The Third Anti-Coloring Book: Creative Activities for Ages 6 and Up

I remember being introduced to the concept of an anti- coloring book in the 80's & loved it! As an elementary counselor I enjoyed using the pages to stimulate conversation & watch what the children dreamed up. Now in 2009, I needed something similar to use at a nature summer camp & was excited to order it. However I think I would have been happier with a "Science & Nature" Anti-coloring book because lots of the pages didn't fit my need. In a generic sense, it's good & I'm sure I'll find many more uses for it at another time. I also thought the drawings of people were a bit rudimentary, (personal taste). This is great for rainy days, vacations & firing up someone's imagination, plus, many children LOVE to color & we shouldn't take that away from them!

This book is far superior to regular coloring books that just have you color in the lines without much thought. It truly does empower creativity. Rather than just coloring in a figure, kids are given prompts. One page has a theater stage with the request "Design costumes and scenery for your favorite fairy tale." Another says "You have been asked to design new playground equipment for the park." My daughter really got into these designs. When she finished the book she brought it to me and showed me her creations. They really are creations. She's drawn her ideal park, she's drawn a picture of the things she likes to do when sick in bed (and that gives me good ideas of how to entertain her the next time that happens). I'm buying one for each kid, since they really do become personal art books. We've used them for road trip entertainment too. Kids may zip through a regular coloring book within half an hour, but this one lasted us about 6 hours.

I was given this coloring book for Christmas in 1981, as a gift from my aunt. I devoured it, and loved the idea that *I* could create some of the picture before coloring it. As the child of an artist, I have always been very encouraged by my parents to be creative. But when I got to school, I found that teachers didn't always share that enthusiasm, and I found it terribly frustrating. Grass HAD to be green, the sun HAD to be up in a corner of the picture... But not with THIS coloring book. Kids can do whatever they want in here, and it's WONDERFUL. Striker draws half the picture, and encourages kids to draw what they see in their own imaginations, dreams, and toyboxes. In college, I bought the rest of the series of Anti-Coloring Books, and they're all every bit as good. They will be a mainstay of my gift-giving for children needing creative encouragement as long as they're in print.

A ship's captain looks out over the bow of his boat. What has he sighted? It's up to your child's imagination to illustrate the rest of the story on this page of the Thrid Anti-Coloring Book. Each page offers a starting point for creativity and encourages children to design, create, consider possibilities. There are pages asking to design a billboard, to look into a fire, to draw what you think of when you hold a seashell to your ear. My school age children have loved Susan Striker's anit-coloring books over the years and I continue to purchase them as birthday gifts for young friends.