'll tape it in facing the inside so whatever paper I put in doesn't fall out. Then I'll just keep a little bookmark size piece of paper in there just in case I want to make a bookmark on the go. And now I'm going to decorate. I'm cutting out a leaf shape here for the cover. And I'll glue it on with my glue stick. And last I'll just label the front. And that's it. Here's my sketchbook and my first drawing. What will you draw in your sketchbook?