Review by Michael Smith (Veshengro)
12 Things you can make from junk
by Brian Yanish
Published 2011 by Crackle Press, NY
for Scrapkins
32 pages paperback (comic book format)
ISBN-13: 978-061543894
Price: $9.99
Recommended for Ages 6-9 years
What can you make from all that junk you throw away? Join The Scrap Kins, a toothsome monster family who live in a recycling center, as they give step by step instructions to turn toilet paper tubes and milk cartons into pirate ships, bird feeders and more! Share a project with your kids with true DIY fun at home!
This is a great little book for kids full of “cute” crafts project using junk and waste materials.
This book is a lovely tool to teach children that there is value in reusing bits of trash from which to make things.
When I was a kid we made things all the time from junk – it was just what we did. Not that we did have much in the ways of toys anyway and we had to make our own, really. But, more often than not, we made things for serious use and even with the view of selling the stuff we made on markets.
I do love this little volume and my favorite bits are the making of the Jeans Tote, the Foam Glider (finally a use for Styrofoam trays) and the Owl Bird Feeder.
Children, if but given the chance and a little encouragement will go and look at waste in the same way as we did as children and try to find a reuse as toys or other even. We just have to get them away from the GameBoy, the X-Box, the computer or the TV.
How often do we see kids than, when they come across a cardboard box, for instance, that may have had a gift in for them even, that the box is being played with rather than the toy. If we allow them to get on with that they will put us to shame in the ideas department as to what to do with packaging materials, etc. and if they have a little guidance such as the “Scrapkins Build-It Book” they will even outperform any of us by way of ideas, I am sure.
Oh, did I mention that I love the book... I think I did but let me just say it again... I do...
The book can be purchased via ScrapKins website: http://www.thescrapkins.com
© 2011
