46 Dr. Seuss derived Designs with some binding issues printed on both sides of the page

The Dr. Seuss Coloring Book

By: Dr. Seuss

Rating: 4 of 5

I enjoyed Dr. Seuss as a child and have since read them to my children and their children. I was looking forward to receiving my new coloring book with artwork from the Dr. Seuss books. The book is nicely done but is missing some of my favorites (especially Green Eggs and Ham.) There are a good number of designs in the book and there are so many books to choose from that it almost seemed a given that many would not be included.

The designs are detailed but not too intricate. Many of the designs spread across two pages and parts of the design are lost in the binding area. In my copy, the pages line up fairly well. What is a problem is that the binding is a hybrid of glue and sewn. It has many stitches and the glue is heavier on certain pages. Those pages are difficult to lay flat for coloring. While there are not many of those pages, the ones that have the issue will be very difficult to color as even when I break the binding, I have to struggled to get my very sharp pencil point into the coloring elements. For this issue, I dropped my review to four star.
The designs are derived from Dr. Seuss books rather than exact duplicates. According to the publisher, these are the books utilized: And to Think that I Saw It on Mulberry Street, The Cat in the Hat, The Cat in the Hats Songbook, Did I Ever Tell You How Lucky You Are?, Dr. Seuss’s Sleep Book, The Foot Book, Horton Hears a Who!, How the Grinch Stole Christmas!, I Had Trouble in Getting to Solla Sollew, If I Ran the Circus, If I Ran the Zoo, The Lorax, Oh Say Can You Say?, Oh, the Places Youll Go!, Oh, the Thinks You Can Think!, On Beyond Zebra, One Fish Two Fish Red Fish Blue Fish, Scrambled Eggs Super, Theres a Wocket in My Pocket!, What Pet Should I Get?, Yertle the Turtle and Other Stories, and Youre Only Old Once.
This is what I experienced while coloring in the book and testing my coloring medium on the paper:
46 Designs derived from a few of Dr. Seuss’ story books.
Printed on both sides of the page
Paper is white, medium weight, fairly smooth and non-perforated
Hybrid glue/sewn binding that is difficult to open to lay flat
Designs reach into the binding area/spine
Many designs spread across two pages and important elements are divided onto both pages
Alcohol-based markers bleed through the page. These will leak through and mar the designs on the reverse of the page.
Water-based markers and India ink pens do not bleed through but do leave shadows on the back of the page. These will be noticeable on the designs that are on the reverse of your working page.
Gel pens do not leak through but require additional drying time.
Colored pencils work well with the paper. Though it is smooth to the touch, it still has enough tooth to grab pigment. I tested both boil and wax-based pencils and got good results from layering the same color, multiple colors, and blending with a blending stick.