Review by New York Times Review
GIVE A KID a piece of paper and some crayons with the directive to "draw something," and the result might be a blank stare. But an activity book packed with doodling prompts, stickers, puzzles, hidden pictures, coloring pages or ideas for art projects can keep brains and hands blissfully busy, even through long summer afternoons - or car and plane trips that seem not just long but endless. The latest batch of these summertime sanity savers has a refreshing design-conscious sensibility, and - unlike Animal Jam or Musical.ly videos - may even end up teaching a youngster a thing or two. LIFT-THE-FLAP AND COLOR: OCEAN LIFT-THE-FLAP AND COLOR: JUNGLE By Alice Bowsher 10 pp. Frances Lincoln Children's Books. Paper, $8.99. (Ages 2 to 5) These simple coloring books, which are geared toward children as young as 2, have a lovely sculptural quality. Rendered in thick, bold brush strokes with a loose and friendly Keith Haringesque vibe, Alice Bowsher's illustrations of playful dolphins, lively coral reefs, cuddly sloths and monkey- packed rain forest canopies seem to reassure kids, "Don't worry about staying inside the lines." The best part of these books is their beautifully executed lift-theflap design. Cut into intriguing silhouettes, some of these flaps expand into spreads almost three feet wide. Just the act of revealing the coral reef landscape turned one of my testers, a 3-year-old ardent "Finding Nemo" fan, boggle-eyed with delight. DRAW AND DISCOVER: HAPPY, SAD, FEELING GLAD DRAW AND DISCOVER: PUSH, PULL, EMPTY, FULL DRAW AND DISCOVER: INSIDE, OUTSIDE, UPSIDE DOWN By Yasmeen Ismail 56 pp. Laurence King Publishing. Paper, $9.99. (Ages 4 to 7) There's something fun to draw on every page of this doodle book series aimed at preschoolers and the loose-front-tooth crowd. Created by the picture book authorillustrator Ismail ("Time for Bed, Fred!"; "I'm a Girl!"), they are good introductions to abstract concepts like "curious," "cranky," "lonely," "beginning" and "end." But what kids will immediately love about these books are the animal characters who bring each scenario to life. Drawn with casual, confident black lines that seem like a thicker, looser version of Mo Willems's Elephant and Piggie, Ismail's animals have incredibly expressive eyes and comedic body language, making them instantly fun company. Best of all, the doodling prompts are perfectly pitched for the age group, some of whom may not have quite mastered a pencil grip. In "Push, Pull," one spread shows Bear looking bummed out, a hollow ice cream cone in his hand, while grinning Rabbit holds up two blank spaces in the shape of cones. It's a gimme that no kid can resist. A 5-year-old I showed it to sat up straight and practically screamed, "I want to draw the ice creams!" DOODLE TOWN By Dominika Lipniewska 64 pp. Tate Publishing. Paper, $16.95. (Ages 3 and up) Here's something that could keep your family busy the whole summer. Set in the whimsical, Paul Klee-meets-Cartoon Network metropolis of Doodle Town, this is the rare doodle book that seems likely to make everyone feel right at home, even kids who typically don't gravitate to drawing. Lipniewska achieves the neat trick of providing just enough scaffolding to get young doodlers started, while keeping everything abstract and primitive-looking enough to be unintimidating. (Her people have square heads - yours can too!) Users are invited to transform the town and its residents by adding houses, playground swings, new hairstyles and jazzed-up outfits. Stencils in the shapes of clouds, flowers and raindrops (included in the book) can be used to help the process along. Another nice aspect: The book's large format means that two can sit side by side and work on the same spread without bumping elbows. After all, drawing doesn't have to be such a solitary activity. MY NATURE STICKER ACTIVITY BOOK: BIRDS OF THE WORLD MY NATURE STICKER ACTIVITY BOOK: IN THE VEGETABLE GARDEN By Olivia Cosneau Translated by Yolanda Stern Broad 24 pp. Princeton Architectural Press. Paper, $7.99. (Ages 5 and up) The first time you show your little nature lovers these books, do not let them know there are stickers involved. Because these are the rare activity books that can hold their own on the quirky, informationpacked writing and exquisite artwork (reminiscent of midcentury American illustrator Charley Harper) alone. We learn that ostriches don't put their heads in the sand, but rather "roll up into a ball on the ground, so that their predators confuse them with a bush." And we learn about the innovations of La Quintinie, the gardener to France's Louis XIV, who put beautiful glass bells over seedlings "like little greenhouses, to trap the heat from the sun." Once the kids have absorbed a few facts, they'll be ready to go crazy with the irresistible glossy stickers (100 or so in each book) and their attendant sticker