There are a few costume-bounding movements out there. Disneybounding is quite popular, and historybounding has been gaining a movement as well. The basic idea of costumebounding is to wear an outfit that hints at a character or historical time period without actually dressing in full costume. This is done by adding small touches to an everyday outfit. Sometimes this is achieved through accessories or color schemes or hairstyles. It can actually be quite simple and subtle, and it is often done purely for one’s own enjoyment.
I love taking this idea of costumebounding and applying it to books! While I’m sure there are people out there already doing this, my brief Internet searches didn’t reveal many hits about this specific approach.
I think BookBounding sounds like such a wonderful way to connect to the books we know and love. What a fun practice for librarians or bookshop owners or teachers! But really, bookbounding sounds like a good fit for any book lover, especially because it can be so unique and specialized to your own vision of a character.
Yes, there will be crossovers from movie versions of books or historical time periods. This just adds to the fun! Disneybounding and historybounding can absolutely be a part of the bookbounding movement as well! (Think Winnie-the-Pooh or Alice (from Wonderland) or Jane Austen books).
Here, on this page, I am posting ideas for bookbounding outfits from some of the books I’ve talked about on this site or on my channel. Bookbounding isn’t about spending lots of money or acquiring tons of new clothes, it’s about getting creative with what you already have or can easily borrow from a friend. It’s not about trying to be instantly recognizable either. It’s about having fun and making another special connection with the books you love.
For a video explaining more about bookbounding, see my YouTube channel or the video below.
(For more details about any of the books listed here, click the link below their image for a post about them.) At the top of this page, I’ve included general outfit ideas, and down toward the bottom of the page I have shown some of the outfits I’ve bookbounded recently.
Chirri and Chirra in the Tall Grass
by Kaya Doi,
translated to English by Yuki Kaneko
Chirri & Chirra in the Tall Grass is a sweet book of two young girls biking in Nature and having small adventures.
Bookbounding outfits for this book might include white blouses or dresses. Since bikes are a huge part of this series, including bicycles as accessories or on the outfit itself would be a great addition. I’ve added a colorful gem-style headband based on one of the scenes from this book as well.
by Oliver Jeffers
How to Catch a Star is the story of a boy with a dream of catching a star of his own.
Based on his red-and-white-striped shirt, any combination of these colors would make a fun bookbounding outfit. Some jeans or blue pants help complete the look of the main character. Accessories that include stars, rocket ships, or even a life preserver would also be fun to add to this look.
by Mark Baker and Cicely Mary Barker
How to Find Flower Fairies is a book of whimsy and magical charm.
Great bookbounding outfits for this book include anything with a soft, flowy look. Accessories like nature wreaths and flower earrings will also be great additions. Try ballet flats or even bare feet, depending on the circumstances!
Joone shares about her daily life, living in a yurt and running around in Nature.
Orange and purple are Joone’s favorite colors, so including them in a bookbounding outfit will definitely point to this book. While orange is not always a color everyone has, consider adding orange as part of an accesory. Other accessories could include things like treehouse jewelry or turtles.
by Beatrice Alemagna
On a Magical Do-Nothing Day takes place outside on a rainy day, so a hoodie or raincoat that’s orange, or even red, could be a fun bookbounding outfit for this book. Accessories like glasses or items with snails or video game controllers could be fun additions as well.
by Greg Pizzoli
The Watermelon Seed features a green crocodile who loves watermelon.
Bright greens and bold reds will be perfect colors for bookbounding this one. Watermelon or crocodile accessories are a bonus, for sure. Also, any outfit that is red with black polka-dots would be a fun reference to watermelons as well.
Players in Pigtails
written by Shana Corey,
illustrated by Rebecca Gibbon
Players in Pigtails shares a fictionalized story set during the time of the All-American Girls Professional Baseball League that existed between 1943-1954.
Players were forced to wear dresses in this league, so a skirt or dress would be a good addition to a bookbounding outfit. But even a collared, button-down shirt with pants could work. Tall socks, a hat, and any baseball accessories would be great with this bookbounding look.
In this video, I share my vision of costumebounding, or bookbounding, for books.
Below are outfit ideas for some of the books I’ve shared on this site.
Bookbounding can be as simple or elaborate as you want it to be. Take any ideas and make them your own!
Here are some of the
bookbounding outfits I've tried!
For this book, I wore a lime green jacket (my daughter’s) over a red shirt. I upcycled an older red shirt into an easy headband. After filming this little video, I found a perfect scrap of watermelon fabric at a thrift store, but I think that simply having this green and red color scheme is a great match if you’re sharing this book as a read-aloud.
This was the first book I shared on my YT channel, and I LOVED dressing up for it. I wore a red sweater and a headband made from an upcycled red shirt. I made googly-eye earrings using googly eyes we already had on-hand. I punched holes using a Crop-a-dile and let my jewelry-making daughter help me add jump rings and earring hooks. I loved getting to make my own monster teddy, and it was so lovely to have a project that was supposed to be a bit patchworked and scrappy looking. The little heart was just cut from leftover felt as well and attached with a safety pin.
Joone‘s favorite colors are orange and purple, which I don’t have a lot of in my wardrobe. But I happened to remember this orange(ish), flowy shirt, and I turned one of my daughter’s hat backwards to get a similar look to Joone’s.
These fairy dresses made from natural materials are absolutely divine! While I didn’t have anything that quite resembled these gorgeous outfits, we did have this blue, flowy dress in with the dress-up clothes. It’s a bit too short for my preference, but the photo does a great job of hiding that!
This young girl from Sparky has one of the simplest outfits ever, but as this was my second video, I was really in a mode of trying to costumebound each book. I also think it’s a good reminder that bookbounding doesn’t have to be reserved for the fancy, elaborate characters. In fact, simple outfits like these are such an accessible way to ease into this practice.
This book of Star Wars poems doesn’t exactly feature one character over any others, but I happened to have some Rey-ish clothes on-hand from last year’s local Comic Con. My kids received this amazing light-changing light saber for Christmas last year, and I did my best with the Rey hairstyle, which hardly shows in the video.
I was SO excited to discover that October 6th is Mad Hatter Day in the U.S. While I don’t have a top hat, we did happen to have a bowler hat. So, I added a little Hatter sign and wore a colorful scarf bow in the video short I made about this holiday.