Funmakers

Description

63 pages
Contains Illustrations
$1.95
ISBN 0-590-71509-7

Publisher

Year

1985

Contributor

Reviewed by Susan Rogers

Susan Rogers was a librarian with the Laurenval School Board (Adult Services), Deux Montagnes, Quebec.

Review

Funmakers is a book of 50 different crafts and activities for children. Most of the items require making something that can then be played with, such as a movie box or a rope-a-can walker. Other crafts are designed for use as decorations and gifts (place cards, candleholders, pussywillow bouquets). Instructions are also given for things to eat (jelly Easter eggs) and to grow (one’s name in carrots). Some of the activities are geared for holidays: Christmas, Valentine’s, April Fool’s, Easter, and Halloween. Most of the necessary materials are to be found easily around the house.

The instructions are short but adequate and are accompanied by simple black-and-white drawings. Most of them can be followed by a child working alone, but the suggestion to ask an adult for help is made when necessary. The instructions for the origami Christmas tree proved too complicated for this adult (although the warning that “it needs some practice and clever fingers” is given at the beginning). All the other crafts attempted had satisfactory results.

The directions are clear, but scope is also left for the individual child’s imagination, and children are encouraged to change the designs and to adapt certain crafts for different occasions.

This is an inexpensive book filled with good ideas. It would be handy for anyone who works with children from five to ten years of age.

 

Citation

McKim, Audrey, and Jennifer McKim, “Funmakers,” Canadian Book Review Annual Online, accessed December 12, 2024, https://cbra.library.utoronto.ca/items/show/35734.