New Drawing Books by Chris Hart

Some of you may know Chris Hart from his drawing books for older kids and adults and his Manga work.

I have been wanting to add good drawing books to the library collection at our school and I've also wanted to keep some on hand in the library for kids who would like to give some things a try while they are in the library. I've had trouble finding books that are good for younger children. SO many are not beginner drawing books.  As a classroom teacher, I learned how powerful how-to types of books are and I am finding that cookbooks, craft books, and drawing books are checked out often.  So I was thrilled to find a series of 3 new drawing books by Chris Hart:  DRAW A CIRCLE, DRAW ANYTHING; DRAW A TRIANGLE, DRAW ANYTHING; and DRAW A SQUARE, DRAW ANYTHING.  I plan to create a basket of drawing books that can be used in the library and if kids seem to like them, we'll get several copies for checking out.

These books are wordless. Students use the visuals to learn to draw a variety of things. And they draw everything beginning with one simple shape.  A few words from the author at the beginning of each books let them know that if you can draw the shape, you can draw anything!  These books make drawing very inviting and doable for young children.  Flipping through them even make me think I might be able to draw some of the things.  And there are SOOO many things you can draw in each of the three books.  The final picture on each page is colored in so artists could get some ideas on how to color it when finished--looks like colored pencils which I'll add to the basket with these books. 

For classrooms, these would be great for indoor recess.  A few of these books with colored pencils would be a great indoor activity that kids would love.