It's time for another Timberdoodle review! This time we were excited to try A Kid's Guide to Drawing the Presidents of the United States. We were given a free copy of the book about John Quincy Adams in exchange for reviewing the product (I was not compensated in any other way, etc).
I was really excited to participate in this particular review. If you're a regular reader of this blog, you know we love art in general and drawing in particular! Combining art with History seemed almost too good to be true.
We started by passing out paper and pencils to everyone and a copy of the drawing instructions we were to use. I read the text out loud and then we did the drawing together. We began with the very first drawing in the book, a statue of John Quincy Adams and his mother.
To be perfectly honest, I was disappointed in the drawing part of this book. The cover is (in my opinion) a bit misleading. Nowhere in the book are there any instructions that are going to teach you to draw anything like the picture of John Quincy Adams that is shown. The drawings are the type that have you draw shapes, then fill in the picture around it. The instructions begin: Draw the seven ovals, as shown, for her head, neck, arms and torso…this was overwhelming for my younger students (ages 6-9) and just plain frustrating for my older ones (ages 10-13)- even with the example to follow.
The results were disappointing to my children who prefer a more "portrait" type of drawing.
Having said all that, I do love the History part of this book. It is interesting and engaging. My children listened attentively and seemed to enjoy the information, which was written in a narrative voice.
The book also has a short introduction to perspective drawing, which I think my children will find more appealing.
Overall, I would recommend this book just for the History portion of it. I plan to use it along with some other drawing resources we have at home. Also, children who have had less drawing experience than mine may be more satisfied with the results.
{P.S. be sure to check in on June 3rd, when Apollo does his very first Timberdoodle product review!}
Can’t wait to hear a review from Apollo! :o)