Mermaids in Wonderland: A Coloring and Puzzle-Solving Adventure for All Ages
By: Marcos Chin
Rating: 5 of 5
As with Mr. Chin’s earlier coloring book, this one is divided into two parts. The first (and larger) part is white background and the second part is with black background. There are a lot (more than I prefer) puzzle solving opportunities on the pages. I wish that the artists would put the puzzle queries on a single page (with pointers to the pages involved) and leave the wording off the coloring page. That’s my personal preference but others may like the puzzles as-is.
The cover of this book is very pretty. It has copper metallic accents and some of the elements are touched with clue and green tones while others are left as black on white line drawings. The front and back cover fold out with coloring opportunities on the inside (white background at the front cover and black background at the back), however, the paper is slick. There are also four detachable (perforated) postcards printed on a good heavyweight card stock. The postcards are pre-set up for address and stamp areas.
In my coloring book, the alignment of the pages was quite good. The binding is sewn rather than glued, so you can remove several whole pages at a time without loss of design by snipping a few threads. I was able to get the book to lay flat by breaking the spine slightly by push down very hard to fully open the book.
This is what I found while coloring in this book and testing the paper with my coloring medium:
94 pages of Mermaid Designs with a considerable number of puzzle to solve
Printed on both sides of the page
Paper is heavyweight, white, slightly smooth and non-perforated
Sewn Binding
Many designs spread across two pages
Many designs merge into the binding area (especially two-page spreads)
Alcohol-based markers bleed through the page
Water-based markers can spot through and leave shadows on the back of the page. As with the prior book in this series, my worst experience was with Staedler triplus fineliners. The brush end of Tombow dual markers did not bleed through or leave shadows.
India Ink pens and gel pens do not bleed through or leave shadows. Gel pens take more time to dry than usual.
Colored pencils worked with with this paper. I tested both oil and wax based with good results. While the paper is lightly smooth, it still had enough tooth for good pigment, layering and blending.