8 Crafty Kids Books for Little Makers
Today is National Children’s Craft Day! If your kids like to make things (and what kid doesn’t) these books will help them get started with a variety of fun crafting activities.
If you’d like to purchase any of these books, we’d highly recommend seeking out your local independent bookstore. Your business helps ensure the survival of these vital cultural institutions during this difficult time.
Lego with Dad by Warren Nash
Recommended for Ages 8-12
Break out the bricks, it’s time for awesome family fun! LEGO® bricks can be an endless source of imagination and joy for kids of all ages, and now dads can join in and help build amazing new creations. LEGO® With Dad is the ultimate guide to utilizing your bricks to make creative new projects. No expensive new sets required! With detailed instructions on the basic building techniques as well as more advanced and complex builds, this book is perfect for parents and kids all skill levels. Featuring step-by-step lessons for fun projects including a working train and car, a customized rocketship, a menagerie of colorful animals, a helicopter with rotating blades, and much, much more! Whether you and your kids are LEGO® novices or aspiring Master Builders, this book will show you how to explore the world of bricks together to create amazing projects and lifelong memories.
Easy Wood Carving for Children by Frank Egholm
Recommended for Ages 6-12
Looking for an outdoor hobby to engage your children and encourage them to be crafty and creative? Wood carving is not only easy to learn and fun to do, but almost everything you need to get started can be found for free — right outside your door!
Together you can craft a tumbling tower game, a racing car toy, a dolphin necklace or even a handy coat hook! With more than fifty activities at levels for beginners and up, children can create something useful, beautiful or fun (often all three!) out of wood.
Learning wood carving not only helps to improve children’s concentration, creativity and dexterity, it’s also invaluable in teaching them how to handle knives safely.
Adventurous children will be thrilled to learn woodland skills, while nature-loving parents will enjoy rediscovering the lost art of whittling with their kids.
Leafy Critters by Yvonne Lacet
Recommended for Ages 3 and Up
A unique and practical children’s art-and-craft book, perfect for those who love Eric Carle, that looks to the natural world for inspiration and artistic materials.
Artists of all ages will be awed by flower petal pigs and snakes rendered in bright-green leaves and a full menagerie of clever, astonishing, and simply ingenious creative project ideas. An exuberant call to go outside, Leafy Critters inspires a deep appreciation for nature, art, and animals. Perfect for parents, teachers, and anyone searching for novel projects for kids of all ages.
Modeling Clay with 3 Basic Shapes by Bernadette Cuxart
Recommended for Ages 7-12
Teachers, parents, and kids will adore this funny, step-by-step guide to creating more than 40 adorable animals. With three basic shapes (ball, worm, and teardrop), children will learn how to create personality-filled critters. Cute photos, numbered steps, helpful illustrations, crystal-clear directions, and some funny text help kids create everything from pandas, owls, rhinos, kittens, puppies, snakes, koala bears, raccoons, snails, turtles, fish, and more. A summary of projects and a helpful guide to techniques at the beginning of the book will help you create dozens of different, fun, and original clay figures. Perfect for a rainy day or art class project, and to foster and encourage creativity.
Finger Knitting for Kids by Eriko Teranishi
Recommended for 5-12
Finger Knitting for Kids shows young crafters (and their parents) how to make cute and easy knitted pieces using only their fingers and a bit of yarn. Clear and simple step-by-step lessons walk them through a series of delightful projects—ranging from simple knitted hair ties and bags to braided scarves and pom pom hats.
The Maker Magicians Handbook by Mario Marchese
Recommended for Ages 5-13
To get started, you’ll need only what you can usually find in your home: items like paper, ziploc bags, index cards, coloring utensils, pencils, rubberbands, scissors, etc. As we progress in the world of making magic, we’ll explore how to use 3D design tools like Tinkercad (you can register for a free account at tinkercad.com). You don’t need a 3D printer in your home! Libraries, schools, and makerspaces around the world have 3D printers you can use! We’ll explore simple programming using Arduino!
Rainbow Origami by Anna Brett
Recommended for Ages 6 and Up
Eight projects, paper in seven beautiful colors: this gorgeous pack gives you everything you need to make 56 brilliant and bright origami shapes! With the easy-to-follow instructions, kids can fold a bird, butterfly, fish, or other fabulous figure, and recreate it in all seven shades to end up with an eye-catching rainbow design. You’ll even get ideas of what to do with your finished multihued projects, whether it’s having a boat race, arranging a bouquet of lilies, or constructing a mobile with flying cranes.
Origami Peace Cranes by Sue DiCicco
Recommended for Ages 5-9
Origami Peace Cranes is a multicultural children’s book about the capacity for friendship in all of us, and the power of small, but meaningful actions.
When Emma moves to a new town, she’s afraid she’ll never make friends. She tries her hardest to make a good impression on her new classmates. Through a paper crane origami project, her classmates show her that they really want to get to know her. Later, when a new family moves into her neighborhood, Emma has a great idea how to make them feel welcome!
Filled with fun pictures and ideas, this story addresses the anxiety that comes with new beginnings and introduces kids to moving, making new friends, and starting at a new school.
