Title: Colour Together: Christmas
Author: Annie Davidson
Illustrator: Annie Davidson
Publisher: Andersen Press
Genre: Colouring
Book format: Paperback
Sweet Strawberries: 
*Free copy provided by publisher for review…
Review: Wow, I love colouring books that focus on Christmas and this one is lovely! ‘Colour Together Christmas’ is just a little larger than A4 in size and is filled with really thick pages of black and white images to colour, all with a Christmas theme. The book lies in landscape rather than portrait and each page that opens up is actually a double-page of one scene which can be coloured in on both sides at once.
I’ve bought a few colouring in together books in the past (even though I usually end up colouring them in myself!) and I have to say I prefer this book’s style as each double page is of one continuous image, rather than two seperate ones on either side of the page. This continuity makes it feel like you are creating something extra special with someone and I can see how lovely it feels if a child and an adult (or older sibling) colour this in together. Every double page can open up significantly, almost entirely flat, if not flat, and most images do not have anything running into the centre spine area (except for things like snow or the ground) so it’s easy to colour in and there won’t be a lot of annoyance at having to colour into spine which often curves in colouring books.
All of the images are so Christmassy and I just love it! There is such a variety of different pictures to colour in, from Christmas ornaments, wreaths and snow globes to outdoor scenes, winter clothing and even Santa makes an appearance flying over the houses! Most pages don’t have a background that needs colouring in and each of them has a little saying about what’s in the picture, a bit like a message on a card or in a picture book.
Because this book is meant to be coloured in by different ages (a younger child with an older child, teen or adult) each scene to colour in has an easier and simpler image on the left with the right-hand side being more complex with more details. While you can see that the left-hand images are easier and often with bigger areas to colour in compared to the other side, the difference looks subtle when looking at the whole two pages together as one picture. What I mean is that each image, if it were a photo, looks as if the left hand side is in the foreground with the more detailed right-hand things to colour being in the background, therefore a little smaller and more complex. You really have to see the images from this book to see how well they work.
Each paper page of the book is printed on both sides but the pages are so thick they are more like card than paper so can easily take felt pens and other types of pens without any bleed through. The pages really take colour well and I am really enjoying colouring in this book already with my pencils! The back of the book shows each double page as one long image. I’m not sure why this is here but it’s good to see the whole images again, just in case it wasn’t clear when holding open the book.
Although this is aimed at getting children to colour in together with others, this book can also be done entirely on your own or by one child on its own. In fact I’d recommend this book to any age, even adults, if you want a slightly less complex book than some of the ones out there in the adult colouring book market. The pictures are still detailed enough to enjoy colouring in and there are even opportunities to embellish images with extra doodling if you want to, like some of the stars that hang, or some of the decorations (although this isn’t labelled in the book-just a thought I had for those who want to be super-creative). I’m enjoying using this book on my own as an adult, I can’t wait to finish colouring in each page! And this would make a perfect gift for yourself or for anyone who has a child (they can colour in all this alone if they/you want to), or for those with more than one child so they can colour together or for adults to spend time with kids. It really does feel like a good quality colouring book and it’s definitely one I would have bought myself a long time ago had I known about it before now!
Do you like Christmas colouring books? What about colouring books to share between two people? Let me know what you think in the comments below 🙂
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