Best Teen & Young Adult Crafts
Fans of sci-fi movies and action-packed TV shows will flip for this top-rated drawing guide by bestselling author and self-proclaimed fanboy Aaron Sauter. He enjoys learning and working on a wide range of subjects from pirates and robots to dragons, sports, and magic tricks.
Reviews
Find Best Price at Amazon"He has shown an interest in drawing and asked for art supplies for Christmas."
"Great, great gift for boys who love warrior and anime type characters."
"This was a Christmas gift for my stepson and he has really enjoyed it!"
"So fun to watch my son use this -- little advanced for an 8 year old, but great options."
"My son thought that it was "cool"."
"I would recommend this for any boy who is into drawing!"
"This is not for a beginner and my 11 yo son found it discouraging till he just gave up and started tracing the pictures."
"Great delivery and product!"
Featuring contributions from and interviews with Rookie heroes like Daniel Clowes, Zooey Deschanel, Lena Dunham, Sky Ferreira, Jack Black, Anna Faris, Fred Armisen, Patton Oswalt, Paul Feig, Miranda July, Aubrey Plaza, Dan Savage, David Sedaris, Sarah Silverman, John Waters and Joss Whedon. The included pullout record, designer-made paper crown, and sheet of stickers will necessitate special care for circulation, but with wit and reason, Rookie combats the often ridiculous or destructive advice aimed at its audience, and it is a beacon for a smarter, more sensitive generation of young women.
Reviews
Find Best Price at Amazon"Wonderful pictures, lessons on how to bitchface, Lena Dunham, how to do mod eye make up, awesome stickers. And a word to the publishers, activate the "look inside" function--I think if people could see the table of contents they would get really interested."
"Daughter really enjoyed this book."
"This book takes my breath away, I can't think of any accurate way to describe this book."
"This book is a compilation of blogs by the author and is fun but really focuses on the role women play in our society."
"Honestly, the best purchase I've made in awhile."
"Bought mine Used, but was in pretty damn good condition, page corners a lil soft but all page inside & cover looked great!"
"This is a great book for your average teenage girl, but a teenage guy could read it too!"
"This is not your ordinary teen magazine, topics covered can reach from outer space to Saved by the Bell to advice on dating and sex. Articles concerning the 'perfect bikini body' or '10 steps to make him notice you' are nowhere to be found here, instead Rookie tackles these issues head-on and analyzes why teen girls stress about those subjects anyway."
DIY Drones for the Evil Genius: Design, Build, and Customize Your Own Drones not only covers safety, mechanics, drone design, and assembly, but also teaches the basics of Aerospace Engineering. Ian, a Forbes 30 Under 30 Honoree, is an MIT graduate and has been building things since he first fell in love with computer engineering.
Reviews
Find Best Price at Amazon"Finally, with this I can begin my plans to take over the TRI STATE AREA!"
"I admit I skipped ahead a bit straight to building the drone, but the first section was a great reference later when I was curious about why it was flying."
"For me, I was admittedly after more of the "get your hands dirty" portions of the book to get right in and start building my own drone after "outgrowing" my more "toy" drone. In conclusion, the reader can immerse themselves in as much or little of the theory needed to build their own drone, or more likely, come back to the theory later on as building and flying the drone progresses and the interest level for the theory increases. I look forward to progressing towards the start of building my first drone which is anticipated shortly, having confidence that the book will provide such a broad amount of information, but most important, knowing that the author openly is making himself availble via email to help, making this home-built drone nothing short of a success."
"The book not only tells you how to build drones but exactly what each part of the drone does."
"That way whoever you give the book to can start building immediately!"
"This book covers more than how to build and repair a quadcopter, it gives an insight into how and why things fly and stay aloft fixed wings and multi-rotors."
"This is good book and there were no issues with delivery. The book has good section on theory of flight."
Best Teen & Young Adult Sculpture
Lively Prose and Step-By-Step Photographs Will Have You Bringing MacAbre and Whimsical Screamers To Life In No Time--Even If You Have No Artistic Talent. Building a simple Screamer is goof-proof, easy, and great fun. You will learn to use an art medium that allows access to the world of large sculpture.
Reviews
Find Best Price at Amazon"I have purchased several copies of this book throughout the years since I wind up giving my current copy away when people fall in love with the book."
"LOVE Dan Reeder, and anything by him."
"Making a mess?"
"I have never done paper mache before and this book takes you step by step in really easy to understand instructions."
"Would have to learned something new - a new technique or various chemical equations for paper mache."
"This is the first of Dan's books I purchased years ago, and I misplaced it."
"The step-by-step instructions and pictures are very easy to follow, and the kids are coming up with much better results than before."
"Dans Screamers are awesome and he does a great job of sharing how to do them."
Best Teen & Young Adult Travel
Lonely Planet: The world's leading travel guide publisher*. About Lonely Planet: Started in 1973, Lonely Planet has become the world's leading travel guide publisher with guidebooks to every destination on the planet, as well as an award-winning website, a suite of mobile and digital travel products, children's books, and a dedicated traveller community. Lonely Planet's mission is to enable curious travellers to experience the world and to truly get to the heart of the places where they travel. TripAdvisor Travellers' Choice Awards 2012 and 2013 winner in Favorite Travel Guide category. It's everywhere, and it's telling entire generations of people how to travel the world.'.
