crafts

What is contemporary art?

Read this book and parents dragging you along to an art gallery will never be boring again. In fact, if you read this book, you might end up knowing more than your olds! This book takes you through different types of contemporary artist and what they use, which is everything from crushed cars to rocks to eggshells. Of course, painting is also featured but not in any way you might have seen before. It goes without saying that this book has great pictures of all the art works, and next time you go to an art gallery, you’ll look at things in a whole new way.

Great Britain: everything you ever wanted to know

Despite it’s title, this book doesn’t cover the great battles, powerful monarchs or mighty castles of British history. Instead it covers all the ‘cool’ bits of British culture; tea, James Bond and Nessie. It’s also got great information on mainstays of life and history in Britain, such as the ‘great’ schools such as Eton and Harrow, eccentric aristocrats and the Beatles.  This is not your average history book, but a fun read if you happen to be  interested in what makes Old Blighty so unique. There library also has two other books in this series, on China and on Australia.

The Kingfisher History Encyclopedia

This book is an excellent reference for those interested in history. It covers human history from 4000 BCE to the present, and at almost 500 pages, you wouldn’t want to read it all at once! Instead, use it as a ‘jumping off’ point for when you’ve got a homework assignment on the Thirty Years War or The Boxer Rebellion. You’ll learn who, what, where, why and how…and then use these references to find more information! Despite being crammed full of facts, this book is hardly dry reading. There are plenty of interesting photographs and illustrations to go along with the text.

My cookbook of Cakes

Want to bake delicious cakes but too scared? This book is perfect. Its recipes are simple but delicious, and there are plenty of cakes to choose from. Whether you prefer rose petal cupcakes, a zesty orange drizzle cake or berry and vanilla cheesecake, you’ll find all your tastes catered for. And don’t worry, chocoholics, there’s plenty of recipes for you, too. Every step is illustrated with cool pictures, so this is a great book for beginner bakers.

Ninjago masters of Spinjitzu : character encyclopedia

Lego fan? Check out this cool new character encyclopedia about the heroes and villains of the Lego series Ninjago, which features four young ninjas training hard to defeat various monsters. It will tell you all about each character and the changes they go through as the series progresses. It also goes into great detail about the figures themselves; how they change from series to series, in both appearance and personality. This is a must read for any Ninjago or Lego Fan!

Five minute faces and Wild faces

If you’ve got a Christmas party coming up, and are looking for costume ideas, these books are a great resource. They’ll teach you all the basic skills of face painting, how to run a stall and how to create basic accessories to improve your costume.  The first book, Five Minute Faces, has a whole range of different faces; Miss Muppet, pirate, joker, skull and jester to name a few. The faces in the second book, Wild Faces, focuses more on animal faces and the make up’s more complex.  But if you want to win first place with your tiger costume, this is the book for you!

Make an animation

If you want to be the next Walt Disney, this is the book for you! It talks about the different types of animation, such as traditional hand-drawn animation to stop-motion animation made from ‘found’ objects. It will also show you how to make storyboards and shoot your own masterpieces.