Disney Ideas Book, Elizabeth Dowsett (author), Lynne Moulding (illus.), DK Books, 2018
Synopsis:
Bring your love of Disney to life with more than 100 amazing and creative projects and activities. Let your imagination run wild with Disney inspired arts and crafts, party games, puzzles, papercraft, and many more fun and practical activities.
Many of the parents I know struggle at times to find enough activities to keep their kids busy during the school holidays or in the years before they actually start school. This is particularly the case on rainy days! Happily, that’s where DK’s brand new Disney Ideas Book: More Than 100 Disney Crafts, Activities and Games comes in handy! This meaty book (releasing this month) not only contains a mammoth number of ways to entertain little ones, but bases all of them around Disney movies and characters.
While to be honest quite a few of the activities and games are re-hashings of options which have been around for years, the fact that they all tie-in to Disney figures will immediately attract the attention of young people who are obsessed with everything to do with Toy Story, Frozen, Finding Nemo, Moana, The Incredibles, Wreck-It Ralph, Cars, The Lion King, WALL-E, Monsters University, Cinderella, and the like. (The book also refers to some of the newest Disney releases, such as the BFG, Coco, and The Jungle Book. Both live-action and animated movies are covered.)
Each item in the book features step-by-step instructions, thereby guiding parents and children through all the way. Helpfully, the book is not only a great gift idea for parents, but also for children. Older kids can amuse themselves in the holidays by browsing the book and choosing which activities or games they want to tackle, day by day.
The book also contains lots of “Did You Know?” break-out boxes throughout which provide readers with tidbits of information about the movies, their characters, or real-life facts (for example, on a Finding Nemo spread about how to handpaint your own clownfish, the box mentions the number of different species of clownfish which can be found in the world).
Many of the activity spreads also contains “top tips” from expert crafters to help children make their creations more easily, quickly, and effectively. The book will appeal to both boys and girls, and children of varying ages.
If you’re after a practical gift idea for a child’s birthday or Christmas present, then this book could also be the perfect option. The quality of the production is high, as it always is with DK Books, with glossy pages, lots of colour, clear illustrations and photos, and a strong, made-to-last cover.
Please note: a complimentary copy of the book was provided by the distributor, Penguin Books, in exchange for an honest review.
