I have a vague memory that I liked that the kid says his drawings are really bad but HE STILL DOES THEM! Still uses them to make a story. I wouldn't be such a big fan of the negative self-judgement of his work, but I love that it doesn't stop him.

This is fine. This is a feel-good, goofy story in the vein of an easy Jeff Kinney-style illustra-hybrid book for the elementary set. The dogs work together to get ahold of hamburgers! Scheming, adorable dogs from the brain of a pretend child. The dogs are silly, and do silly things. I found it amusing, which is saying something for a book like this. :) If you read our review of the best chew toys, then this recommendation should come as no surprise. The American-made rubber that Goughnuts uses makes their range of chew toys the most durable on the market. You can now add the oval for the face (based on the “cross” mentioned above) ears and basic face shapes into your dog sketch too. Start by shading an area you want to work on with a light shade. This outlines the shape of the fur shape you are delineating, for example the tail. Shade in the direction of the fur flow.

A monster at the bottom of a hill eats all the garbage generated by the town on top of the hill. This provides two important benefits: The monster is happy with plenty to eat and the town stays nice and clean. Unfortunately, as the town grows, so does the amount of garbage the monster must consume. He gets bigger - and he starts burping. This is, as you can probably guess, a bit unsightly and stinky. In the end, the kids figure out how to solve the problem - despite the nasty mayor's doubts and objections.

Create a sense of the tail being 3D. Add shade to create shape. Usually the outer edges of the tail can achieve this by adding a darker shade on top of the lighter. And there were many funny bits, too many to list, and so I give it four stars for a. charm and quirkiness b. young reader appeal. An earlier reviewer objected to the occasional big word thrown into the mix. I reserved judgement until I had read it. Now I'd say, yes, a lot of kids won't know what 'effervescent' means. But that doesn't matter, and if some of them look it up or ask their parents what it means... so much the better. That's how kids learn new words. And 'effervescent' is a good word. It is onomatopoeic. Hooray! I think it has been used out of a sense of the joy of language, with a bit of irony thrown in. Besides, the meaning in this context is pretty obvious. (See also "B stands for Beautiful. For Bountiful. Bodacious. Bombastic.") Furthermore, Tom Watson has given kids some pretty great definitions of words in his story, and the word discussions not only slide perfectly into the story, but are sometimes very funny. Delight in the definition of 'distraction'. I did. Especially Karen's contribution. I liked Karen.You will probably not need the tracing paper to do this. If you are drawing an image of an entire dog the face may not necessarily need to convey that much detail, but you’d be surprised how different dog faces are! This depends on what type of sketch you are working on. If you are zooming in on the face of a dog, for example, the need to create shading and texture will be more definitive than simply sketching your dog from a distance where tonal colour and the odd jagged edge of hair will suffice. I tend to favour the latter as I only really have time to sketch for shorter periods of time and dedicating time to hairs and fur is a luxury I struggle with. I received a review copy of this book on Friday, and in the next two days it was pounced on by both my nephew and my son, who both read it in a single sitting with great enjoyment. My son then pressed me to read it--"tell me when you get to the funny bits," he said.

I also like that the dogs debate methods for gaining the hamburgers - the crazy variety of methods demonstrate innovation/invention/problem solving and that is neat. As part of the skeleton and muscle exercise you will have scoped out the basic “cross” shape to convey the width and depth of the dog’s face. You will have then added the oval shape for the outlines of the head. I hope that this basic introduction to sketching dogs has been helpful for you. You might want to consider watching my live session on the subject as well as jumping on my weekly sketch sessions to build your drawing habit further. Because it’s hollow, the Zwig floats in water. If your dog loves to fish toys out of a lake or pool, then don’t be afraid to toss it in. Me, I just like the floatability because my aim is always off – I don’t have to fish the Zwig out from the bottom of a pond if it lands there.

Even though it’s not indoor-friendly, you will want to store it inside. We noticed that one of the SafeStix we left outside began to harden over the months. While it was still perfectly useable, it was considerably less flexible than the ones that were stored inside. The American-made rubber was surprisingly resistant to powerful jaws. In the heat of the moment, our German Shepherd excitedly bites down hard. Even his strong bite was unable to make a mark. Another point to note is that your lines now need to be more shaped as opposed to straight. Still try and keep this minimal and gesture at shape as opposed to too much detail. Several years ago, when his kids were younger, Tom wrote and illustrated several rhyming picture books for them. His wife – who is much smarter than Tom – suggested he share these stories with kids for free. And he did. And they’re still free. You can find them at Apple's iBooks store and at other electronic book outlets.