Do You Doodle?

This book has appealed to everyone in our family (ranging in age from 5 to 48) so much that everyone ultimately got their own copy. There are so many ways to enjoy this book - we've done everything from doing the same pages separately and then comparing, to working side by side on a two-page doodle and discussing what should go into the picture next. Neither of our kids has ever liked coloring books or coloring in general, yet both took immediately to this book. They will often swap books and ask each other questions about their drawings and I'm often struck by the level of thought they've put into their drawings. Definitely worth every penny!

I bought this book for my son, who is 7. I've been teaching him how to draw but its great that if I'm not around he can get great ideas from this. The book features page after page of drawings to finish or suggestions on what to draw. My son just loves this book and so do I. I would recommend this to anyone who wants to expand their child mind and abilities.

A friend of mine sent this book to my son for his 5th Birthday and he absolutely loves it! It really gets him using his imagination. The day it arrived was a busy day so he opened it in the car. We started looking through the pages together (I did have to read to him what each page said but most of the "starting pictures" are self-explanatory). He immediately started saying things like, "I can see in my mind what I want to make for that picture!" and "I know what color I want to use for that!" He seriously could not wait to have some colored pencils! I would recommend this to anyone with a kid 4 or up (or even an adult that loves to doodle).

I picked this up for my daughter during a trip I took to London two years ago. She was a four year old budding artist and this was her new favorite book. It stretched her imagination and prompted her to produce the most wonderful drawings. And no kidding, this kept her busy for hours. The only trouble was (is) sometimes she had to have the few words on the page read to her to help her figure out what to do on each page. I have been waiting for this to become available in America because she filled in her other one. I am the daughter of a therapist who was opposed to the concept of coloring books that kept children drawing inside the lines. This is not like that. Catlow puts a half of a drawing on the page and invites the child to draw what is going on on the rest of the page, to provide the explanation of what is already drawn. It's been fabulous to watch her mind work as she comes up with what's going on on each page. Color is optional, what it's doing is encouraging the kid to expand or create. In fact, my daughter now does not at all like the standard coloring books. She asks me to buy blank notebooks and she draws in the "coloring book" outlines, then fills them in or "colors" them or not as she feels like it. In other words, she has continued with what she learned in this book and would rather make her own Catlow book than color in a standard coloring book. There is another Doodle book with a gray cover, Doodles by Taro Gomi, which we bought for her when she filled up this yellow one, and it's good but probably for an older kid, I'm guessing 8 years or something. In the Gomi one they're asked to fill in word bubbles to indicate what people are saying... it just seems a little more suited for a slightly older kid who already can read and write. I'm buying two of these Catlow books, one for my six year old daughter who filled in the first book, and one for my four year old. Oh wait, a third one for my five year old niece's birthday next month.