Kid Style Nature Crafts: 50 Terrific Things to Make With Nature's Materials

Instructions for creating seasonal projects using natural materials are accompanied by nature facts

Grade 4-8?This attractive volume, arranged by season, begins with a lively introduction to get kids excited about nature crafts, and then gives tips for crafters. Full-color photographs and step-by-step diagrams are included for each project. In addition, attractive and informational sidebars about the Earth's resources often appear. The book is adequately indexed and contains a metric-conversion table. Although the table of contents notes which projects require adult assistance, some that call for the use of potentially dangerous tools do not contain supervisory notes. Some of the materials listed are not readily available. Two of the activities require pressed ferns or flowers but don't indicate how to press or where to purchase them. The introduction and tips seem to be aimed at young children, yet many of the projects demand patience and dexterity. Urban youngsters will find the hunt for materials frustrating. Suburban and rural libraries with avid crafters among their readers might consider this as a supplemental purchase.?Marilyn Fairbanks, East Junior High, Brockton, MA
Copyright 1995 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Gr. 4^-7. Just another season-by-season nature-craft book you say? Not so; in fact, there are some really great projects here that you'd be hard put to find instructions for elsewhere--such as producing your own decorative bricks, weaving a twig hat, and making fish-print T-shirts with real dead fish. Some are quite simple, but many require patience and dexterity, with a few demanding experience with saws and drills (these authors aren't as conscientious about coding projects for danger as some are). The step-by-step instructions are usually clear, but the illustrations (mostly photos) that accompany them are sometimes too small to give handicrafters a clear view of procedural details. Still, the project selection (there are 50) is intriguing and nicely varied, and discussions of different aspects of nature scattered through the text constantly remind readers of the connection between undisturbed, expansive, fascinating nature and what they can create with their own hands. Stephanie Zvirin