Building Little Children's Furniture
To pull and hold the pieces together in a firm tight grip, only screws should be used here. For the purpose of fastening light drawers, attaching edge trim and other decorative features that have no bearing on strength, nails can be used.
Spread a thin layer of glue on both sections to be joined, set them together, and immediately tighten with screws, to make a strong permanent joint. The best method of working with screws is to pre-drill screw holes in the top piece, the diameter of the hole is equal to the diameter of the screw being used.
These holes can be countersunk (if the screws are located at the back or underside. If the piece where they will not be visible). Then, after setting the two pieces together, drop screws into all the screw holes, hammer them part way into the undrilled wood beneath (unless it is hardwood), and tighten in the usual manner.
Do not tighten the screws in consecutive order, but skip around, tightening first one at one end, then one at the opposite end, then back to one midway between , and so on until all are tightened, in the case of a long row or ring of screws. When you do this, it will insure the pieces being evenly brought together and keep them from getting out offline while assembling.