Wonderful book to get your preschooler involved in some cute and simple arts and crafts. The book is filled with various projects that use all sorts of media. Whether you are making something with clay or colored paper, there is a craft in here for you to do with your child.

Simple directions and color photos make this little book so easy to use and enjoyable.

As always, thank you to the publisher and netgalley for providing me a copy in exchange for an honest review

I adore these books. I work with young children in particular with arts and education, so any ideas I can get my hands are always welcome. The activities in this book could work just as well at home as in an early years or primary classroom setting. There is so much fun to be hard getting messy!

Thanks so much to NetGalley and the publishers for letting me read an advance copy of this book in exchange for my feedback.

I would like to thank NetGalley, the author, and the publisher for providing me with a copy of this ebook.

Busy Little Hands: Art Play! by Meredith Magee Donnelly is a great art and activity book for children! Children these days really need such activities to distract them from all the screens. This book has a plethora of ideas and I love it!

Very good book for young creators and explorers that shows in easy and fun way how to create new masterpieces and safely make interesting experiments. Colorful pictures and short and clear instructions promise unforgettable time away from TV. The book suits well for parents, educators, and children.
Thanks to the author, publisher and NetGalley for the provided advanced copy! All opinions are mine.

Great Young Children's art activity book! This book is filled with fun, creative ideas to keep young children busy while exploring different art mediums. It is a great way to introduce art to young children. Each art project is designed to help strengthen small motor skills which are essential for young children's development. This would make a great gift for parents with young children, child care workers, or grandparents!

Art Fun Even if Not “Artistic”

I think the title of “Art Play” aptly describes what is in this book. If your child likes to, say, finger paint or draw scenes, this book takes art beyond that. What I especially noticed is that many projects are three dimensional, like making a colorful wand or multi-color blocks. Others use common art media in a different way, like using a straw to blow paint around a surface and see what you get or dipping plants in paint and seeing the print they leave. As you can tell, this kind of play is not just for a child that you (or he or she) consider to be artistic and good with drawing or coloring. It could work for any child to explore visual expression in a non-threatening, creative way. I was a child who never considered myself artistic as my mother and younger sister were great at drawing and painting, but I would have enjoyed these projects. As this is intended for preschoolers, a parent or caregiver will have to work closely with the child to make these projects happen. Part of the project pages is clearly directed toward the adults, while others are meant to be read to the child and discussed as the child looks at the book and prepares to do the project. All in all, I thought this was a fun book to help a child explore their creative side.

This was visually pleasing and had some nice, simple ideas for children (and their parents) to follow at home. I like that the book is written for children rather than adults. As an activity blogger, I found it difficult to find an activity that I havent don't before so there are not many unique ideas. It is a very thin book and although attractive to look at, I couldn't see any obvious order. A resource list at the beginning would be useful so children have the stuff ready to put in their art shelf. The art shelf page was towards the end but I felt it would have been better at the beginning before starting art projects. Overall, I think it would make a nice present for a 7/8 year old along with a resource kit.

This is a great activity book! I think parents will love this resource. Some of the projects could be used as inspiration for library programs, as well, like the Favorite Color Collage and Nature Painting.

I really liked the idea behind this book.

The target age range was children ages 2 to 5 years old – my daughter was three in July so she is the perfect age range. As a busy working mum I am always on the look out for ideas and things to do with her that make the most of our time together.

I used to take her to Nature Tots but that ceased due to Covid-19 so I have been looking for inspiration and more ideas for things that she could do at home with me and this book has plenty and loads that seem fun!

It is a well laid out book, the steps are easy to follow and I liked that there are sections at the outset for the grown ups regarding setting up so the fun can begin too. The images are nice, bright and sharp too.

It is 4 stars from me for this one – highly recommended!

Busy Little Hands: Art Play! is a tutorial guide in the Busy Little Hands series aimed at preschoolers and their caregivers for creativity play. Due out 10th Nov 2020 from Storey Publishing, it's 48 pages and will be available in hardcover and ebook formats.

This is an absolutely exuberant, brightly colored, and fun little book chock full of great ideas to engage young kids in exploring creativity and mastering fine motor skills. The text is very simple and the included projects are well photographed, and will appeal to almost everyone. The steps which require some (minor) help from an adult helper are clearly marked in highlighted text sidebars in each tutorial. I liked that the children pictured are inclusive and representative of a wide variety of backgrounds. Representation is very important.

