So, we love to color in our house. Happens all the time. We will draw and color on just about anything, but high quality (sorry dollar store) coloring books are my fave way to go. And, just so we’re clear, high quality does NOT mean high prices.
Which is why I wanted to share some books with you, all of which feature nice thick pages and beautiful illustrations for around 6 or 7 bucks. Can’t beat that.
The other reason these books are so amazing is that people of all ages can enjoy them. I’ve purchased these books for both kids and adults, and my daughters and I often color them together.
As you can see from the video, this is a pretty awesome book. It’s great for kids (and adults) interested in fashion design, but also for anyone looking to just relax and have some fun coloring.
You can head over to my website to see the Vintage Fashion Coloring Book. It has 32 pages of gorgeous illustrations to color, and is suggested for ages 6 and up.
It also has 32 thick pages and tons of historical fashion to color. It’s rated for ages 6+ but is, of course, great for any age. It features different decades on different pages. Here’s one I was recently working on:
Plus, there’s the mini sized Pocket Fashion Drawing Book that we usually keep in the car. ‘Cause, like I mentioned, my daughter is pretty much always drawing.
Isn’t that just too cute? We love it.
The pocket book is a smaller size – easier to store in a purse or something, but it has many more pages. At 128 pages, it’ll keep you entertained for a long time.
Plus, it features mostly modern styles, if that’s your thing.
If you’d prefer something different, here are some examples of different coloring books available on my site:
And they are seriously awesome. There are more in the series too, which means tons of PATTERNS TO COLOR! I’ll make some videos for them too, (and some newer fashion coloring books as well!) but if you have any questions about them, please comment or message me anytime!
I am mildly (okay, that’s an understatement) obsessed with Shakespeare.
I’m not exactly a Shakespearean scholar or anything, even coming from a literature major in college, but really more of what I call a Shakespeare groupie.
I love Shakespeare and everything that he has given us, and I love to share the stories and the characters and the words with my kids. My girls are still very young, but we’ve already seen multiple live performances together, watched some of the plays as movies, and done crafts and activities based on the plays.
And one of the original reasons that I became a consultant with Usborne Books & More is because of Usborne Publishing’s amazing collection of books about Shakespeare. Which is what this post is about. I wanted to share with you how these books help to get kids excited about Shakespeare and help to research and understand his plays.
Though, honestly, I really got the books for myself. My kids just get the benefits of having them around. ;)
This seemed like the perfect time to share them, too, with this month being a worldwide celebration of the 400th anniversary of Shakespeare’s death. Not a celebration that he died, mind you, but a celebration that we’re still so excited about and grateful for everything that he brought into our world through his art.
Talking about books seemed to me a great way to honor the words he gave us. ;)
The books are much more impressive in person, however, than they appear from a simple photograph, so I’m first going to share a video review I made of the books listed here – so that you can see a glimpse inside of them and compare what they offer. Then I’m going to list each book with a brief description.
Ugh … I don’t like watching myself on video. But hopefully I was able to explain and demonstrate the books well enough for you to figure out what would be best for your household or classroom. (Even if I did get confused and stumble over my words here and there…)
But if anything was unclear, or you have any further questions, please leave a comment here and I’ll do my best to help!
Here are the books, including the gift collection not mentioned in the video:
The Illustrated Stories contains retellings of 6 plays, all fully illustrated with artwork on every page. It’s a hardcover book with a soft outer cover and includes a ribbon bookmark.
Plays included: Twelfth Night, A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Hamlet, Macbeth, Romeo and Juliet, and the Tempest
This sticker dressing book allows you to dress up characters from many of the plays with over 160 stickers, from Bottom to Macbeth and Cleopatra to Hamlet. Also includes some quotation stickers.
A truly fun and unique concept, this book of Where’s Will is the Shakespearean version of Where’s Waldo.
There is an illustrated summery from 10 of his plays, followed by a double spread illustration for each of those plays in which you must seek out characters from the play.
This book is covered with a sturdy flexi-binding and retells 10 of Shakespeare’s plays with large lively illustrations. Includes summaries of all of the plays.
Play include: A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Hamlet, Romeo and Juliet, As you like it, Twelfth Night, The Tempest, The Merchant of Venice, The Winter’s Tale, Macbeth, and The Taming of the Shrew
Available in flexi-binding or in library binding, this book will thoroughly introduce you to Shakespeare. Find out how he lived, what Elizabethan London was like, and why we still perform his plays today.
Includes multiple glossaries plus information about how to further research the topics on the internet.
