Plastic Bottles

School Library Journal

Gr 1-4Two pages of text that list supplies and give basic instructions introduce these craft books. Wordless instructions and illustrations explain each project. Cardboard Tubes includes projects such as binoculars, a teepee, a haunted house, and puppets. Plastic Bottles provides directions for making a skittles game, a flowerpot, bracelets, and a mobile. Patterns for all parts of each craft are shown, but it is up to readers to determine the size of each piece. No grids or measurements appear in either text. The supplies are labeled but not the pieces of the project. The supply lists, the illustrations, as well as the children portrayed would indicate that these projects could be completed by primary-age children. However, their success in producing a colorful bracelet or mobile from a plastic bottle using blunt-ended scissors and poster paint is questionable. These crafts break no new ground. Equally attractive ideas, with far more complete instructions, can be found in the "Fresh Start" series (Watts) or Angela Wilkes's "My First..." books.Kathryn Kosiorek, Cuyahoga County Public Library, Brooklyn, OH