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Lydia Crook describes herself as a ''Paper Engineer'' and she has a real passion for papercraft. Her book is a trip down memory lane in an attempt to revive some of the basic creative skills that are in danger of being forgotten or lost. She engages her readers, encouraging them to tear, rip, scrunch, scribble and cut their way through the pages of the book. Each page is a mini craft project in its own right.
My kids got really excited about the projects in the book and it was enlightening to see the wonder in their eyes when they made their spinners fly, opened out their snowflakes and glued together cubes and other 3D models. The book is ideal for 5-10 -year -olds, though I have to confess that as a parent, I enjoyed it too, as it brought back so many memories.
I have a slight criticism about the page design. Some of the printed cutout lines were very close to the centre of the book, making cutting difficult and fiddly. Because of the way the book was bound, it was sometimes hard to tear out pages without causing damage to the rest of the book. I would have preferred it if the pages were perforated so that they could be pulled out easily.
British summers are notoriously unreliable, but ''Paper Play'' is the perfect rainy day book. It is ideal for parents and children to explore together. Most of the projects require only basic skills and the only items needed are a glue stick, pens and scissors. The ideas should inspire young minds to continue using their newly acquired talents to create their own paper artwork after finishing the book. Now I just have to hoover up all of those tiny pieces of paper on the lounge carpet....
More fun craft projects can be found in [[Dadcando: Build, Make, Do ... the Best Way to Spend Quality Time with Your Kids by Chris Barnardo]]
