Friendship book

Friendship book

Friendship books (also known as "FBs" in their abbreviated form) are small booklets made by stapling paper together, or are sometimes just sheets or strips of paper. They are usually decorated and the person who starts the book writes their name and address as the first person sending the book. People often include a list of interests as well. The FB is then passed around from penpal to penpal, and can often also become a way for one to meet new penpals. Most people hope to see the book again once it is full so they add their return address to the back cover of the book too, or inscribe "Return to Sender" on it. People also sometimes make FBs for someone else rather than themselves, in which case they write the name and address of the recipient on the front/at the top. Some people find friendship books fun because you can see where they have been in a trail back to the original sender/recipient.

The German friendship books (or poetry albums) serve a similar purpose but are kept, not sent away. Access is considered more intimate; sometimes the book even has a lock. The information given about oneself often includes quotations, poetry and worldly wisdom. Typically they are more like shared journals between two best friends or a couple and are kept at ones of their houses.

Friendship books that require entrants to make drawings, use stickers or magazine photographs are known as "deco" friendship books or just simply "decos". Typically, each entrant in the "deco" must use one full page to express themselves. Glitter, sequins, feathers and other scrapbooking supplies are frequently used in "decos." Despite the artistic expressions used in these types of friendship books, the basic rules of passing the friendship book to person to person is the same.

When a 'friendship book' is only one page (no staples), it's called a 'friendship sheet.' If the page is small, like the size of a postcard, or smaller, it's called a 'cram.' Friendship books that have a musical theme, where you have to add lyrics to your entry, are called "lyrics" or "lyrics sheets".

lams

Slams are friendship books that include a theme of questions, either "Sign if you did/like the following", "What is your favorite" or other similar questions. These usually include one page as a "sign in", several pages of questions, and then a "sign out" or "shout out" page at the end. Slams can be themed or regular. Typically they are usually small like a standard friendship book. Often they have a "sign-in" page where you put your label or name, then each page will often contain a question which you answer (i.e. When was the last time you said "I love you") and the signer would write the appropriate response. At the end there is often a sign-out page as well where it's dated. Slams have many variations and can be "sign if" slams (you sign only if the statement or question applies to you). These are handled in a number of ways, but most of them become more clear when you have it in-hand.

Crams

Crams are like friendship sheets or book, but no one includes any personal information. The idea (as the name implies) is to "cram" as many names and addresses into the provided space.

Friendship sheet

As the name implies, friendship sheets are nearly the same as friendship books, but they are made on a single sheet of paper or stationery.

Deco

Decos are similar to FBs, but are often larger in size. The cover is often decorated with interesting materials like magazine pictures, rubber stamps, decorative papers, and other embellishments. Each person who signs decorates a full page in the book. Sometimes the book has a theme, for example cats. Then, each person decorates their page following the theme. As with FBs, when these are full, they are sent home to the person for whom the book was made.

Lyrix

Lyrix are much like decos except that each page is decorated using lyrics from a song. Some are more plain with the words simply written in them, others are as artistic as decos with pictures and other ornamental adornments.

Quotz

Quotz are like Lyrix, but instead of song lyrics they contain quotes from movies. These can also be themed, such as Brad Pitt movie quotes. Quotz can be plain text or decorative.

Sometimes a friendship book can get misplaced and take several years to reach its intended maker. It is considered common courtesy to pass the friendship books on to another pen pal as quickly as possible. Another rule of thumb with friendship books is that after two years of circulation, the friendship book should be returned home to its owner. With the popularity of the internet, some pen pals include their email address along with their snail mail address so people can make sure their letter will successfully make it to the intended pen pal.

It is not acceptable to ever destroy a friendship book or in anyway deface it. If a person does not wish to participate in a particular friendship book they can write something such as the word "pass", along with their name and the date. Some people choose to not sign certain friendship books and simply pass them along to another pen pal without signing it. As long as the book is passed along in a timely manner, it does not really matter if this has occurred. Also, most friendship books are sent only to women. Frequently "No men/No prisoners" is added to books, as well as "No swapping in Africa" because sometimes the addresses in friendship books are sold on the streets with the promise of "women who want male companions".

