Kid Made: Easily Made Sets for Action Toys

Joan Weller is head librarian at the West Branch of Ottawa Public
Library, and the children’s literature reviewer for the Ottawa
Citizen.

This title needs some clarification. According to the author, the sets
used in television commercials to advertise children’s action toys are
“kid made”; a set may be, for example, a house, a science lab, or a
castle. To describe these sets as “easily made,” as the author
claims in this book, is very misleading. Aimed at preteens and
teenagers, the book demands mature, creative skills and dexterity with
complicated and often dangerous materials. Most adults will not want
children, even teenagers, “creating” with the book’s required
tools (e.g., X-acto knife, steak knife, needle-nose pliers, craft glues,
and professional paints). In addition, many of the extra materials are
not easily found (e.g., old batteries, bits and pieces of clocks and
radios, copper wire, wooden crates, and wooden dowels, to name a few).

There may be a need for an instructive book on this craft, but this
book is for adults and is definitely not recommended for children.