Nonfiction Book Reviews

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This is part of my Fun Fridays series. If you’re interested, be sure to check out my other children’s book reviews.

My brother-in-law and his partner live in Norway, so when I saw How to Draw Norway’s Sights and Symbols by Melody S. Mis, I immediately decided to check it out. I wanted to learn more about this beautiful country.

How to Draw Norway’s Sights and Symbols, despite the title of the book, did focus on quite a bit more than just how to draw a particular item. It started out by outlining the history of Norway from 10,000 BC to present day. The first “how to draw” section did not appear until page 15. Far from being disappointed by this, I thought this added a lot to the book. What is the point of learning how to draw something that you don’t know anything about?

As for the drawing portion of the book, I have to say that I am conflicted about it. When I think of a kid’s book on drawing, I think in terms of more simplistic items being drawn. Some of the items to be drawn were simple (like the national flag of Norway) but some of the items to be drawn would have absolutely killed me off, and I’m an adult. Granted, not an especially talented adult when it comes to artistic abilities, but I have considerably more hand-eye coordination than your typical 7 year old. At least I hope so.

On the other hand, I’m not entirely sure I can fault the author, Melody Mis, for this, considering the fact that she was not in charge of creating the coastline for Norway (click on the thumbnail to your left for a larger version so you can see exactly how difficult the Norway coastline is.)  Some of the other challenging items that you are shown how to draw: The purple heather flower, the Borgund Stavkirke, and more.

I enjoyed the book and certainly learned a lot from it.  The ages it is appropriate for is 9 - 12 years old, and I would suggest sticking with that unless your children are especially talented readers and artists.

This is part of a large series that includes other countries like Italy, Thailand, Japan, Pakistan, and more.  More than countries, however, the series has also branched off to include a book on each state in the United States, so you can find a book on Ohio, New York, Michigan, Idaho, and of course the rest of the states.  Pretty cool, eh?

When looking through those books, it looks as if part of the series is geared at 4 - 8 year olds, and part of the series is geared at 9 - 12 year olds.  That seemed rather strange to me, but I wasn’t able to personally look at those books to verify this.

Overall, I give How to Draw Norway’s Sights and Symbols 4.5 stars.  The illustrations to show the kids how to draw various items are a little small, and again some of the items are overly complicated, but other than that, I thought the book was well-done, full of interesting information, and a nice take on the “normal” series that you see about different countries around the world.

Hava

PS If you’re into children’s books, there is another terrific site here at Today you should check out.  Laura writes children’s book reviews exclusively, and has a fun site going.  Happy readings!

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