Where to buy good coloring books? - Page 2

[SparklingGemini]

Originally Posted by limabean

Target has nothing but those Color Wonder sets, with characters to boot. The drugstore was a little better -- they did have plain coloring books, but they were all characters as well. Where can I buy just plain old coloring books, with just pictures to color??

Where in CA are you?

Do you have Half Price Books? They have tons of coloring books; licensed and non-licensed.

How about a Babywearing Coloring Book? :

[meemee]

i spend a little money on colouring books. i get the dover kind ones. not sure if they ARE dover or not. some of them are on translucent sheets that you use markers to colour and you can put them up in your windows.

we dont have many colouring books. but we have some.

and oh yes i do hand made colouring books too. family members used to take a sketch books and draw pictures that my dd loved colouring. i have even had the members of the retirement community volunteer to draw for dd when she was younger.

[limabean]

So Target did have a wider selection of coloring book in the book section (duh!), but I didn't buy one. The non-character ones were pretty poor quality, and the paper was poor quality too, like newsprint.

I remember having the best coloring books when I was little, nothing like what I'm seeing in stores lately. I guess I'll just have to order some of those lovely Dover ones to get what I want. Thanks for all the help!

[abi&ben'smom]

Check out your local non-bigbox toy store. Ours has some awesome non-disney ones. They are pricey--but worth it. I paid $16 for an oversized, huge one, and it's lasted her about 2 years so far. She will work on it every now and then, for an hour at a time. They are very intricate.

[Global Mama]

I totally agree that the coloring books in most stores these days are on poor quality paper and/or are filled with Disney characters. However, if you're willing to order online there are some fantastic coloring books being made now, like Rosie Flo, Scribbles, Doodles, and the Anti-Coloring Book - I actually just did a post on this:

A New Breed Of Coloring Books

Check it out if you're interested
_______________________________________________

My Blog:
globalmama.com
{Green living, parenting, and other good stuff}

[limabean]

Originally Posted by Global Mama

I totally agree that the coloring books in most stores these days are on poor quality paper and/or are filled with Disney characters. However, if you're willing to order online there are some fantastic coloring books being made now, like Rosie Flo, Scribbles, Doodles, and the Anti-Coloring Book - I actually just did a post on this:

A New Breed Of Coloring Books

Check it out if you're interested
_______________________________________________

My Blog:
globalmama.com
{Green living, parenting, and other good stuff}

Great post, thanks!

[jocelyndale]

Target does have a few activity/coloring books in the dollar section at the front of the store. Sometimes they are branded with characters (like Sesame Street), sometimes not.

[DaughterOfKali]

I've seen some 'generic' coloring books at Barnes & Noble but most of them there have licensed characters.

I like my own website for free activity/coloring pages (we will be getting a new & improved website soon which will make finding those pages easier).

[lawgrrl]

Why buy coloring books at all?

Here's a novel thought that I feel is worth mentioning...why buy coloring books at all? They are so very limiting when it comes to creativity and imagination. We have always bought blank paper in gummed or spiral-bound tablets or by the ream for DS. It is wonderful to watch as his drawing as evolved over the years without the limitation of coloring "within the lines."

[DaughterOfKali]

Originally Posted by lawgrrl

Here's a novel thought that I feel is worth mentioning...why buy coloring books at all?

It's perfectly fine to have a mix of coloring books and blank pages. I doubt anyone is going to tell a child that she/he can't draw their own picture.
(I'm an artist as well as a teacher. My creativity certainly hasn't been squashed by using coloring books when I was a child.)

[limabean]

Originally Posted by lawgrrl

Here's a novel thought that I feel is worth mentioning...why buy coloring books at all? They are so very limiting when it comes to creativity and imagination. We have always bought blank paper in gummed or spiral-bound tablets or by the ream for DS. It is wonderful to watch as his drawing as evolved over the years without the limitation of coloring "within the lines."

Yes, how very novel -- I can't believe I never thought to provide my son with blank paper! His poor stunted imagination.

[lawgrrl]

Wow. Daughter of Kali and lima bean, your responses are incredibly defensive and super-snarky. I'm just suggesting that Coloring Books are unnecessary, something that no one had even posited in 30 posts in this thread, which absolutely floored me. I cannot understand why people would want to spend a dime on them.

While you might not feel that you are overtly telling your child that they CAN'T draw their own pictures by giving them Coloring Books, what message do you think you are sending them by telling s/he to FILL.IN.THE.BLANKS. Yes, that's just my opinion, but it is supported by the Waldorf philosophy, as well as other early childhood development and educational philosophies, such as Reggio.

Perhaps instead of exercising your sarcastic muscle, you could explain to me your philosophy about why giving a child a drawing made by an adult and telling the child to color it in is preferable to allowing the child to experiment with their own imagination? Coloring Books amount to busy work in my opinion, not something that enhances a child's development. If merely keeping your child occupied is your goal, so be it, but it isn't mine. I aspire to more.

[limabean]

Removed because it's ridiculous to argue about coloring, of all things.

I'll just say that you're making some wild assumptions, and that your seriousness is out of proportion to the subject matter, and leave it at that.

[DaughterOfKali]

Originally Posted by lawgrrl

Wow. Daughter of Kali and lima bean, your responses are incredibly defensive and super-snarky.

No, my response was just fine.

[ZanZansMommy]

Originally Posted by Global Mama

I totally agree that the coloring books in most stores these days are on poor quality paper and/or are filled with Disney characters. However, if you're willing to order online there are some fantastic coloring books being made now, like Rosie Flo, Scribbles, Doodles, and the Anti-Coloring Book - I actually just did a post on this:

A New Breed Of Coloring Books

Check it out if you're interested
_______________________________________________

My Blog:
globalmama.com
{Green living, parenting, and other good stuff}

Was just going to post that my DD really enjoys the Scribbles & Doodles books.

[nolansmummy]

We get all ours at Target. Sometimes the dollar section has ones that "match" the holiday of the time, or else we get them by the books/magazines. We have some character ones, but also some regular animal/generic picture ones.

[urklemama]

Some nice stuff has gotten posted to the livejournal coloring community

http://community.livejournal.com/coloring/

These are very intricate:

http://www.bellerophonbooks.com/shopsys/