View source for Botanicum Activity Book by Katie Scott and Kathy Willis

{{infobox1
|title=Botanicum Activity Book
|author=Katie Scott and Kathy Willis
|reviewer=Sue Magee
|genre=Children's Non-Fiction
|summary=The activity book which accompanies [[Botanicum (Welcome To The Museum) by Katie Scott and Kathy Willis]] is a delight with something to engage young and old alike.
|rating=4
|buy=Yes
|borrow=No
|pages=72
|publisher=Big Picture Press
|date=April 2017
|isbn=978-1783706792
|cover=Scott_Botanicum
|aznuk=1783706791
|aznus=1783706791
}}

Children and adults who enjoyed [[Botanicum (Welcome To The Museum) by Katie Scott and Kathy Willis]] are going to love the ''Botanicum Activity Book''.  Don't be misled by the suggestion that the book is aimed at the seven-plus age group: there's plenty in here for anyone who is still capable of holding a pen or pencil.

You ''could'' treat this as a standalone activity book but young and old will both get so much more out of the books if they're both available, the main book for reference and the activity book to put their knowledge into practice, to play with it a little and allow it to become part of them.  Adults and children who enjoy colouring will enjoy the challenge of the cannonball flower, but my particular favourite in the colouring activities was the page of wild flowers.  The result (even with my limited artistic skills) is good enough to frame - the page can be removed with a sharp knife - but the instruction ''Colour in the wild flowers'' needs careful exclusion from the end result.  For those who like to draw rather than to colour there are opportunities to completes drawings (the mirror images of half leaves was most satisfying) and for those who are less certain of their drawing skills there are even examples showing you how to draw certain specimens.  My cycan tree didn't turn out ''quite as I would have liked, but there's space for more tries.

As a child I loved 'Spot the Difference' puzzles and I regressed quite happily.  There are several puzzles, each with ten differences to spot and I had a lot of fun.  If you get stuck the answers are on the back of the puzzle page.  There's a water-lily-leaf maze - and I'll admit to having looked up the answer when I got stuck on that once too often.  Some pages are tests of knowledge - which plants grow in which part of the world for example.  There's nothing too complex and - once again - the answers are there if you need them.

The book is top quality in terms of production values.  The paper is substantial and there's no bleed through to the reverse of the page even with dark-coloured felt-tip pens.  It travels well - there's a millboard backing which means that a table isn't always necessary.  If you do have a table you'll find that the book opens reasonably flat - there none of the frustration of finding that the picture you're colouring disappears into the gutter between the pages and you can't actually get at it.  The book's excellent value too.  The cover price of £8.99 might seem high for an activity book, but there are 37 activities.  Very few will engage just for minutes (even the spot-the-difference puzzles took me quite a while to complete and only one puzzle - the 'find the missing square' - was quickly obvious. Some of the colouring is going to take hours.  This could give you peace on a long journey whilst it's being gently educational!

I'd like to thank the authors for sending a copy to the Bookbag.

Children who enjoy 'Botanicum' might also enjoy [[Lesser Spotted Animals by Martin Brown]], [[Nature's Day: Out and About by Kay Maguire and Danielle Kroll]] and [[The Nature Explorer's Scrapbook by Caz Buckingham and Andrea Pinnington]].

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[[Category:Katie Scott]]
[[Category:Kathy Willis]]
[[Category:Crafts]]
[[Category:Popular Science]]