Teaching children to draw, by Barbara Ward, published by Continuum, and distributed in Australia through Allen and Unwin.

A concise and detailed book for adults, teachers and parents, meant as a source book to enable effective teaching of children. From discussions about why it is important to teach children to draw, working with children and how to motivate. Chapters include techniques such as sketching, tones and textures, then moves on to shapes and ideas of perspective before getting to body parts and portraits. An important aspect of this book is the focus on it as a book for teachers, with teacher resources, how to include drawing in the curriculum, and working in different environments. This is definitely a useful and instructive manual for those working with children.

For the love of letters: A 21st-century guide to the art of letter writing, by Samara O’Shea, published by Collins.

A book all about the art of letter writing the old fashioned way. Sections on writing love letters, thank you letters, good bye letters and break up letters with lots of different variations and delicious examples of modern and old fashioned versions. As well as all this there are tips on replying to letters and personal and moving anecdotes from the author. This would be an excellent book for a gift and a good resource to have at home, when stuck on what to write and how to say the words that need to be said.

Printmaking Handbook: Printmaking for beginners, second edition, by Jane Stobart, published by A&C Black, and distributed in Australia through Allen and Unwin.

This is good resource book for teachers and students of printmaking. It outlines all of the basic techniques with examples and variations. Such as with monotypes, discussing the various inks and what results they give, using various methods to create shapes to print from such as tearing paper, drawing and painting with ink, and then how to get the best from the image, which papers and pressing techniques to use. Other techniques discussed include Intaglio, relief, collagraph, carborundum prints, screenprinting and lithography.

Textile Handbook: The yarn book, by Penny Walsh, Published by A&C Black and distributed in Australia through Allen and Unwin.

This is such a fabulous and detailed book, with everything you ever wanted to know about yarn, the history of spinning yarn section is by itself worthwhile, with wonderful illustrations and images of old spindle wheels, historic textiles and close up photographs of different fibres. The chapter on materials is equally good, outlining the properties of different fibres, ranging from natural fibres: wool and mohair to camel and rabbit, flax, hemp, bamboo and nettle, and manufactured and synthetic fibres: rayon, nylon and acrylic. The rest of book is all good too, chapters on handspinning techniques (designing your own fibres, combinations, plys, inserts, mixing fibres), and yarn in fabric (various textiles), contemporary yarns (new fibres, new techniques). If yarn is your thing then this book is for you, worth it for the great pictures and illustrations and the detailed explanations of techniques and types.

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