Reviewed by annieb123 on
Draw Your Day for Kids! is an upbeat art journaling guide with tutorials and prompts by Samantha Dion Baker. Due out 25th Jan 2022 from Penguin Random House on their Crown Books for Young Readers imprint, it's 224 pages and will be available in paperback and ebook formats.
This is a comprehensively written and engaging primer aimed at young readers (~8-12 years, lexile 970) with colorful prompts and tutorials to support and develop a journaling habit. The introductory chapters include the hows and whys of setting up and developing the habit of keeping a journal and using (and improving) it. The second section includes accessible suggestions and prompts for rendering letters, objects in our immediate vicinity, feelings, and quotes.
It should be noted that the content/art/instruction parts of the book cover 137 pages of the total page count and the rest of the book (including the e-book format) are blank and are intended to be used as a personal art journal. I found the author's art very pretty and professional, and I can imagine that setting my own scribbles on the same page as hers would be moderately intimidating because I hate "ruining" pages in books and still struggle with spontaneity as an adult.
This is an informal but also appealing, accessible, and useful resource. I would recommend it to journalers, as well as in classroom settings, sketching and nature activity groups, and the like.
Four stars.
Disclosure: I received an ARC at no cost from the author/publisher for review purposes
Reading updates
- Started reading
- 4 January, 2022: Finished reading
- 4 January, 2022: Reviewed