Best sticker books ever?

Dear Aunt Debbie,

I am sorely tempted to grab Jeff right now and rehearse the fights Eleanor and Isabel have with each other so that we can act them out and cure our children of bickering once and for all, a la Mrs. Piggle-Wiggle.  I remember the radish cure well -- one of those images that sticks with you, all those little green sprouts growing out of Patsy's dirt-covered skin.

Summer has brought us some good vacation time, and with it the need for distraction on airplanes and long car rides.  I've written before about sticker books, and you've brought up other good kinds of activity books as well.  Our current household obsession entered our lives as a gift from my friend (and our guest blogger) Faith. When Will was born, she sent us a package including a present for him and sticker books for Eleanor and Isabel from the Usborne "Sticker Dolly Dressing" series.

Despite their cloying name, these are fabulous books.  Each one contains a series of pages of cartoon-style figures standing in scenes in their underwear.  The middle pages of each book contain sticker clothing to peel up and apply to each of the figures, so that everybody ends up dressed.  In some of the books, each outfit must be put on the correct person; in others, you can choose which clothes to put on which doll.
   
Sticker Dolly Dressing Action!                                                           Historical Sticker Dolly Dressing

Some books follow a few characters through a rough narrative: three bridesmaids get ready for their friend's wedding, for example.  In others, each scene stands alone: historical styles of the 1920s, or festivals from different countries.  The "Historical Sticker Dolly Dressing" books are drawn in a more realistic style, Tom Tierney-like. 

Each book takes hours -- literally, hours -- to complete.  Eleanor is deeply into applying all of the stickers the right way, and will work her way through a book until it's completely finished.  Isabel is a little more slapdash, but enjoys them all the same.  Many of the books are pretty girly, with princesses, brides, and fairies taking up starring roles.  A little deeper in the catalog, however, you'll find a nice smattering of multiculturalism, some Dollys of different races, and even a book of pirates.

I've just sent three more books to my friend (and our guest blogger) Cyd, to occupy her three older daughters in the weeks following the birth of her fourth.  I have a feeling they won't be the last ones I'm buying.

Love, Annie

Activity!

Dear Annie,

Do I sell sticker books?  Yes, by the hundreds.  So much so that I can recognize the particular DK Ultimate Sticker Book that's pasted all over Isabel in your hilarious picture.  Sticker books come under the broad umbrella of activity books: stickers, coloring books, paper dolls, mazes, dot-to-dots, hidden pictures, etc.  I have a particular tour of the store I offer people who are looking for travel activities: I ask the children's ages, then we visit various activity book racks, miniature versions of games, audio books, racks of small plastic objects (people, animals, cars...).  Activity books, as I've mentioned, are where I try to contain the junky stuff: Barbie, Disney princesses, TV spinoffs.

I wanted to add two kinds of sticker books to your list.  There are the paper doll books.  They usually have a punch-out paper doll and lots of reusable sticker clothing to put on the doll.  Illustrated on the left is an Usborne book that's a little less over-the-top than the Princess/Wedding/Fairy ones -- but they've got those too.  Usborne, a British publisher of many different kinds of activity books, also does some good, non-product-driven sticker books.  The farm sticker book is on the right; they have concept ones (numbers, letters, etc.), and lots of vehicles.

I want to put in a good word for coloring books.   There are those who avoid them at all costs, feeling they have nothing to do with the creativity of doing art.  I agree, standard color-between-the-lines books aren't art, but they are a form of more meditative activity that can be engaging on a trip or a quiet afternoon.  Good for fine-motor practice too.

And these days there are also several lines of coloring books which are basically prompts to finish and color drawings.  Taro Gomi, a wonderful Japanese illustrator, has done many along these lines:

Lots more on Gomi's books -- many of which are very large and thick, but fun -- and downloadable pages here.

Yesterday the mother of a ten year-old came in looking for 
Rosie Flo coloring books.  They're British, but most are published in the U.S.  The books provide clothing and the child provides the people within them.  These seem to hold interest of kids of many ages.  Sometimes the pictures are whimsical clothing lined up on a page, and other times you get a scene:

Lots to do.

Love,

Deborah

In praise of sticker books

Dear Aunt Debbie,

Our weekend away (and without internet access, hence without blogging) was lovely: the wedding of good friends, and two nights away from our normal life.  I thought about children's books, of course; in fact, I read an excerpt of Home for a Bunny as part of the ceremony.

But what I want to write about tonight are sticker books.  More specifically, sticker books as a great savior on plane rides and long car trips, sticker books as activity and bribe and simple, cheap fun.  They're less messy than drawing with markers while traveling (though we brought those too), don't take up much space, and can occupy Eleanor for a nice long time, and Isabel for at least the minutes it takes for her to take all the stickers out and apply them to her body:

There are all kinds of sticker books, of course, sticker books for every kids' franchise on earth, product tie-ins up the wazoo.  There are the dollar-fifty 6-page sticker books that the girls talk me into buying when we go to the bookstore; those are good for a subway ride, though I find that an inordinate number of them drip glitter.  There are the 8 1/2 by 11 full-size books, some with hundreds upon hundreds of stickers.  I can't claim to be a sticker book expert, but there are two types of books that the girls have particularly liked.

First, there's the Match the Sticker to its Place kind of book.  DK publishes a lot of "Ultimate" sticker books, largely with product tie-ins, and their (now out of print) Disney Animals Ultimate Sticker Book occupied Eleanor for several sittings when she was about 2 1/2.  She would find a sticker, peel it off, then hold it carefully while she turned the pages, trying to find the shadow shape where it fit.  The Disney Animals one had the added benefit of including characters from all kinds of Disney movies, over a period of perhaps 50 years, and sorting them by type of animal: there was a whole page of jungle animals, a page of fish, a page of dogs and cats, etc.  The sorting aspect was very pleasing.  We've tried a few other DK books, never with quite as good results, but still well made overall.

Then there's the Here's a Scene, Paste Some Characters and Things On It kind of sticker book.  On this trip, we brought along this Flower Fairies Sticker Storybook for Eleanor: pages of fairyland scenes on which you can stick extra fairies, flowers, nuts, berries, etc.  The drawings in this one are all from the 1920s, by Cicely Mary Barker, so although the bits of text are dumb ("The picnic turns into a party.  Soon the glade is covered with fairy decorations, and there are Flower Fairies everywhere!"), the stickers themselves are quite nice and old-fashioned.  Eleanor spent about 20 minutes setting up a fairy picnic and giving all the fairies acorn and star hats.

Do sticker books fall under your purview at the book-and-toy store?  Any suggestions for our next big trip?

Love, Annie