Aw, just the ticket for the long summer holidays but sadly not out until the 7th September. BUT a good way of beating the 'Back to school" doldrums for creative kids, with a new range of fantastic activity books from top creative Marion Deuchars.

Marion's tutorial and art books are always brilliant and we started off by taking a look at "Let's make some Great Art: Animals" which was very much my daughter's cup of tea, being mildly obsessed with animals of all shapes and sizes.

Learn how to draw, paint, collage and create a ton of brilliant animal-based art with easy to follow guides and lots of encouragement to get straight into drawing directly in the book (something we're always a little nervous of, but don't worry, this book positively begs you to do so but just don't get any ideas about doing that to your other books, OK kids?)

Tons of fun and some brilliant results made so easily that you'll feel like a "proper" artist!

"Let's Make Some Great Art: Animals" by Marion Deuchars is published by Hachette on 7th September 2020. 

Also out on 7th September is "Let's Make some Great Art: Patterns"...

Marion encourages you to let your mind wander by creating some truly awesome patterns and doodles with whatever art materials you have to hand.

Patterns appear all around us, in our lives, in nature, everywhere! So let's draw up a storm with some esoteric mesmeric designs that can be used for all sorts of things from purely decorative forms of art, to decorating your school books, project folders or even your top secret diary!

Marion's enthusiasm and effervescence really shine through in this book, and anyone with any artistic skills, whether beginner or experienced, will find an activity in this book to suit.

Brilliant stuff!

"Let's Make some Great Art: Patterns" by Marion Deuchars will be released on 7th September 2020, published by Hachette. 

(Both books kindly supplied for review)

I remember the first time I properly fell in love with pop art, mostly through the works of artists like Roy Liechtenstein and Andy Warhol. But in "Bob Goes Pop!" by Marion Deuchars, everyone's favourite artistic bird hears that there's a new artist in town - a sculptor called Roy whose works are causing something of a fuss in Bob's neighbourhood.

"But I'M the best artist in town!" squawks Bob, but when he finally sees Roy's work, it lights a fire of inspiration under Bob's tail feathers - and Bob's world is about to POP, POP, POP!

Bob is determined to reclaim his crown as top artist but as he enters into friendly competition with Roy, they soon realise that competing with each other can be counter-productive.

There's a nasty showdown after Bob surreptitiously spies on Roy's new project - but Bob sees the error of his ways, and together he and Roy realise that they can make the most amazing art in the world if they can work together to achieve great things.

Marion expertly plays with the concept of pop art through this engaging story, and children will love joining Bob in finding out what pop art means - perhaps even indulging their own curiosity about art movements and why the Pop Art movement was so hugely influential and inspirational in the mid to late 20th century, and continues to be such an amazing branch of the art world even today.



Sum this book up in a sentence: Marion cleverly works in several amazing works of art, inspired by real-life artists in the pop-art movement such as Yayoi Kusama, Claes Oldenburg and Jeff Koons - offering a fabulous little story to serve as a great introduction for kids to begin their own appreciation of amazing art and awesome friendships.

"Bob Goes Pop" by Marion Deuchars is out now, published by Laurence King Publishing (kindly supplied for review). 

"Mood" books are very much a thing at the moment, as children are increasingly aware of (and often concerned about) emotional states from a very early age...

Regular ReadItDaddy-ers will know how much we love getting messy with paints, chalks and drawing materials...