You Can Draw Dinosaurs You Can Draw Flowers You Can Draw Monsters and Other Scary Things You Can Draw Zoo Animals You Can Draw Pets You Can Draw Planes, Trains, and Other Vehicles

K-Gr 2—The few sentences that appear on the first spread of each of these books tell children what they will need before they start drawing and assure them that if they can draw shapes, lines, numbers, and letters, they are ready for any of the drawings that follow. Wordless instructions make up the rest of the books, with figures materializing shape by shape across the landscape of spreads. Do not expect realism or actual dinosaur names; the simple cartoon figures, such as a dinosaur playing drums and another shopping, are pure fun. There are even instructions for drawing props for a cheerful group scene that takes up the final pages. Don't worry about the fright factor in Monsters and Scary Things—the setting is a beach, and the creatures are more goofy than scary. The only problem with each brightly colored step is that if young artists replicate the colors, mistakes will be hard to erase (even colored-pencil marks faintly linger). Still, this is a solid way to get children focused on drawing objects by using shapes they may have already put to paper.