Shorter than the book mentioned just above, this hardcover reference book contains similar information, but in smaller chunks and with a more colorful format.
That’s it for my review! Overall, I highly recommend ALL of these books, but I understand most people aren’t going to rush out and stock up on each and every one of them, so I hope I’ve been able to help you decide on a favorite(s).
Also, be sure to follow me on Facebook where I have a habit of posting random funny or interesting Shakespeare stuff. ;)
This is a fun book to read. It has lots of sounds, or onomatopoeias, which kids enjoy. And you can kind of dance about while reading it, or, you know, maybe leave the dancing around to the kiddos.
Either way, this dinosaur may be dirty, but he does wind up taking a bath at the very end. Before the bath comes along, though, the kids will have a lot of fun with the stomping and shaking and snuffing about over the pages of simple illustrations mixed with bright colors.
Real mud was used in creating the illustrations, so that’s something that would be fun to incorporate into crafts with your own kids.
Watch my video review to see inside the book:
And you can read a little more about it on my book website:
I love these Muddle and Match books! They make great gifts but they also keep my kids entertained during both story time and long car rides. The reason for this is because they are SO interactive.
The concept of the books is this: you have three sections on each “page” that are all able to be turned independently. So the story on the left and the picture on the right can be changed over and over. You could end up with a cowgirl head, a fairy body, and a mermaid tail – kind of like the picture on the cover. And then you can change it up again!
Another thing I love is the alliteration. Each page of the story focuses on one letter – which makes it easy to incorporate these books into lessons of learning the alphabet.
The books themselves are like a board book with thick pages, and they also feature rounded edges.
And, you know, they are super silly and fun! Which is an awesome way to help kids learn to love reading.
Watch my video review to see the books in action:
And check out the whole collection on my book site:
Do your kids love to be noisy? Because mine certainly do.
And, to be perfectly honest, the word “noisy” carried a rather negative connotation for me…. until I found these books!
I mean, I love when my kids get “noisy” by running around the backyard or playground and making a healthy ruckus…. but noisy TOYS? No. I avoid those things like the plague.
But when I started selling Usborne Books, I was intrigued by these. Usborne has such amazing books, but would I like the ones that made sounds? YES! Would they be annoying like others I’ve found in stores? Not at all!
In fact, even though my kids benefit by my being a consultant in that they get to read all the books that come through my house, the one I bought just for them was the Noisy Orchestra. WE. LOVE. IT. No kidding: this thing rocks. It has beautiful sounds, gorgeous illustrations, and it’s actually pleasant for me to listen to while my kids play with it in the car.
But the best part is – even though the orchestra book is our personal favorite – there are a TON of noisy/musical/sound to choose from and you can find one to fit the interests of the kids in your life! Got a little one who loves monsters? Pirates? Trucks? Castles??? We’ve got you covered! :)
These books are rated for age 3 and up, but they’re also wonderful for beginning readers and early elementary ages. Plus, they’re also sturdy enough when the younger siblings get hold of them: rounded edges and thick pages for safety and a lifetime guarantee for accidents. (Contact me for details!)
Here’s my video review of a few of the books:
And here are direct links to the books pictured above and featured in the video:
If you’d like more information about getting these books for free by throwing a Facebook party (anywhere in the U.S.!) or about how to become a consultant and enrich the lives of children by encouraging early literacy with amazing books like these, contact me on my book site or on Facebook!
The Dog Who Loved Red by Anitha Balachandran is one of my favorite Kane Miller picture books.
The illustrations are a bright and fun celebration of color.
The dog’s name is Raja and Raja loves red. He even has “red radar.” He chews on Mrs. Lal’s red shawl and Mr. Lal’s gray and red socks, but Raja’s favorite red thing to chew is the old red ball that he and his friend Champ play with.
But the red ball is lost. Champ is sad.
Then Raja uses his red radar to locate their red ball in the neighbor’s backyard. The neighbor, Mr. Mehta, doesn’t like dogs. But Raja braves Mr. Mehta and his blue hose to retrieve the ball.
He’s quite the colorful mess at the end, which results in a bath for him and lots of laughs from your audience.
Kids love the adventurous story and there are a ton of colors mentioned for your Little Ones to find.
In the video below, you can watch me reading the book:
I’m sorry to announce that The Dog Who Loved Red is no longer available to purchase new from Usborne Books & More/Kane Miller, and but you can find many other wonderful picture books at my Usborne site, Books With Rosie.
Roaming Rosie 
