The Paper Door · Sprout · ages 6-8
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Read by an AI-generated voice. The words on this page are the transcript.
The Paper Machine
The hammer rang once. A spark jumped off the anvil and did not go out. It waited. They followed.
It led Lan and Inkling to the print shop. Kami the paper square lay on the table.
They folded Kami into a fortune teller. The last crease went flat, and the paper opened like a door.
They were on a sunny hill by the sea. Far away stood a white rocket.
A little girl called Emi was crying. "The rocket has a big flat panel inside," said her brother Ken. "Emi thinks it will get squashed."
"I'll make paper small!" said Lan. She scrunched it into a ball. It would not open again.
"Scrunching is not folding," said Mark. "Read the drawing first."
A lady pulled a folded square. It opened in one pull! Mark looked at its lines. "The folds decide how it moves."
"Corners to the middle," said Cornelia. Four corners. Turn it over. Four more. Eight flaps.
Ken pushed his fingers in. It stuck! One corner went too far.
"Smooth it out and try again," said Crinkle. "The crease remembers."
"Now press it flat," said Presso. Press, press, press.
"Every fold makes me something new," said Kami. "Push, then pull."
Lan showed Emi how. Emi pushed. Emi pulled. It opened, and it closed! She laughed.
The rocket went up on a long white trail. Emi waved her paper machine.
They unfolded the paper flat, and the door closed behind them.
The spark dimmed to a warm dot and settled back on the anvil. The Green was just the Green again.
Back on the Green
Lan's big map would not fit in her bag. She did not scrunch it. She folded it.
Tell the story back to someone. Why did the ball of paper not open?
Who you met
-
Kami Paper becomes a new shape with every fold, and it only cuts where it is told from CreaseTots -
Lan a child of the Green Goes first; makes a friend in a minute -
Mark The lines tell you what to do — dashes fold, solid lines cut from CreasePals -
Cornelia Bring one corner to meet the other corner, exactly from CreaseTots -
Crinkle Smooth a crooked fold out and try again; the crease remembers from CreaseTots -
Presso Hold the paper still and press the fold flat so it stays from CreaseTots -
Inkling a child of the Green Names what she notices
Every recurring character has a short tune, so you can tell who is on stage before a word is said. The tunes play only when you tap, and the Reading Access sound switch turns them off.
The Honest Page
Which parts of this story are true, stretched or made up?
True
- On 18 March 1995, a Japanese H-II rocket launched a satellite called the Space Flyer Unit from Tanegashima Space Center, on an island in the south of Japan. Source
- The satellite carried a large flat panel, the 2D Array, folded with the Miura fold. In space it opened out to show that big structures can be built there. Source
- The Miura fold is named after the Japanese scientist Koryo Miura. A Miura-folded sheet opens in one movement when you pull its ends, and closes when you push them together. Source
- In January 1996 a space shuttle, Endeavour, caught the satellite and brought it back to Earth. Source
- A fortune teller takes four corners to the middle, then the paper is turned over and four more go to the middle: eight flaps.
Stretched
- The woman in the blue jacket in our story, and her folded square, are only there to show the idea. What we simplified: We do not know who watched the launch, or whether anyone on the hill had a folded model. The fold she shows is a real Miura fold.
- In our story the fortune teller is the paper machine, not the Miura fold itself. What we simplified: The Miura fold is hard for small hands, so the children fold a fortune teller, which shows the same idea: the folds decide how the paper moves.
Made up
- Ken, Emi and the paper door are made up. Kami, Mark, Cornelia, Presso and Crinkle are our own characters.