This Book Thinks You’re an Artist — Review & Giveaway

Thought for the Day:

“Don’t think about making art, just get it done. Let everyone else decide if it’s good or bad, whether they love it or hate it. While they are deciding, make even more art.”

~ Any Warhol ~

Gifts for My Writer Friends:

Cleaning up a manuscript? Need to cut some words? The post HERE from Diana Urban has 43 words you should cut from your manuscript. This is a good one.

Writer’s Digest has a great post HERE on naming characters. Augusta Scattergood passed this along on her blog. Thanks, Augusta!

Ever find yourself searching your brain for just the right transitional word or phrase? Now you can simply search the post HERE.

I have often mentioned Kathy Temean’s wonderful blog, Writing and Illustrating. If you are a writer, you should never miss it. Last week I was featured on her blog! How exciting for me. If you missed it, you can see it HERE. I hope you will take a look, and while you are there, sign up so you don’t miss any of her posts.

Yesterday I spent the day as a judge at a speech tournament at my grandson’s high school. I don’t know exactly how many high schools participated, but there were many and the campus was full and busy. I was so impressed by the kids I saw. They were polite, professional, prepared, smart, and passionate. Unfortunately, they couldn’t have the awards ceremony because the smoke from the nearby fires was so bad, many were having problems with asthma, but we did get through all the competitions. Spend a day doing this, and you will realize our future is in very good hands.

Last week, I offered one of you an autographed copy of Elizabeth Varadan‘s wonderful new book, The Carnival of the Animals. This week’s winner is Carol Federlin Baldwin. Congratulations, Carol! If you don’t know her, she is a South Carolina writer and blogs about writing and books at her cleverly titled Carol Baldwin’s Blog. She often has giveaways and always has good information, so please check it out. Carol, I will get your book out to you this week. For the rest of you, please keep reading because I have another fun giveaway this week.

I often get an itch to try my hand at some other kind of creating besides writing. I think I should take a class in pottery or painting or take a few days and do some fun sewing projects. I think most of us feel this way. When I saw This Book Thinks You’re an Artist available for review from the Manhattan Book Review, I grabbed it. I have always had a penchant for workbooks, and this one did not disappoint. Here is the review I wrote for them.

Everyone has some artistic ability, and if that ability is engendered at an early age, many children will make art a much more important part of their lives, either as artists themselves or as those who will appreciate art. This is a fun workbook printed on art paper that will handle all kinds of art materials. It is broken into eight sections: Look, Draw, Color, Pattern, Design, Sculpt, Steal and Offend, and This Book Thinks It’s an Art Studio. Each section has several art projects that will challenge youngsters to try lots of different artistic endeavors and then has a box on each project that discusses why this method might be considered art. The basics, such as line drawing and color wheels and combining colors and perspective, are covered and then built upon. There are lessons in pointillism and pop art and surrealism that will introduce young people to ideas they may never have considered on their own, and that will free their minds to explore and use their own creativity. This is a wonderful compilation of projects that will keep youngsters engaged for days on end and will likely turn a lot of them into budding artists and art lovers.

I have a gently-read copy of this wonderful workbook for one o you. All you need do is be a follower or subscriber (it’s free!), have a U.S. address, and leave a comment below. If you would like extra chances, please share the link to this post on Facebook, Twitter, or any other social media outlet and let me know you have done that. If you are reading this in your email, please click HERE to get to my blog, then click on the title of the post, and leave a comment. And don’t forget to check for other Marvelous Middle-Grade Monday posts at the Greg Pattridge’s blog HERE.