Commonly used abbreviations

*A/A = Answers All
*A/O = Answers Only
*A/S = Answers Some
*A/M - Answers Most
*AVF = Answers Very Few
*ICR = I Can Return (meaning this person can return the friendship book back to the owner)
*LLP = Long Letter Pal (meaning this person is looking for pals that will send lengthy letters)
*N&N FBS = Nice and Neat Friendship Books
*NSW = New Swappers Wanted
*NPW = New Pen Pals Wanted
*SNNP = Sorry No New Pen Pals
*Addy - Address
*BD - Birthday
*DOB - Date of Birth
*Envie - Envelope
*SAHM - Stay at home mom
*SASE - Self addressed stamped envelope
*WAHM - Work at home mom

ee also

*Pen pal


Wikimedia Foundation. 2010.

Игры ⚽ Нужно сделать НИР?

Look at other dictionaries:

  • Friendship (disambiguation) — Friendship is a term used to denote co operative and supportive behavior between two or more humans.Friendship may also refer to:In places in the U.S. * Friendship, Arkansas * Friendship, Indiana * Friendship, Maine * Friendship, New York, a town …   Wikipedia

  • FRIENDSHIP — FRIENDSHIP, a relationship between people arising from mutual respect and affection. The ideal of friendship in the Western world is largely derived from classical Greece. Not only do the myths and legends point to friendship as one of the great… …   Encyclopedia of Judaism

  • Friendship — Friend redirects here. For other uses, see Friend (disambiguation). Friendship is a form of interpersonal relationship generally considered to be closer than association, although there is a range of degrees of intimacy in both friendships and… …   Wikipedia

  • Friendship (Pittsburgh) — Infobox Pittsburgh neighborhood name = Friendship caption = locator caption = locator population1990 = 1976 population2000 = 1791 latd = 40.462 longd = 79.934 area sqmi = 0.106Friendship is a neighborhood of large Victorian houses in the East End …   Wikipedia

  • Romantic friendship — The term romantic friendship refers to a very close but non sexual relationship between friends, often involving a degree of physical closeness beyond that common in modern Western societies, for example holding hands, cuddling, and sharing a bed …   Wikipedia

  • Derrial Book — Infobox character colour = #fc9 colour text = name = Derrial Book series = Firefly caption = first = last = cause = creator = Joss Whedon portrayer = Ron Glass episode = 13, 1 movie, 6 comics nickname = alias = species = gender = Male age = born …   Wikipedia

  • The Book and the Sword — (zh tsp|t=書劍恩仇錄|s=书剑恩仇录|p=shū jiàn ēn chóu lù; literally, Book Sword Love Hate Record or, more figuratively, Chronicles of Gratitude, Feud, the Book and the Sword ) is the first wuxia novel by Jinyong, first published on February 8 1955 in The… …   Wikipedia

  • Minor characters in Sonic the Hedgehog (comic book) — This article is for minor characters that appear exclusively in the story lines of the Sonic the Hedgehog comic book. For information on characters who appear in this series and in the TV Series, see List of characters in Sonic the Hedgehog . For …   Wikipedia

  • The Friendship — Infobox Book name = The Friendship image caption = author = Mildred Taylor illustrator = Max Ginsburg cover artist = country = United States language = English genre = Children s literature, African American Literature publisher = hardback, Dial …   Wikipedia

  • The Book Thief — is a 2005 best selling novel by Markus Zusak, and a finalist for the 2007 Michael L. Printz Award. It was on the New York Times Children s Best Seller list for over 21 weeks.Plot summary The Book Thief is set in Germany, during and post World War …   Wikipedia

Share the article and excerpts

Direct link
Do a right-click on the link above
and select “Copy Link”