Best Children's Craft & Hobby Books

LEGO Chain Reactions is packed full of ideas, instructions, and inspiration for 10 LEGO machines that spin, swing, pivot, roll, lift, and drop. Our team of experts worked with educators and 11-year-olds to invent the machines, then wrote a book that teaches the skills (and some of the physics behind the fun) kids need to create their own amazing chain reaction machines. Includes a 80 page instructional book with Klutz certified crystal-clear instructions.

Wired.com says, "If you're a LEGO fanatic (or know one), The LEGO Ideas Book is worth taking a look at." ©2016 The LEGO Group. He is the author of DK's New York Times bestselling The LEGO Book, The LEGO Ideas Book, LEGO Batman Visual Dictionary and LEGO Play Book.

Kids can sew too! Best of all, this practical, attractive sewing book features finished projects that look like they were actually made by children.

LEGO Chain Reactions is packed full of ideas, instructions, and inspiration for 10 LEGO machines that spin, swing, pivot, roll, lift, and drop. Our team of experts worked with educators and 11-year-olds to invent the machines, then wrote a book that teaches the skills (and some of the physics behind the fun) kids need to create their own amazing chain reaction machines. Includes a 80 page instructional book with Klutz certified crystal-clear instructions.

Kids can sew too! Best of all, this practical, attractive sewing book features finished projects that look like they were actually made by children.

Clay Lab for Kids features 52 hands-on projects made with clay, all of which get kids working creatively, and thinking three dimensionally.

LEGO Chain Reactions is packed full of ideas, instructions, and inspiration for 10 LEGO machines that spin, swing, pivot, roll, lift, and drop. Our team of experts worked with educators and 11-year-olds to invent the machines, then wrote a book that teaches the skills (and some of the physics behind the fun) kids need to create their own amazing chain reaction machines. Includes a 80 page instructional book with Klutz certified crystal-clear instructions.

In this book by well-known modern quilters Weeks Ringle and Bill Kerr along with their 11-year-old daughter Sophie Kerr, kids will learn how to navigate a sewing machine, make smart fabric choices, and use basic sewing tools. What quilter doesn’t have a secret wish for their daughter, son or grandchild to carry on the quilting tradition. This book comes from the new imprint of C&T Publishing, FunStitch Studio, and is designed to get young people interested and involved in sewing and home crafts. Sixteen fun projects at levels from beginner to advanced await the adventurous young person with an interest in sewing in this colorful and educational resource. Learn about fabrics, supplies, machines and the basics of sewing while creating projects that will be admired, used and worn. In this debut book written when she was 11, Sophie―daughter of Weeks Ringle and Bill Kerr of Modern Quilt Studio - guides her young counterparts through the process of sewing. She doesn't make them so complicated," she says.As parents, we like that many of the projects, such as the Zippered Tote and Insulated Lunch Bag, are practical for kids. Sophie obviously knows that boys like to sew too, and she's got plenty of guys pictured throughout the book, making things like belts and bags that can be enjoyed by ever kid. Lastly, her careful illustrations and picture really do make simple work out of sometimes intimidating tasks, such as installing a zipper. With 35 pages of valuable troubleshooting and safety tips, and 16 projects, including a lunch tote and messenger bag, your kids will be clamoring to go to the nearest fabric store. Eleven-year-old Sophie Kerr and her professional quiltmaker parents bring a stress-free and fresh approach to sewing for kids, making this a great reference book for young sewists. The bright photography of Sophie and her friends (male and female) sewing and using their projects is fun and engaging.

Kids love origami—and what could be cooler than transforming a piece of paper into Boba Fett, Princess Leia, Yoda, or R2-D2? Star Wars Origami includes a foreword by Tom Angleberger, author of the New York Times bestsellers The Strange Case of Origami Yoda and Darth Paper Strikes Back , and is scheduled to be published at the same time as Angleberger’s upcoming book, The Secret of the Fortune Wookiee . A Look Inside Star Wars Origami.

So now it’s even easier and more fun for kids to handmake a bench for their own workshop, create a DVD storage cube that spins, build a doggie diner, or craft adjustable stilts, a box with a secret drawer, and many other long-lasting items. Praise for the first edition:

The classic bestselling book for every boy from eight to eighty, covering essential boyhood skills such as building tree houses*, learning how to fish, finding true north, and even answering the age-old question of what the big deal with girls is. Equal parts droll and gorgeous nostalgia book and heartfelt plea for a renewed sense of adventure in the lives of boys and men, Conn and Hal Iggulden's The Dangerous Book for Boys became a mammoth bestseller in the United Kingdom in 2006. Adapted, in moderation, for American customs in this edition (cricket is gone, rugby remains; conkers are out, Navajo Code Talkers in), The Dangerous Book is a guide book for dads as well as their sons, as a reminder of lore and technique that have not yet been completely lost to the digital age. Recall the adventures of Scott of the Antarctic and the Battle of the Somme, relearn how to palm a coin, tan a skin, and, most charmingly, wrap a package in brown paper and string. The book's ambitions are both modest and winningly optimistic: you get the sense that by learning how to place a splint or write in invisible ink, a boy might be prepared for anything, even girls (which warrant a small but wise chapter of their own). Conn taught for many years before becoming one of the most admired and popular young historical novelists with his Emperor series, based on the life of Julius Caesar, and his newly embarked series on Genghis Khan, while Hal is a theater director. Amazon.com: It's difficult to describe what a phenomenon The Dangerous Book for Boys was in the UK last year. They need to fall off things occasionally, or--and this is the important bit--they'll take worse risks on their own. Amazon.com: You made some changes for the U.S. edition, and I for one am sorry that you have removed the section on conkers, if only because it's such a lovely and mysterious word. In the entire history of the world, no one has ever been hurt by a conker, but it's still been banned by some British schools, just in case . I notice in both editions you have an excellent and useful section on table football, as played with coins. As for paper football, ever since I thought of putting the book together, people keep saying things like "You have rockets in there, yes? Have you seen boys getting up from their Xboxes to go outside and perform first aid or tan animal skins or build go-carts? Iggulden: I've had a lot of emails and letters from boys who loved the book--as well as fathers. I've had responses from kids as young as ten and an old man of 87, who pointed out a problem with the shadow stick that we've since changed. If it's hard, you don't make it easy, you grab it by the throat and hang on for as long as it takes. Good, heroic stories don't appear much in modern school curriculums--and then we wonder why boys don't seem interested.