Daily Archives: March 5, 2016

Amazing Grace is a coloring book which includes lyrics and illustrations by artist Suzanne Khushi to match to one of the most beautiful Christian hymns of all time. The hymn speaks to an individual’s ability to receive salvation and the mercy of God, regardless of what sins they may have committed. I memorized the first verse as a young child attending Sunday School and then, later in life when I became a Christian, I learned the rest of the song which really spoke to my situation in life.

I will provide details on what I found in the book below, but as a quick overview, here is what I discovered:

45 full page designs printed on one side of page
45 pages of light illustrated lyrics on the back of pages
Designs printed on white heavyweight perforated paper
glue binding
designs stop before perforations
alcohol-based markers bleed through the paper
water-based markers and Pitt India ink pens leave shadows on back of page
gel pens do not leak throughout
coloring pencils work fantastic with this paper

The hand-drawn coloring book has 45 pages of designs which depict the portion of the lyrics directly opposite the design page. It also has 45 pages of lightly illustrated lyrics. The lyrics are printed on the page opposite the design (thus, on the back of the preceding design page.) The designs are a wide variety but with scenes of nature taking the most part. There are a number of designs which are directly Christian in their inspiration (such as crosses, praying hands, etc.)

This hymn was written by John Newton in 1773. Newton had been involved with the slave trade when in 1748, in the midst of a horrendous storm, when all thought their ship would go down, he cried out to God to save him. This was the moment when he experienced the salvation of his soul along with that of his body. He later became a clergyman and wrote Amazing Grace to illustrate a sermon he delivered New Year’s Day. The hymn was first published in 1779.

When they were young, I always both read a story to my children and sang a song to each of them at their bedtime. Without fail, my late son always requested this song so I am very familiar with it. Of course, I found out later it was because it was the longest song in my repertoire but it was a beautiful way to end my day. Coloring in it is now both a way of thinking on God’s sacrifice to save me and a way to think back to the days when my son was still with me.

The actual designs of the coloring book are printed on one side of perforated white heavy weight paper. Portions of the lyrics are printed on the back of each design page. The binding is glued rather than sewn. You can easily remove pages at the perforations and you will not lose any portion of the designs in doing so.

I test all of my coloring books with a large variety of coloring mediums. I will list the actual coloring mediums at the end of this review. This is what I discovered about this coloring book:

All alcohol-based markers bled through to the back of the page. All water-based markers and India ink artist pens left distinct shadows of color on the backside of the page. Gel pens did not leak through but required a little extra drying time. Coloring pencils worked beautifully with the soft lead pencils laying down thick and creamy color that was extremely easy to blend. The hard lead pencils worked well, the color was deeper than on some less expensive paper, and they did not leave dents on the back of the page.

If you use markers of any sort, you will probably mar the lyrics on the back of the page. In which case, I suggest either removing the page from the book before coloring or using a blotter page below it. If you want to color both lyrics and illustrations, I recommend using coloring pencils or gel pens.