iiiiReader Book Reviews

This is a really cute coloring books of kittens at play. Kittens seem to alternate between playing and sleeping, but when playing are at their cutest. I really like that the artist took the extra step of showing different breeds of cats. Everything from long hair to no-hair cats are included. Some designers cats look the same from design to design.

The designs are detailed with full backgrounds. I don’t consider the designs to be intricate or difficult to color. It’s always challenging to color hair, so this is a great book to practice with. Be sure to search Youtube for tutorials on how to do this.

While I purchased my first copy of this coloring book, when the publisher heard I had been very ill this past year, she gifted me with several free coloring books including a copy of this one.

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This is my third coloring book by Christopher Hart. I love the idea of Chibi characters set in a Christmas scenario. Chibi is a form of Manga characters but are cute and adorable with distinct characterizations which set them apart from the standard Manga style.

The characters are cute just as the title says. There are Chibi girls and boys, Santa and his reindeer. Even some Chibi pets and stuffed animals.

While there are lots of designs showing Christmas trees and Santa, the book is secular in nature. It does not explore religious themes. There are outside scenes with snow which should be fun to color as the weather turns cold.

Unlike my previous books where the backgrounds were merely backdrops, in this coloring book the backgrounds are an integral part of each design.

The designs are detailed because of the backgrounds. Otherwise, the characters are fun and fairly easy to color. They are not what I would characterize as intricate with small areas to color.

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This is a lovely coloring book based on the children’s classic book of the same title. There are ninety six pages of illustrations (both sides of the page) which are based on the book illustrations. There are many pages which use a variety of bits and pieces to create completely new designs. There are also a number of wall-paper style pages (repeating images) but the images are so cute, in this case I don’t mind it.

This is a book that my children enjoyed and now my grandchildren do, too. Coloring in this book brings back many happy memories. It is aimed at the adult coloring market but I believe children can color the designs as well. Not little ones but children who are versed in coloring should enjoy it.

The designs range from open and easy to somewhat detailed with smaller areas to color. It is not what I consider difficult or intricate to color

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The designs in this coloring book are based on the following animation movies: How to Train Your Dragon, Kung Fu Panda, Madagascar, Puss In Boots, and Shrek. These are a number of my grandchildren’s favorites so coloring in this book, for us, is a family deal.

My grandson is able to color well at age 5 but his little sister is not yet able to, so she picks the picture and the colors and has me color it for her (and she adds her final touches – a bit of scribble scrabble that she loves.)

The one real problem I have with this book is the intricate and extremely difficult to color backgrounds on some of the pages. They were not necessary and the problem could have been avoided but since they chose to do this I knocked a star from the rating. Some of the background illustrations (especially those that are done in a manner that can be colored) added much to this design.

Otherwise, the character illustrations are fun and easy to color. I will probably just use a single color in a watercolor brush marker to color the detailed backgrounds.

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This is one of several coloring books that I own by Amy Brown. I’ve seen her beautiful original work and feel that the line drawings are a nice interpretation of those.

The book is filled with female fairies in Ms. Brown’s distinctive style. Her faeries are long and lean with flowing hair and draping clothes. The images have some form of background though in many cases, it is simply a circle set behind the main character. In others, she has included elements to surround the faerie but never so much that it takes attention away from the main character.

The designs have some detail but are not what I consider detailed overall. The designs, as always with Ms. Brown, should be a fun and easy project to color.

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I have thoroughly enjoyed the first two books in this series. There were really cute and sweet looking designs of mice and others who lived in the village.

When I received this book, it was quickly evident that it was more unusual. It didn’t take long for me to figure out why. The artist behind this book is Forest Diver. I really like his designs and was first introduced to them in the Enchanted Forest series by the same publisher. The other books in the village series have not included an artist’s attribute but they have a very different look and feel to them.

Mr. Diver has created more creatures for this third book in the Serene Village series but they are in more of his trademark and more elegant style. Some of the creatures in this village are creatures I recognize from the forest.

And that is all fine with me. It seems to be more of the forest series but I’ll accept it as a village entry. I like both series and see this book as a happy meld of them together.

There are some areas with smaller than average elements to color but not what I would consider too difficult or hard to color.

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As I have found with other coloring books in this series, the designs are from a team of designers as well as many open-stock images as well. The designs are from Shutterstock, Jill Tytherleigh, Lydia Coventry and Sophia O’Connor.

The book is based on a story version of The Nutcracker and not on the ballet. I like that for a change of pace. The other coloring books I have found have been based on the ballet. The images are lovely but I found that there was a serious use of wall-paper designs and the use of open-stock images were easy to recognize.

The 96 pages of designs are detailed and many contain intricate and small areas to color. You will need small nib pens/markers and sharp pencils for those areas.

Many of the designs spread across two pages with integral portions of the design being lost into the binding area. In my copy of the book, the pages line up fairly well.

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Main Street USA

By: Sandi Pirrelli

Rating: 5 of 5

This is a coloring book that I bought about a year ago. It no longer seems to be available on Amazon but I did find it (at the time that I wrote this review) at the publishers as in stock. Here is the link to that page:

https://www.primamarketinginc.com/shop/main-st-multimedia-coloring-book

I like the coloring book It is a slightly square format and has a spiral binding on the side. The images are crisp and clear and the pages are perforated for easy removal if you care to do so. I like small town looks in coloring books and that is what I find in this one.

The designs have good detail but are not too intricate to color. I especially like that there is a framing line around the images which stops short of the perforations, so if you remove a page, you don’t leave behind part of your colored design.

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