Fill in the Blank from Quirk Books - Inspirational doodling ideas for young and old

Our #ReadItMD13 Theme Week continues with even more books to encourage your children to pick up their pens, pencils and crayons and get doodling.

"Fill in the Blank: An Inspirational Sketchbook" by Muratayan Varham and Elodie Chaillous quickly became a firm favourite when we reviewed it back in October last year. A big and satisfyingly thick book full of brilliant inspirational ideas for doodling, the book offers you a few teasing ideas on each page with the aim of getting you to - well - fill in the blanks.

So for instance, you could design the world's most awesome cakes...

I can assure you, I couldn't bake or make anything this cool.

Or, perhaps one for the dads out there, design a seriously brilliant tattoo...

Ow, that's going to leave a mark in the morning

Each black and white 'blank' gives you just enough to get your imagination whirring away. Though Charlotte and I enjoyed scribbling away together I have to admit I'd sneak off when she went to bed for more doodling fun in this.

Books that give children an appreciation for famous artworks are always popular with us. James Mayhew has come up with some amazing books celebrating the world's most talented artists, and in "Katie and the Starry Night" James pays homage to Vincent Van Gogh as his popular character Katie discovers the master's works in a gallery.

"Katie and the Starry Night" by James Mayhew. Utterly beautiful and inspiring.

While her sleepy Grandma snoozes, Katie tries to catch a star from Van Gogh's beautiful "Starry Night" painting, and this leads her on a voyage of discovery as the mischievous star dances and leaps just out of reach. Other characters from Van Gogh's paintings pitch in to help...

Katie enlists the help of the Olive Harvesters in "The Olive Trees" painting

James' work is stunning, and the best part of his books that touch on the works of the great masters are that we can dive into our art books at home and find the real works themselves too. Linking children's books to the real world in this way is a stroke of genius and leads children on their own voyage of discovery too.

Usborne are always reliable when it comes to producing brilliant books to inspire young artists to exercise their talents.

The Usborne Book of Drawing, Doodling and Colouring. Brilliant (and sadly, also very absorbent)

The Usborne Book of Drawing, Doodling and Colouring is - or rather should I say WAS - a great favourite of ours. In a similar vein to the "Fill in the Blanks" book from Quirk, the Usborne Book gives children some great patterns and doodling ideas and can keep them happily occupied for hours. Our copy met with a rather untimely end as Charlotte ended up being car-sick all over it as she quietly doodled away on a long journey back from Cornwall last year. Sadly we haven't replaced it yet but it is definitely a fab book - just make sure that kids have a light breakfast if you're going to use it in the way we did. Eeks!

Finally how about a doodling drawing story to keep your children inspired?

Scribbles and Ink by Ethan Long (Blue Apple Books). Quick on the draw!

"Scribbles and Ink" by Ethan Long (Blue Apple Books) features a battling duo playing cat and mouse as each tries to prove who is the best artist. Though they squabble and fight at first, scribbles and ink soon discover that collaborating and friendship are far more enjoyable than arguing. Check out our review linked above to read more about this talented pair.

We'll be back for more before this week's theme finishes on friday. As always, please do let us know your favourite books for inspiring doodling and drawing in the comments below.

Happy New Year! Let's kick off 2013 with a cracking review of a fantastic book, one of Charlotte's christmas presents (thanks Uncle Graham!) - and a bit of a sad tale. You see, this book is not only very absorbing - it's also quite absorbent as we found out to our cost during a rather unfortunate car-sickness incident.

So although it's no longer with us (it was too ruined to salvage, alas), it was brilliant fun for the short time we had it.

With a mixture of fantastic themed pages covering drawing, doodling and colouring (as the title suggests), children and adults alike will find plenty to do. One minute you can be drawing fantastic hats and hairdos on funny little characters, the next minute you can be designing the perfect robot - or better still, the most horrendous monster ever created!

It's testament to how brilliant this book is that even the artistically challenged (like Charlotte's Grandad) found themselves drawn (quite literally) to it. This plus a pack of coloured pencils / pens and from time to time a bit of adult help for younger children guarantees hours of fun and stimulation. Just make sure you don't use it in the car after a huge bowl of coco pops and some impromptu dancing on a windy Devon road with no lay-bys.

Charlotte's best bit: Drawing happy / sad / frightened expressions on the 'face drawing' bits.

Daddy's favourite bit: Designing the perfect robotic companion