Books to Read
Books to Read
If you enjoyed making the crafts and doing the activities in this book,
you’ll find lots of other good arts and crafts books. Some of them are
listed here. Your school or public library will have others.
Ages 5 to 8
The ABC’s of Origami: Paper Folding for Children by Claude Sarasas
(Tuttle, 1964; 20th printing, 1987)
Easy-to-follow diagrams show you how to fold single sheets of paper to
make many things—from an albatross to a zebra—in origami, the
Japanese art of paper folding.
Build Your Own Farmyard by Caroline
Pitcher (Watts, 1985)
Easy-to-follow illustrations and directions show you how to use everyday
materials to make everything you need for a miniature farmyard. Another
book by this author, Build Your Own Castle, has step-by-step
illustrated directions to help you build a castle and everything that
goes with it.
Dinosaur Discoveries: How to Create Your Own Prehistoric World by
Robin West (Carolrhoda Books, 1989)
Draw, cut, and glue paper shapes to make three-dimensional dinosaurs.
Then make scenery for your dinosaurs.
Easy-to-Make Spaceships That Really
Fly by Mary Blocksma and Dewey Blocksma (Prentice-Hall, 1983)
Have fun making and flying your own starship, zoom-a-rang, zip ship,
galactic glider, and many others.
Easy-to-Make Water Toys That Really Work by Mary Blocksma and Dewey
Blocksma (Prentice-Hall, 1985)
Use the easy-to-follow directions in this book to make a loony balloon,
mini puttputt, bubble hoop, and many other fun water toys. Then, hop
into the bathtub, fill up the sink, or go to the park or the beach and
try them out.
Playing with Plasticine by Barbara Reid (Morrow, 1988)
You can have a zooful of animals, and other things, too. This book shows
you how to use plasticine or any similar modeling clay to create flat
pictures and to make some fun-to- play-with toys.
Potato Printing by Helen R. Haddad (Crowell, 1981)
Decorate your greeting cards, wrapping paper, pictures, and many other
things with a potato and paint. This book shows you how to make potato
prints and use them in many different ways.
Printing by Hilary Devonshire (Watts, 1988)
Make colorful prints using recycled string, rags, cardboard, and other
objects you find around the house.
Visiting the Art Museum by Laurene Krasny Brown and Marc Brown
(Dutton, 1986)
Join a family on a trip to the art museum. This book combines drawings
and full-color reproductions of art from museums all over the world.
Ages 9 to 12
Cardboard by John Lancaster (Watts, 1989) Using cardboard and
newspaper, you can make three-dimensional models such as a curving
sculpture, a tubular model, a relief model, paper animals, a peephole
theater, and others.
Drawing History: Ancient Rome by
Elaine Raphael and Don Bolognese (Watts, 1990)
This book tells about life in ancient Rome and shows how to draw scenes
of life at that time.
Easy Origami by Dokuotei Nakamo (Viking Kestrel, 1985)
This book contains easy-to-follow diagrams and directions for origami,
the Japanese art of paper folding. You can fold paper to make masks,
puppets, toys, and more.
Folk Toys Around the World by Virginie Fowler (Prentice-Hall, 1984)
This book tells about folk toys from Africa, Asia, Europe, North
America, and South America. Use the directions to make your own
interesting, and sometimes exotic, toys from other parts of the world.
Making Chinese Papercuts by Robert and Corinne Borja (Whitman, 1980)
The story of Chinese papercuts begins with flowers. But flowers are only
the beginning. This book has directions for making all kinds of Chinese
papercuts, from light and delicate to dark and bold.
Messing Around with Drinking Straw Construction by Bernie Zubrowski
(Little, Brown, 1981)
What keeps skyscrapers from falling down and bridges from breaking into
pieces? You can find out for yourself by making your own models with
drinking straws, paper clips, and pins.
Paperworks: Colorful Crafts from Picture Eggs to Fish Kites by
Virginie Fowler (Prentice-Hall, 1982)
Paper is one of the easiest craft materials to use—and it’s also one
of the easiest materials to find. This book gives directions for prints,
collage and decoupage, papier- mache, and much more. Start by collecting
different kinds of paper. Then discover the many ways you can use it to
make fun and beautiful things.
Printmaking by Don Bolognese and Elaine Raphael (Watts, 1987)
Write dramatic, spooky stories and illustrate them with your own big,
bold, and scary prints. This book gives illustrated directions for
making prints with stencils, woodcuts, and linoleum cuts.
The Secret Life of Hardware by Vicki
Cobb (Lippincott, 1982)
If hammers, saws, and chisels could talk, they’d tell you all about
their history and what they do. Here are the stories of some familiar
tools.
Making Folk Toys and Weather Vanes
by Sharon Pierce (Sterling, 1984)
You can play with the folk toys you make, or use them as decorations. A
plywood rabbit in your garden won’t eat your lettuce and carrots. A
running horse weather vane will look great on your desk. Make these or
others with the help of this book.
Woodworks by William F. Brown (Atheneum, 1984)
Make things out of wood that really work. This book not only gives you
all the directions you will need for some woodworking projects but also
tells you where to find inexpensive or free lumber.
Illustration acknowledgments
All photographs in this volume were taken for Childcraft by Joseph A.
Erhardt unless otherwise noted. All craft items shown in this volume
were designed and made by Kathy Belter, Ann Tomasic, Mary Tonon, and Jan
Yourist with special assistance from Barbara Lazarus Metz. All diagrams
in this volume were prepared by Product Illustration Inc. unless
otherwise noted. Page numbers refer to two-page spreads. The words
\”(left),\” \”(center),\” \”(top),\” \”(bottom),\” and \”(right)\”
indicate position on the spread. All illustrations are the exclusive
property of the publishers of Childcraft.