projects. And if the toucan's beak ends up on the peacock's tail, well, that's O.K. too. SHOW AND TELL: TRANSPORTATION ACTIVITIES By Nous Vous 18 pp. Wide Eyed Editions. Paper, $9.99. (Ages 2 to 5) Whether it's trains, cars, trucks or airplanes, kids love things that go. And naturally, an activity book based on transportation themes makes an ideal travel companion. This one features a nice variety of distractions, including doodling prompts (design your own car), a maze, a connect-the-dots challenge and a makeyour- own-adventure-story page. The stylized illustrations by Nous Vous, a Londonbased collective of graphic designers, have a clean, retro feel and depict a pleasingly utopian view of modern urban life, with men and women of all colors driving buses, gliding on scooters and flying into outer space. The three big foldout posters are even chic enough for design snobs to consider hanging on a nursery wall, once the matching stickers have been (carefully) stuck. THE PREHISTORIC TIMES By Stella Gurney Illustrated by Matthew Hodson and Neave Parker 32 pp. Frances Lincoln Children's Books. Paper, $8.99. (Ages 5 to 9) We may be raising the last generation of kids who have any clue what a physical newspaper looks like. So this activity book, cleverly modeled after an old-fashioned tabloid (albeit one aimed at a dinosaur audience in 65 million B.C.), arrives just in time. Packed with cheeky news stories, Q. and A.s, opinion pieces, infographics and even advertising parodies ("Celebrate Mother's Day: Say It With Rocks"), it makes for very lively reading. My 10-yearold, who has never been especially interested in dinosaurs, loved the "Fight Report" (a blow-by-blow account of Stan Stegosaur's battle with Alan Allosaur) and the funny Q. and A. with the so-called Doomsday Dino, a seemingly crackpot Acanthopholis who tells the paper that a giant rock is hurtling toward the planet. ("Let this word of mine be heard from every corner of the land," he says. "We are doomed. Doomed, I say!") The book also includes 26 suitably old-school activities, including mazes, a word scramble, word searches and complete-the-pattern challenges, all with a dino theme. COLOR, DRAW, EXPLORE: MY NEW YORK COLOR, DRAW, EXPLORE: MY LONDON By Majel van der Meulen 40 pp. Laurence King Publishing. Paper, $12.99. (Ages 6 to 9) For kids, even older ones, visiting a new city can be overwhelming. Dragged from museum to museum, neighborhood to neighborhood, they're confronted with so many Famous Buildings that they can all start to blur together. These two activity books - part city guide, part coloring book, part doodling journal - can help kids better appreciate their visits to New York and London, while providing an outlet for their creative steam. In loose, spontaneous illustrations, van der Meulen captures the iconic sights of the two cities, with a special emphasis on architecture. She's made an effort to illustrate some of the less obvious attractions along with the sightseeing biggies (for instance, the New York book includes the Cooper Hewitt, Trinity Church and humble food carts). Along the way, she invites users to contribute their own skyscrapers, museums, foods and activities. One caveat: Many of her prompts assume a daunting level of artistic proficiency that will leave casual doodlers stumped, if not downright annoyed ("Draw some events you'd like to go to on a rooftop" and "Draw yourself on set with your favorite actors"). Still, even half-filled, these books will be worth saving long after the trip's over. SPOT THE MISTAKE: LANDS OF LONG AGO By Amanda Wood and Mike Jolley Illustrated by Frances Castle 48 pp. Wide Eyed Editions. $19.99. (Ages 7 to 10) With its beautifully embossed hard cover and cartoonlike illustrations, this oversize picture book doesn't exactly say seventh grader. But after I leftit out on the dining room table, I found my 13-year-old and her two friends huddled over it, pointing to the pictures and (I swear) saying, "This is cool!" A learning tool about ancient civilizations, it has the fun factor of a game. The book covers 10 civilizations, including the Stone Age, Han dynasty China, the Maya, the Vikings and medieval Europe, each of which is depicted in an elaborate tableau with 20 anachronistic errors. The challenge for the reader is to spot all the errors, like the can of spray paint in the Neolithic cave, the steering wheel on the Viking ship, the Roman soldier wearing jeans. In the following spread, the authors provide the answer key along with a pithy yet illuminating discussion of each item. (Younger readers can easily skip this part.) We learn, for instance, that although Stone Age humans didn't have aerosol cans, they "did invent a primitive form of airbrushing, by blowing paint through a hollowed-out bone to create images." Who knew? CATHERINE HONG, a contributing editor at Elle Decor, blogs about children's books at mrslittle.com.
