Reviews (1)

Very little "how-to"; goofy examples
At a skimpy 32 pages (30 with actual content), I wasn't expecting much. I hoped for some hints my younger brother might find useful when drawing. Unfortunately, the book presents virtually no useful tips. The bulk of it consists of suggestions of *what* to draw, all of which are insulting to kids who are serious about either machines or drawing. The illustrations throughout are appropriate for pre-schoolers, although the vocabulary of the book indicates it's meant for children at least 10 and up.

The drawing tips presented are all so general as to be completely useless. The book suggests cross-hatching for shading, stippling for curves, and vanishing points for perspective, but gives kids only a sentence each on how to do these things. "Use straight lines to shade flat surfaces and curved lines for rounded surfaces." "The closer together the dots, the darker the shading." "Make wheels, windows and doors smaller the further away they are." That's *it*. The only "technique" that is given step-by-step instructions is copying using a tracing paper grid. Boring!

The suggestions for what to draw amount to: "drawings for you to try", i.e., copy. The bulk of them are cartoons. Smiling trains, crazy robots, and so forth. Rather patronizing, and I'm sure most kids would say the same.

The last few pages are about "designing your own machine," which means drawing a fake CAD-looking structure and reading a sentence on airbrush technique. (?!)

All in all, a waste of time. ... Read more

Book Description

What's going on behind that high construction fence? What do they find when they dig deep into the ground? Construction reveals the fascinating and active world of construction sites. This book uncovers: - Commercial buildings - House construction and room plans - Shipbuilding and monuments - Safety, hard hats and accidents - Construction vehicles, cranes and materials.

About the Explore Your World series:

Interactive books for young explorers:The Explore Your World series covers a wide variety of science, nature and technology topics in an innovative and interactive way. The books make use of a profusion of engaging line drawings and colorful illustrations along with delightful pull-outs, pop-ups, fold-outs, transparency overlays, reveal wheels, books-within-books and more. Each page offers a surprise for young, curious readers. Lively captions featuring non-technical explanations accompany all the illustrations. ... Read more

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