The Big Beautiful Colouring Book by Hannah Davies
Although I have two small children, it's been a long time since I just sat and did any colouring by myself. Usually, I am tasked with drawing various family members, or vehicles, or animals, and then we colour them in together. This time I sat quietly by myself with a pack of my son's new colouring pencils, and I quite happily passed a couple of hours colouring in!
| The Big Beautiful Colouring Book by Hannah Davies | |
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| Category: Crafts | |
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Reviewer: Ruth Ng
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| Summary: A good range of pictures, and wonderfully shaped segments to colour in. Give yourself a treat, and take an hour (or two) to go back to a childhood pleasure! | |
| Buy? Yes | Borrow? No |
| Pages: 48 | Date: March 2015 |
| Publisher: Buster Books | |
| External links: Author's website | |
| ISBN: 9781780553498 | |
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It's actually incredibly relaxing, and these pictures are crowded with different sized segments to colour in as you wish. There's a sense of freedom - you could just do each piece the same colour to make a single coloured fox, or you could go wild and mix it up with any colours you choose at random from the pack! My first picture was a peacock, and it felt almost therapeutic, sitting quietly with some music on, colouring in each piece to make a beautiful picture.
The paper is excellent quality - no see-through pages here, and indeed there is just one picture to each piece of paper. It's thick enough to handle some scrabbling with felt tips, but actually I like the effect you get with pencils. The range of pictures is good - some larger animals and birds, intricately patterned, as well as other pages of flowers and leaves, or smaller animals. I'd guess it would primarily be attractive to girls, but my little boy sat on my knee for some time, happily colouring bits in. It's actually nice to be able to work together on a picture, and the range of shapes means there are both tiny, intricate spaces to colour as well as larger blocks. The shapes are all swirls and spirals, tiny dots and larger areas to colour. Some have an Indian feel to them, and others have a wonderful stylised art feel to them.
It's probably best for children who are 8 years or older unless you have a particularly patient 6-year old who loves colouring and has the stamina for a large picture! But then the style of the pictures would allow it to be used right through to older children too, maybe even the odd teenager who fancies a bit of downtime colouring in and, as I said, I thoroughly enjoyed myself with this and am actually looking forward to another quiet nap time when I can have another go at another picture!
Each page has a perforated join, so you can very easily tear your picture out afterwards to display proudly on the wall. I also like this feature because it means if you're using it for children you can easily remove pages so that everyone who wants to colour can have their own picture to do at the same time. My only quibble with this wonderful colouring book is its size - because although it is fabulous to have such enormous pictures to colour (A3 size), it does mean it takes up rather a lot of room on the table and it's also not easily transportable, so won't do as something to keep the kids quiet on the train, unless you're blessed with a magical Mary Poppins bag! Still, if you're happy to find a suitably large storage spot for this in your home then it's well worth looking at.
You might also enjoy The Neon Colouring Book by Richard Merritt, Amanda Hillier and Felicity French or The Creative Therapy Colouring Book by Hannah Davies, Richard Merritt and Jo Taylor.
The Big Beautiful Colouring Book by Hannah Davies is in the Our Top 10 Colouring Books for Lockdown.
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You can read more book reviews or buy The Big Beautiful Colouring Book by Hannah Davies at Amazon.co.uk Amazon currently charges £2.99 for standard delivery for orders under £20, over which delivery is free.
You can read more book reviews or buy The Big Beautiful Colouring Book by Hannah Davies at Amazon.com.
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