iiiiReader Book Reviews

This is another fun coloring book Thaneeya McArdle. I own several of her books have always have a fun time with them. This is a second book of feel good and inspiring messages “good vibes”. I don’t own the first in this series but am having a great time coloring in this book. There are cute designs with sayings and the back of the page has quotes by famous individuals and unknowns which range from inspiring to funny. I noted that the back of the page is now back in gray rather than colors. I prefer that as sometimes the color could show through to the front of the page depending on which medium I work with.

Once again, I love the designs in this book but am less than pleased with the fact that the publisher is printing 8 of the designs in less than full size. They have included a thumbnail color sample, some sample colors used in their design for inspiration and a few words to talk about the colors. It takes up the bottom 2.5 inches of the page. This information could be printed on a separate page or on the actual color sample page rather than on the coloring page.

In this book, it makes less of a difference than in other books. The designs can still be colored as there aren’t tiny elements but I would much rather color a full page designs. As the designs are not difficult to color, I won’t detract any stars from my review.

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I own a few coloring books by Teresa Goodridge but they are all seasonal scenes set to appeal to a more adult group. With Pretty Princess, her artwork takes another turn and is filled with cute and delightful images of a young princess. She is shown in many different settings with lots of flowers and sweet expressions.

While the images may appeal to both younger and more mature individuals, the designs have a level of detail which may prove a little difficult for a very young audience.

I personally like these youthful images though I admit that I bought this book originally thinking it would be one that I would eventually color with my granddaughter. Turns out that I want to color in it during the meantime.

I wish that Dover had released this coloring book in either their Creative Haven or Sparks lines as those are printed one side of the page. The only drawback I have with this book is that it is printed two-sided. As I knew that going in, I will not subtract a star in my rating but wanted you to be aware of it if that is a deal breaker for you.

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This is the poster version of the Harry Potter Magical Artifacts coloring book. If you own the the Magical Artifacts coloring book, then you have all of these illustrations in a smaller, two-sided design format. What I like about this coloring book is that the images are bigger, are printed one side of the page and are printed on medium weight card stock instead of lighter weight paper.

I like the illustrations that they chose for this book. Unlike the poster book for the first Harry Potter coloring book, this book does not contain the repeated designs that I refer to as wallpaper designs. The publishers picked out some of the best of the illustrations to enlarge for this book.

I really appreciate the poster format for coloring books. The paper is much more heavy weight though I call it a medium weight card stock. It could certainly stand up well to being framed if you so choose after you color it. The size is also great for framing at 14 x 11 inches.

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This is a lovely Scripture-based coloring book with Devotionals by Randy Alcorn and illustrations by Lizzie Preston. The subject of the book is Heaven. What will Heaven look like and be like according to the Scriptures? The Scriptures and devotionals are on the left side of the open pages and the design for coloring is on the right side. The Bible translations used in the book are listed in the front and are fairly extensive.

I found that most of the designs were representations of the study on the facing page. Perhaps all of them are and a few were too subtle for me to grasp. In any case, I enjoy Ms. Preston’s work and will enjoy coloring this book.

The revelation to me are the devotionals by Mr. Alcorn. I had not read his books but will certainly pick them up. He has a wonderful way of keeping right to the heart of the subject both quickly and eloquently. Each study looks at and discusses a single subject regarding Heaven. Some subjects include: Eternal Freedom from Sorrow, At Last, We’ll Have Time for Everything, Will We Reunite with Our Favorite Pets?, Our Greatest Joy Made Greater, No More Pain, Tears, or Death and much more. I plan to make each devotional a Bible Study lesson for myself. As there are 40 in the book, at the rate of one per week, the book will last close to a year.

The only one nit that I have with the book is the pre-printed flat gold tone on each of the designs. No matter what coloring medium I use, I will not be able to match the color or the texture of the printed color. I will probably use whatever medium I choose for the rest of the design and go over the pre-printed color to make it my own. However, it would have been much better to not have it to deal with.

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I own a couple of coloring books by Amy Brown which feature faeries. In this coloring book, the focus is on dragons. While this is one of her newer books (published 2015) I was really pleased to see that others of her older and out of print books are being re-printed once again.

The dragon designs have a bit of detail to them but on the whole, I find them open and easy to color. As with all of her books, there is a sense of movement, elegance and grace to her creations. The dragons are not menacing in this book and some of them are in cute poses (such as reading a book or having a tiny faery atop their nose.)

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This is a fairly large coloring book with 64 pages of designs. I’m not sure about the “journey” part of the title but there are many designs of castles and fantasy style creatures and even a very detailed knight.

In fact, detailed is a good description of this coloring book. It has zen tangle style doodling to an abundance. For my taste, it is a trifle too much as in certain images it becomes intricate and difficult to color. There are some designs that I will enjoy coloring but the extremely intricate, small and detailed ones are something I have a bit of difficulty in finishing.

At the time that I am writing this review, it is quiet expensive on Amazon at close to $14.00. I’ve found it at less than half the cost at Walmart.com, so I suggest looking around for Cra-Z-Art coloring books to find the best price.

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I’m a huge fan of Jane Austen’s novels, especially Pride and Prejudice. I remember the first time I read it (when I was in elementary school), I kept a flashlight by my bed so I could sneak and read after bedtime. It is a book that I have read many times over the years and I love to watch movies/series based on it and now am happy to find coloring books that are inspired by it.

The designs cover the book pretty much from beginning to end. There are many scenes that are iconic to me from the book from Mr. Darcy rebuffing Elizabeth Bennet as no being “handsome enough” to Elizabeth and Lady Catherine de Bourgh having it out in the garden. It is fun to see another artists interpretation of the characters.

The designs are very detailed with but not what I consider intricate. There are many areas to color but I can use most coloring medium without any issues. I think crayons might be more difficult unless you can sharpen them to a fairly fine point.

While you can have access to .PDFs when you purchase this book, my review is based on the book as it is received from Amazon. That way you will know what the pages look like and how they accept color. I like that the publisher provides the digital version as well so you can choose the paper you wish to use and/or to color the pictures as many times as you choose.

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