Tuesday 6 September 2011

Craft Kits


I sent this to my godchild for her 7th birthday. She really enjoyed making the little books and reading them to her mother. Her mom told me it was one of her favorite gifts. If the child you're buying for loves to draw and read, this is a winner. Create Your own 3 bitty books

My niece and daughter (both four) recently spent hours making their own story books with this wonderful little kit. The books are a perfect size (about the size of a small board book, only with regular pages), the quality of the cover is excellent, and the girls greatly enjoyed making their own books. The only problem, however, was that the pages do come out a little too easily for my taste. The binding is not sewn, but rather glued in a little like a notepad, and a surprisingly small amount of force in the wrong direction can rip a page out. Still, on balance the price is fantastic for what you get. I would have enjoyed this kit very much as a kid. As it is, I was very tempted to save the third book for myself to use.

My son was making books at school from manilla paper and bringing them home to work on them further. This find was great. He loved having an actual hardcover book to color himself and put his own story into. The markers and stickers were a bonus as well. The books are good quality and have plenty of pages for a short story. I'm sure we'll look into purchasing this again. Fun for parent and child.

There is something extra special about 'writing a book' to my kids that writing or drawing on plain paper or in a regular notebook just doesn't seem to approximate. These little books are just the right size and price for the kids to make something a little special, but not so expensive that I will be upset when they are eventually destroyed. (And they will be destroyed. These look more durable than I had expected given the price, but as another reviewer points out, the pages are just glued together.)



The books are about 4"x5" with 12 (or 24, I guess) pages inside each. Their binding, the stickers that come in the kit, and the book-holder box are all made of or covered in plain matte white paper and can be decorated with the markers. The paper inside the books is slightly heavier than regular printer paper but not quite cardstock. So far not even the five-year-old has managed to make the markers bleed through the paper.



Our eight-year-old has used another book-making kit in the past that involved writing and drawing on special pages, mailing those off, and then waiting and waiting and waiting to get the finished book back. We loved that kit and its finished product but it was definitely not instant gratification. It also cost about three times as much as this kit.



As nicely self-contained as this kit is, it would make a great travel/vacation toy or a great toy to have on hand if you're about to be visited by kids.



Did I mention we love it? We love it.

I got this for as a christmas presents for my cousin. She is quite the imaginary little 8 year old so this was perfect. She enjoyed making her own stories, and illustrating them as well. Over all was a great gift!'


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