Reviews
Find Best Price at Amazon"With this book, the whole family learned about each site and looked forward to getting inside."
"I gave this book to an eleven year old as a gift before she went to Paris with her grandmother."
"I personally poured over it and found it adorable, but, at 30+, I'm slightly out of the age demographic..."
"She is now constantly filling me in on fun facts about her favorite city."
"my 7 year old daughter loves it!"
"I was a little concerned that these books would be too juvenile for them, but for the price thought it was worth a shot, because there's no way I'm going to get them to sit down with a guide book to start giving me ideas and opinions on what they might be interested in seeing! So I sat down to lunch with them, and while they read their books, I started reading the London book, and occasionally shared something funny or weird. Then 14 year old picked up the London book to keep reading when I went to get my drink, and 12 year old slipped away with the Paris book a few minutes later."
"I bought this book for my grandchildren, ages 9 and 11, to take on their trip."
"A fun, thorough introduction to Paris, for kids (and adults!)."
Best Teen & Young Adult Cookbooks
Cooking for teens, like finding the perfect gift for teen boys and girls, is almost impossible. MEGAN CARLE and JILL CARLE are both graduate students at Arizona State University.
Reviews
Find Best Price at Amazon"She was so excited because it said ‘Teens’ in the title and that makes her feel so grown up."
"Christmas gift for granddaughter, age 11."
"Easy to follow directions and healthy recipes."
"Item is exactly as described."
"good cookbook, but arrived wit a waterstains and was dirty."
"Bought for teenage Grandson who likes to cook."
"I would not buy this book for a teenager unless they have expressed an interest in learning to make more complicated recipes then simple teenage favorites."
"Not very healthy, recipes unimaginative and really quite bland."
Best Teen & Young Adult Games & Activities
From the creator of the worldwide bestsellers Secret Garden and Enchanted Forest , a beautiful new adult coloring book that takes you on a magical journey beneath the waves With. this coloring book for adults, Johanna Basford invites color-inners of all ages to discover an enchanting underwater world hidden in the depths of the sea. Her intricate, hand-drawn illustrations are loved the world over by those who have colored in (sometimes more than once) her bestselling books Johanna's Christmas , Magical Jungle , Lost Ocean , Secret Garden , and Enchanted Forest .
Reviews
Find Best Price at Amazon"With her newest book, “Lost Ocean”, she builds upon the stunningly beautiful and extremely intricate designs that I have come to expect from her. There are so many designs, including: sailing ships, mermaids, fish, sea mammals, jellyfish, and shipwrecks and more flora of the deep than I can count, each page is a wonderful experience in coloring. Recent versions of “Secret Garden” had improved paper – so much so, that this note is now included at the top of the page in all italics and with caps “Good news for all SECRET GARDEN fans! As I know that I love to use my markers, I have already purchased a second copy of the book so I don't have to choose a medium based on what happens to the backside of my page. I design needlework for my “day job” but that contains a lot of stress (deadlines, trying to perfect the pattern, etc.)."
"Although the thickness is nice and my markers do not leak through, if I blend too much, the paper starts to disintegrate."
"Some reviews say it's thin compared to the other two books but I have not experienced any bleeding through ANY of my pages and I'm using the same staedtler pens/markers that many others are using. Everything on this book is a coloring page including the front and back covers."
"There are some differences in the paper color being more white in this book vs the other two being more of a natural recycled color. Even the Prismacolor Verithin pencils that can maintain a sharper tip with an excellent sharpener will be a bit of a challenge to show up and stay in the lines in numerous water bubbles through out the book. So my experience in the different challenges staying in the lines and pressing hard enough to try to get the colors to show up isn't a difference for me. The Crazy Art Deep Plum colored in the sea horses eye was meant to color just the outer circle of the eye and, granted the tip isn't perfectly sharp, but it colored the whole eye and it looks brown not deep plum. There isn't enough of an area for the color to show up much with this cheaper/lower quality pencil. I tried a Colbalt Green Polychromo pencil (looks more turquoise green) in the bottom left corner of the picture on a few dots and lines and while these tips aren't the sharpest, it still managed to show up and color the tiny bubbles. Other reviewers have previously said that the TRIPLUS Fineliners didn't bleed through, but I just used pencils and gel pens coloring in my book, so I can't say for sure. The Violet Prismacolor Verithin in the stripes in the tail of the fish show up well and stayed in the lines, but the curvy grass and the bubbles colored in with the Bleu Violet Prismacolor Verithin didn't stay in the lines as well. If you don't mind coloring larger sections of details within the picture all the same colors to make things easier and more realistic for staying within the lines for the pens or pencils you are using, you might be happy. BEWARE: If you want to be able to immediately start coloring when you get this book using the same materials you used in the last books... you might find out that the details are harder than you think, to either get to show up or stay inside the lines due to the actual picture size differences. The 4th picture shows part of a picture from one of the older books versus this new size of detail."