175. Adventures in Cartooning Activity Book

Adventures in Cartooning Activity Book by James Sturm, Andrew Arnold & Alexis Frederick-Frost (Canada) - (USA)
Sequel to Adventures in Cartooning

Pages: 78
Ages: 8+
Finished: Aug. 27, 2010
First Published: Aug. 3, 2010
Publisher: First Second Books
Genre: Graphic novel, children, cartooning
Rating: 5/5

First sentence:

Good morning, sun.

Acquired: Received a copy from the publisher.

Reason for Reading: I really enjoyed the first book which was shortlisted for a Cybil last year and was excited to see this follow-up.

All the characters from Adventures in Cartooning return in this sequel Activity Book. The book has a complete story beginning to end but on most (though not all) right-hand pages the reader is asked to draw the illustration. Instructions are given as to what to draw, though it is often open ended for the child to still use there own imagination. (ie. fill this fridge with food, change these cookies into faces). Often these illustrations are part of the story. Other times the reader's assignment is a time-out to learn a cartooning skill such as motion lines, puffs of dirt, sound effects, birds or stars over the head, etc. At these times examples are given along the bottom edge of the page to give the child an idea as to what to draw which they can follow if they choose. All very entertaining to the aspiring artist (young or old!)

The story itself is a lot of fun. It begins with the moon and sun greeting each other as day begins but the moon makes the sun cry. The knight and Edward, his horse, are now stuck in the castle because it is raining outside (or so they think) and are very bored and want excitement. So they explore the castle and find a few creatures living there they'd never met before such as the cookie monster and a giant. But finally they get the idea to go to the tall tower at the other end of the castle and perhaps they can find out why it's raining. A wonderful, humorous story! Readers of the first book will be thrilled with this book but having read the first book is not necessary to enjoying the Activity Book as they can be read in any order. Highly recommended to those with an artistic interest.