Puppet Play

Puppet Play by Diana Schoenbrun is filled with lots of fun sock puppet projects to make.  There are twenty different projects to make with socks or gloves, felt, buttons and other basic supplies.  The book comes with patterns and directions for each project. 

This is a fun book that comes with lots of beautiful pictures of all the different puppets you can make.  The projects are leveled by difficulty and go from one or two that are very easy to projects that would be challenging for an adult.

Appropriateness: Most of the projects are more difficult than a young child could make so I'd recommend it to middle school and up unless you want to do all the work.

Review copy obtained by netgalley

Chalk the Block

Chalk the Block: Add Humor to Your Neighborhood by Michael Sherman is full of fun ideas for kids to use when they chalk up the neighborhood.  Keeping with the Klutz brand it comes with four pieces of chalk together with all the ideas. Kids are given tips on how to use sidewalk features such as cracks and rocks to turn a simple drawing into a great idea.

I got this book for my daughter who loves playing with sidewalk chalk.  She is now super excited about using some of the ideas that she has gotten from the book to decorate the neighborhood.  The book is very short (probably 40 pages) and simple enough that a first grader could read the ideas and incorporate them into their artwork.  The ideas are simple enough that even those of us who have no artistic ability can follow them.  I would recommend this for 5-9 year olds.

Play All Day

Taro Gomi's Play All Day: More Than 100 Punch-Out Pieces! is a fantastic book full of punch out activities.  There are finger puppets and animals and boxes and it's all together in a book that's easily stored on a shelf or to be taken on vacation.

My daughter immediately pulled out a couple pages and started making a box.  The instructions are on the page and she completed it easily and then filled it with stuff (all kids have random amounts of stuff).  A couple weeks later she punched out the monkeys and had a ball playing with them.  I love these crafty punch out books that store easily and are filled with a wide variety of activities.

The activities are easy enough for a 5-7 year old to do without much help and there are instructions for each separate project throughout the book (although most are self explanatory).

PaperToy Monsters

PaperToy Monsters is a book full of punch out paper monsters that can be assembled with nothing but glue.  Each monster has two pages, one glossy page with a picture and instructions and the cardstock page with the monsters that is perforated and ready to punch out.  There are four sections of monsters:  Monster Legends, Earth Ocean and Space Monsters, Mutant Food and Thing Monsters, and Human Monsters.  There is also a nice paragraph describing each monster's story and a set of templates in the back of the book so you can design your own monster.  The PaperToys come in Intermediate, Easy and Advanced difficulty and I was able to complete both an intermediate and an easy monster without much trouble and I'm one of the least crafty people ever.  It was a lot of fun.

My first two monsters:

Appropriateness:
 I would recommend this book for kids ages ten and up (although younger kids will be able to help and play with the monsters).  Any younger and the parent will end up doing most of the work.  How to books are great for kids to work on reading carefully and following directions.