Copyright (c) The New York Times Company [June 11, 2017]
Review by Booklist Review
Would the ancient Chinese be playing electric guitars? Were there dinosaurs during the Stone Age? The densely illustrated pages of this playful volume will reveal the answers. Eagle-eyed young historians will love scanning the pages of this oversize book, which features 10 scenes of different eras and areas, in which readers search for mistakes. Some, such as the electric guitar, are obvious, but others may require more logical reasoning, like a scene in ancient China featuring a woman with blond, curly hair, which would have been virtually unknown in that region and period. Each section also gives details on the period and location, which, along with a few hints, will help kiddos identify every mistake. And if they don't catch everything, the following pages show the same scene with a numbered key and explanations for each anachronism. Castle's illustrations play a big part in this production, and they are brightly colored and detailed without being cluttered. Overall, the whole effect lends itself well to teamwork, loads of discussion, and lots of giggles.--Linsenmeyer, Erin Copyright 2017 Booklist
From Booklist, Copyright (c) American Library Association. Used with permission.
Review by School Library Journal Review
Gr 1-5-Travel through the lands of long ago in this search-and-find title with an educational twist. After a brief introduction to two unnamed child guides and the premise of the book, a time line of the different periods and cultures, from the Stone Age to the era of piracy, is presented. From there, the real fun begins. Wood and Jolley devote a full spread to each of the 10 time periods featured. The catch: hidden in the illustrations are relics that do not belong in that specific time or region, such as a hot-air balloon in the Han Dynasty of ancient China or a gramophone among the Mughals of India. With a turn of the page, all of the objects, once concealed, are revealed with an explanation of why the item does not belong as well as what the people in that place and time used instead. The illustrations are gentle enough for younger readers to enjoy but will not alienate older readers, who will get much more out of the text. However, while the volume is informative, the lack of substantial, more detailed data is a flaw. VERDICT More for browsing than an in-depth investigation, this selection will no doubt inspire curiosity in history, science, math, social studies, and beyond. A recommended purchase for most public and school libraries.-Brittany Drehobl, Eisenhower Public Library District, IL © Copyright 2017. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
(c) Copyright Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Review by Kirkus Book Review
Ten scenes from Neolithic Britain to the "golden age of piracy" are laced with anachronisms for alert young historians to spot.With a pair of young tour guides (one white, one black) offering occasional hints throughout, viewers should have no trouble picking out most of the 20 howlers in each large-format, relatively uncrowded panorama, such as the jam jar, urban-style cave graffiti, cake with candles, and T. Rex in the Stone Age scene. Still, there are trickier details that will almost certainly go unmarked, such as the ears of corn next to that jam and a tiger painted on the cave's wall. Fortunately there is a visual and explanatory key on each following spread. If the authors make a few specious claims ("No Stone Age man would have been seen draped in a zebra skin") and point to the canoe rather than the generic Native American in the feathered headdress paddling it on the ancient Nile as the blooper, still their historical notes are reasonably accurate. Except in ancient Rome, human figures in Castle's illustrations are uniformly tinted, either light brown or (more often) white. Eye-opening discoveries await readers who think wheelbarrows, eyeglasses, street signs, and forks have always been around. (Nonfiction. 7-10) Copyright Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
