Willey, Paula

This spring, arts and activity books are notably well designed and beautifully diverse—update your library with some of these titles.

A great activity book series will not only satisfy the maker urge, but will incorporate practice with additional skills as well. Problem-solving, critical thinking, creative decision-making, numeracy skills, and more can be part and parcel of any project or activity.

With opportunities for creativity and the chance to gain new skills, this season's arts and craft series include projects and ideas that are foolproof, field-tested, created with on-hand materials, and sufficiently explained using clear text and photos. 

This year’s top YA titles—from Bethany C. Morrow, Daniel Nayeri, and others—explore the magical and the mundane.

These attractive books will take quarantine hobbies to the next level. Readers can cook up a storm, build projects out of recyclables, or peacefully draw. Also notable: New seek-and-find titles make vocabulary development fun for kids and parents.

The graphic format can effectively tell complex stories and engage young readers. Encompassing first-person accounts of historical events and guides that address gender and identity, these titles meet the highest standards for nonfiction and are "inclusive, respectful, accurate, and informative."

Craft and activity books come in a variety of themes. These series cover video games, puzzles, search-and-find activities, and STEM challenges. 

Paula Willey considers the ghostly, mysterious, and all around non-realistic books in contention for this year’s Printz Award.

MacGyver has become a verb, and readers will be MacGyvering all over the place with books that teach STEM skills, encourage tinkering and repeated testing, and show how to reuse recyclables. The series below offer original activities, new takes on old favorites, and great-looking reproducibles for library, club, or classroom use.