Each of the projects includes prep-steps for grownups showing suggested materials, tips for protecting surfaces, and cleanup. The tutorials themselves are photographed with step-by-step photos and finished projects pictures. The instructions are encouraging and supportive (you're the artist, you decide, you choose, etc). There are a number of tutorials with a huge amount of kid-appeal (playdough, painted building blocks (using an old salad spinner - very creative), painting with found objects in nature, and lots more.

This would be a superlative gift, excellent classroom or library group selection for activity groups, a wonderful parent/caregiver activity, or even for babysitters and child-minders looking to up their activity time with their small charges. Artistic exploration allows children to improve fine motor skills and gives them a feeling of accomplishment and control.

I loved this one. It's simple but so well done. The tutorials are simple and the tools and supplies are easy to source and inexpensive

Five stars.

Disclosure: I received an ARC at no cost from the author/publisher for review purposes.

As a childminder, I found this book brilliant! its full of lots of art ideas, some I had never even thought of! I like the mixture of real photos and illustrations. Certainly will be one to get hold of. Thank you for the opportunity to read and review this book.

When I first got the book my youngest, four, was kind of sad. I ended up sitting down and cuddling her while we ‘paged’ through the book on my iPhone. She smiled and loved the ideas as we passed but it wasn’t until we saw the playdough ‘friends’ that she jumped up to play. We already had homemade playdough on hand and plastic pieces we could use saved from previous create-a-monster slime kits so both my daughters (four and almost six) jumped right in. It was perfect!

Since then we haven’t made any other items but the book is full of simple art ideas that any toddler would enjoy.

This is a colorful, exciting art book for preschoolers and kindergarteners. I love how the book gives autonomy to the child, encouraging them to explore their own artistic ability without the constraints of adult expectation. The notes to the adult also help here in reminding us to allow that autonomy. The ideas presented here are fresh and at times surprisingly simple, like the upside down painting activity. I also love how the materials used in the book are for the most part things that are usually readily available in the home. A great book to encourage little artists!

There are so many excellent ideas here! I can't wait to try freeze dance drawing and bubble wrap painting.

Wow, this is a great arts and crafts picture book for children. My daughter and I really loved it a lot. It was bright and colourful, with amazing photos and descriptions of different arts and crafts activities that I can do with her. She was very excited about the fun activities and we will try some of them soon. The book has so many great ideas that I didn't know about!

Many thanks to the author, publisher and Netgalley for allowing me to read this book in exchange for an honest review.

A lovely book with tons of arts and crafts ideas. I think it's ideal for parents to use at home and has a variety of ideas for different resources which I liked. I would say its aimed at 3 to 7 years old as some bits can be quite fiddly but a lot of lovely activities to do together.

This is a great book of arts and crafts activities. This book is intended for ages 2-5, however, the activities would be good for ages around 3-7. These activities are creative and can also easily be adapted for those with special needs. The suggested materials are inexpensive at dollar stores. The pictures and instructions in this book are wonderful. Recommended.

Enjoying this book amid pandemic ,staying at home and not knowing what to do with the couple of little hands at home .A blessing in disguise.Really helpful to keep the children busy in fun way.

Busy Little Hands: Art Play! by Meredith Magee Donnelly is a helpful little book full of ideas for all kinds of art play. From drawing, to paints, to using nature and making play dough. It’s full of something for everyone. Made for slightly older children, I’m sure it could be adjusted for younger children.

For people like me who are not artistically inclined but still want to encourage their children to explore art in all its various forms, this book is a fantastic resource. There's so much to commend it, I don't know where to start!

First of all, it speaks directly to its intended audience: pre-schoolers, with big bold guidance pictures, simple step-by-step instructions to be read with an adult, and lots of encouragement along the way. I especially love the clever questions designed to get little ones thinking while they're busy: "What does fast music look like?" "What colour are your eyes?"

And for the grownups supervising, there's a handy prep box for every activity, as well as tips on how to get the most out of each one.

The activities themselves are very varied and involve standard art supplies as well as everyday objects that can be turned into artists tools and materials: T-shirts that can be transformed into super hero capes; bubble-wrap; leaves and flowers to use as paintbrushes; salt for 'sprinkle painting'; straws for blowing paint-blob animals, among others.

Each activity is illustrated with pictures of small children actually engaged in that activity, which is another clever way of catching kids' attention and imagination. My three year-old grandson looked through the digital book with me on screen and was captivated by it. At his insistence. we've made a superhero cape out of Grampa's old T-shirt, played the musical drawing game, made a collage with items of his favourite colour (purple), and created a scavenger hunt sculpture. I don't know who's had more fun, he or I.

I shall be looking to get my hands on a printed edition of this book as soon as its published. I hope it will be available in Europe.

My thanks to NetGalley and Storey Publishing for the digital ARC.