When I was five years old, I received what at first appeared to be a regular coloring book for my birthday. "Big whoop," I remember thinking. I had reached my threshold for coloring inside the lines. As I flipped through the pages, however, hoping for a dot-to-dot or maze to break up the contrived art experience, I realized that this was no ordinary coloring book. On each page there was a prompt, and the pictures were incomplete! The prompts were there to tickle my brain into an excited frenzy of creation and imagination.
Instead of coloring the character...
...I was designing a character of my own.
Instead of coloring in a house...
...I was designing the house...
Instead of a kid with a coloring book...
...I was an artist, inventor, architect, superhero, president, princess!
I was in love! I doodled the ink right out of my pens and filled every square inch of my book till there was nary a scrap uncovered.
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From the title page of Fill in the Blank |
Now that I'm a "grown up" (although, I'd caution, in title only) with kids of my own, I've sought out similar anti-coloring books for them in which to plant their own lush gardens of inky imagination. So, I started jumping up and down on my bed (see, not really an adult at all) when I heard that one of my favorite publisher's, Quirk Books, had announced Fill in the Blank: An Inspiration Sketch Book. My girls already have years of creativity and ink invested in their doodling books designed for the younger set. Those were the training wheels. Fill in the Blank is the big time! Cool, clever, whimsical and worldly, Fill in the Blank has pages and pages of inspiration that will delight and challenge artists of any age!
Here are some of my favorites (note: most pages are a two-page spread. Here, I'm only showing the left-side page that introduces the theme).
I had to resist the urge to hoard the book all to myself. Thankfully, it's big enough to share. On a recent road trip (small car, no fancy airplane-style movie system in place), I handed my girls the copy of Fill in the Blank and a pack of pens. There were some giggles and assorted gasps of glee, but otherwise, there was hardly a peep out of those two for hours. Later, at our hotel, I decided that it was time for the TV to turn off. "Imagination time!" I announced as I brought out the book. There were no complaints.
Have I convinced you of the awesome imagination-harnessing power of this book? What? You want to try it for yourself? Okay, here are nine free pages from Quirk Books for you to print out and enjoy. Click HERE.
Fill in the Blank retails for $18.95 -- Less than 10-cents per artistic adventure! But here's something I know you're going to love even better. How would you like a FREE copy? The amazing folks over at Quirk have generously offered to give a copy of Fill in the Blank to 3 lucky Rook No. 17 readers!
GIVEAWAY!
Enter below. Good luck!
a Rafflecopter giveaway
Disclaimer: I received a free review copy of Fill in the Blank. All opinions are genuine and are my own.