Reviews for Easy Carving Projects for Kids

The average rating for Easy Carving Projects for Kids based on 2 reviews is 2 stars.

Review # 1 was written on 2016-01-07 00:00:00 Michael Kalkbrenner I normally don't partake in reviewing comics or books that I've read as a child. They belong to my childhood, and any grown-up associations I'd make with them would possibly ruin the whole thing. I'd also rate all of them five stars just out of sheer nostalgia, making it an utterly useless contribution to the Goodreads community. "Let's add all those Tintins to our to-read piles because Mr. Nostalgia over here got all excited", said no-one ever. Not even ironically, you guys are way too nice for that. But I do want to make one exception here for my dear friend Waldo (who as a child I knew better as Wally, but really, they're the same guy). Where's Waldo? holds a place in my heart special enough to make me want to expound on the five stars brightly shining on his warm, woolen hat. For a lack of brothers and sisters to play with and there being no children in the neighborhood I grew up in, I was left to my own devices when it came to spending my time during holidays. This ranged from having imaginary sword fights, getting three or four different puzzles and mixing all the pieces in a box and trying to solve them, playing Game of the Goose against my three other selves, playing soccer games in the garden, first against my dog, who got too good at the game after a while and got prone to confiscating the ball for his own little games, so later I just dribbled the ball between the trees and fallen leaves who were really Brazilian star players in my head. Aside from all these slightly psychotic activities, there were comics and this guy over here, Waldo. Hours and hours I have spent gazing at the vast and detailed pictures that Martin Handford crafted. Weeks, no, months I have spent in his worlds. At first, it was just a point of finding Waldo and getting to the next page. Then, it became finding his friends, books, kitchenware, scrolls, cameras, bones and dog tails as well. And then, it became finding all those extra assignments handed out in the back of the book. And then, at the point where I knew all the objects' and persons' locations by heart, it became simply a matter of "reading" these books. There's very little text, but each flip of the page shows you an entire world of little stories. To get an idea of how this can be done (rather dramatically) check out this video, with Werner Herzog (or someone sounding like him, the jury is still out on that) sharing his philosophical meanderings. Mine weren't as deep as those by dear Werner, but they made days fly by nonetheless. It's been a long time since I've revisited these pages but I bet I'd still remember where most of the stuff is to be found. I know the environments in these books better than I know some places I actually visited. Having spent so much time with these books may even have something to do with having grown up looking like the guy. They definitely could be responsible for my bad eyesight: these pictures held such a power over me they practically seeped the vision out of my eyes. Well-lit places are recommended when enjoying these. Waldo has taken me many places: through time, through books, through fantasy worlds of monsters and witches and living fruit and giant bakeries and movie sets and at the end of every book, the supremely challenging Waldo worlds where everyone and everything is wearing the jeans and stripes proudly. It taught me about myself too. When getting exasperated on not finding him, I skipped to the next page anyway, in essence cheating! The bad feeling I got as a result showed me I was a good person. That's right! I am. Even though I loved the entire series, I picked Where is Waldo in Hollywood to review because it was my favorite. It introduced all the extra stuff, like finding little objects and spotting random characters from each scene, following Waldo through the pages. I got my hands on this one at a time I could appreciate the humor in many of the drawings. It's also the time where Martin Handford perfected his style, being able to introduce even more detail in all of the pictures and make the crowds, busy with hundreds of tiny activities, even more impressive. The main source of humor is puns, references to popular culture and slapstick. The puns and references mostly went over my head in early stages, mostly because most of them are English puns and idioms translated into pictures taking them literally, and discovering them later on as my English improved was a true joy. A joy I'd recommend to all of you, and your kids. These books are kind of everything: a game, stories, history lessons, jokes, art. A pleasure for the young and the used to be young. This isn't just some 5 star nostalgia review. Get these. Now. Or I'll find you. I've had plenty of practice.

Review # 2 was written on 2013-02-08 00:00:00 Allen Stetler Where's Wally are great books.