Dots & Spots

I think this is an extremely creative and fun idea, with a very generous amount of different activities. I like the simple design and colour palette. This book definitely encourages imagination, with sometimes very little to start you off. Some children may have a bit of trouble coming up with their own unique creations, but I think this is a good way to learn and grow.

What a fabulously creative book which will inspire many children and young people. I love how the dots and spots on the page also have prompts to guide and encourage children and young people to create, to explore and to turn it into something of their own!

Dots & Spots is a fun drawing guide full of prompts for younger readers. Due out 1st Sept 2020 from Quarto on their Walter Foster Jr. imprint, it's 80 colorful pages.and will be available in paperback format.

A short how-to-use-this-book tutorial (2 pages) is followed by pages and pages of colorful dots and a prompt for what the dots could be (a spaceship, a monster, a robot). This little book will provide hours and hours of entertainment.

This is a very simple concept, but very well done. This would make a super rainy-day or quarantine activity book.

Four stars.

Disclosure: I received an ARC at no cost from the author/publisher for review purposes.

This is a fun and colorful "uncoloring book" for kids to draw their own designs around colorful dots and other shapes according to prompts like decorate these flying donuts, draw spaghetti and someone eating it around these circles that are meatballs, draw faces on all of these colorful circles, and so on. There are about 6 colors total, and generally lots of white space for kids to draw the bulk of the page themselves according to the prompts. In some cases, they draw inside the shape (draw yourself in this oval that's a mirror, now draw yourself in a fun house mirror in this squiggly rectangle...).

Note that it can't seem to decide how many pages it is. The info description says it's 80 pages, the Goodreads blurb says it's 96 pages, and the Amazon blurb says it's 112 pages. My ARC was 112 pages. In any case, the retail price of $14.99 seems a little high but it is a fun and creative activity book that kids are likely to have a lot of fun with.

I read a temporary digital ARC of this book for review.

This is a terrific book for children. It sparks the imagination and is great for creativity. The activities are geared for ages 6+, and can also be adapted for younger children, and children with special needs. It is chock-full of ideas. Highly recommended!

Fun Drawing Book the Whole Family Could Enjoy

Having recently reviewed several instructional drawing and sketching books, this one was a surprise. It's the drawing equivalent of a writing prompt book, something which I'm very familiar with. This book is filled with pages of colored shapes, the spots and dots mentioned in the title, and a prompt to get you to think about how you might want to fill in the shapes as well as create a background. The prompts for the first couple of pages didn't really give much direction, and I thought the book was not going to be terribly interesting because of that. But things got more complex and more focused as the book went on, making for a much more interesting book. A more directed prompt has the artist do different jack-o'-lantern faces in differently shaped orange blobs. A complex direction suggests making a castle behind flying gumdrops. This book is so open-ended that just about any family member who can hold a pencil, pen, or crayon could have some fun with their own books—and certainly, the whole family could create together in one book, with different people doing different parts of a page, perhaps. Honestly, this is just a fun book that will inspire your creativity and bring out your inner artist, whether you consider yourself to have one or not.

A super-duper, mind-stimulating book with countless prompts to get readers drawing and designing. I suggest young readers date each completed page, keep this wonderful activity book, and browse through it when they are fully grown! What a delightful experience!

This is a wonderful paperback book that will provide children hours of creative thinking, designing, and drawing. The prompts from page to page build vocabulary and learning experiences for early readers. The author encourages the use of any type of drawing or illustrating tool from pencil to paint to stickers. Young illustrators are encouraged to create art from squiggles, dots, and circles. There are prompts to create animals, imaginary scenes, monsters, dragons, robots, castles, Halloween scenes, Christmas wreaths, time, planets, Earth, outer space, aliens, food, selfies, vehicles, ocean scenes and so much more!

The prompts are often rather humorous! Children will love this drawing book. It is easy to jump around to any page and start designing. Parents will love this book. It will open great discussions and conversations. In our time of staying at home due to COVID 19, this book will be a wonderful activity for families! I bought one for my grandson who just turned six. I cannot wait to see what he does with this book!

(This is an honest review in exchange for a pre-publication reading in Netgalley from the Quarto Publishing Group.)