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Friday, 25 July 2014

Everyone's gone to the Loom! 3 current and upcoming kid's books for you obsessive Loomineers!

Posted by ReadItDaddy at July 25, 2014 Labels: , , , , , , , , , , , , ,
Loom Band It by Kat Roberts and Tessa Sillars-Powell (Apple Press)
If you'd told me a couple of months ago that I'd be eschewing the usual evening's entertainment to slavishly sit, almost exploding with concentration and frustration, twiddling tiny rubber bands around pegs or a couple of forks, I'd have called you a complete lunatic (or should that be Loom-Atic? Oh yes the puns will keep coming, never fear!)

The world seems to have gone Loom Band crazy, and it's almost impossible to escape hearing about the latest trend for kids to create amazing bracelets, charms and figures from tiny little coloured elastic bands. 

Though most folk turn to YouTube for some brilliant tutorials (we can heartily recommend searching for Loom Love and Olgacrafts - two of the best Loomers around) we wondered whether there were any books on the subject. 

Obviously it's not the sort of thing that lends itself well to a book (can you imagine how long some of the tutorials would be?) We find the diagrams that come with packets of loom bands a bit like reading double dutch and they're quite frustrating for kids - so we looked for 3 of the best. 

First up - from our header image is "Loom Band-it" by Kat Roberts and Tessa Sillars-Powell. This looks like it should offer an excellent starting point for kids who are just beginning to make their own loom creations. 60 projects ranging from bracelets to charms and rings should definitely get you up and running. 

Loom Magic! Creatures by Becky Thomas and Monica Sweeney (Simon and Schuster Children's Books)
Next is something that should tickle your fancy if you prefer making charms and figures, creatures and cute little things. "Loom Magic! Creatures" by Becky Thomas and Monica Sweeney (Simon and Schuster) has 25 loom projects that break away from boring bracelets and let you exercise your creative talents making all sorts of wonderful creatures. Rather like the look of this one as we've just started making things like this ourselves (and can heartily recommend any tutorials you find that use two forks - no I'm not kidding - rather than the sometimes quite expensive looms or peg boards). 


Rev-o-LOOM-tion - A modern kids guide to rocking rubber bands by Liz Hum (Triumph Books)
Finally something a bit more rad and fashion conscious. "Rev-o-LOOM-tion - a modern kids guide to rocking rubber bands" by Liz Hum is more for wearable loom creations. It's been getting some impressive customer reviews on Amazon so it could be the ticket if your kids prefer stuff they can wear rather than charms or figures. 

We're waiting to see what other publishers do to climb on board the rubber-band-wagon - Hopefully these are just a few of the books that'll be hitting shelves over the summer and through towards christmas when loom stuff will be high on a lot of children's christmas pressie lists.