Peterson Field Guide Color-in Book: Birds

Our 6 year old daughter is very fond of coloring and is also a budding young birder This book combines those two hobbies in a very enjoyable way It has the potential to provide many hours of coloring fun while she is also learning more about the most common species she might seeThe "Birds" color-in book manages to be both a basic beginner's field guide and a high quality coloring book It does not look "childish" and so would be appropriate for any age Although the description of this book says that there are color illustrations in the front to use as reference for coloring the pictures this book now comes with over 230 beautiful stickers to use as your guide The stickers alone are worth the price of the book in my opinion They're small (all are less than 2 inches) but are vividly colored There are 4 pages (front only) of these lovely stickers Our daughter places the sticker next to the entry in the book as she colors each one but someone might choose to use them elsewhere after first using them for reference in coloring There are about 262 illustrations to color in this book so for some reason that leaves a little over 30 of the birds without their own sticker and they are depicted on the back cover It does seem as if the publisher could have taken the small extra step to give each bird its own sticker but this is only a small issue The line drawings to color are small (but not too small) and have simple uncluttered lines Many depict the bird with a tiny portion of its environment so there are plants and water to color as well There are about 4 to 6 illustrations on each page along with the text which is conveniently located on the inside margins There are a few pages of scenes which show several birds in a habitat such as a "marsh scene " for example For coloring I could imagine using nothing else besides colored pencils One would have to be very handy with a brush to paint these although of course it is possible Fine line markers might be nice in theory but it would have to be a nice set of markers indeed to have all the vast array of colors needed Also markers might bleed through and these pages are printed on both sides Crayons would be difficult to use as there are many very fine details I think that a box of at least 50 colored pencils would be fine to use with this book so keep that in mind if giving it as a gift A colorless blending pencil would be very nice to use as well! The text inside is just the right amount for a beginning birder of almost any age And indeed there are also a couple pages of basic bird identification tips Each bird depicted has a short paragraph with a simple description of appearance and some behavioral clues Of course with only 262 birds described in this book as well as a lack of most drab females and juveniles or other alternate plumages this is really only a rudimentary field guide But it is very lovely and would still suffice for a beginning birder or anyone who just enjoys the beauty of birds And for a novice birder the very act of coloring will help him or her remember the colors of each species so much more than just "looking" wouldI am amazed at the affordable price of this book It truly does offer many hours of coloring pleasure hundreds of nice stickers and a simple bird guide for just a very small price! How I wish that I'd had a book like this as a child! And I might get one for myself as an adult just to practice with my colored pencils!