My Very Favorite Art Book: I Love to Draw!

There's nothing kids like more than putting pencil, crayon, or chalk to paper and drawing their favorite things. But mastering technical skills isn't always easy for them. So visual artist and instructor Jennifer Lipsey has created an appealing new series that gently takes youngsters 4-to-8 beyond what they know--and this first entry introduces them to some very simple drawing basics. On the left page are hand-drawn how-tos, all in bright purple. On the right is the finished piece, with even more entertaining things to do. And the minimal text allows even pre-readers to follow the instructions easily. While children happily create great pictures of ice cream, dinosaurs, and bicycles, they're learning how to turn basic lines into shapes, construct accurately proportioned people and objects, capture silhouettes, and produce realistic three-dimensional effects.