Book Review: "Cubs Coloring And Activity Book"

by Al on Mar 29, 2009 7:00 AM CDT in Book Reviews Comment 4 comments

While we wait for this afternoon's matchup between the Cubs and Indians, here's a book review for those of you who have school-age and younger children. A startup company, Hawk's Nest Publishing, based in Connecticut, is printing a series of these books for young fans of various teams. So far they have books for the Mets, Red Sox, Yankees and Cubs.

In addition to being a coloring book for young kids, there are crossword puzzles, mazes and word games that are suitable for ages 6 to about 12, and even a couple of quizzes (match the Cub to his home country, and fill-in-the-blank for various Cubs' record holders, as well as some questions about the city of Chicago) that might entertain teenagers or adults on a long car trip or plane ride. (I liked the three "You Make The Call" umpiring questions.)

It's got the 2008 roster (says it's updated through "November 1, 2009, which is obviously off by a year), and uses that for another fill-in-the-blank quiz, and of course there are many pages that younger, or even older, kids can color in, both players and things such as the Wrigley Field scoreboard.

At $11.95, it's affordable entertainment and something you could bring to the ballpark. Nicely done and fills a niche for kids that I haven't seen before. For parents of young kids, this is a nice book to introduce them to our favorite team and start 'em out right. You can order one via the web links above.

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Comments

I flipped through this coloring book...

…in a Barnes & Noble a week or two ago. When I saw it on the shelf, I briefly considered buying it for my daughter. (She’s 6.) But as soon as I saw the illustrations of “Cubs players” Kerry Wood and Mark DeRosa, I shook my head and put it down. Plus, quite frankly, the illustrations really didn’t look that much like the actual players. But perhaps my standards are a little too high.

"That little kid at second base - he is after a job, isn't he?" ~ Lou Piniella, 3/9/09

by dat cubfan daver on Mar 29, 2009 9:54 AM CDT reply actions 0 recs

Most likely...

… they had a publishing deadline which meant they had to put players in as of November 1, as the book says. On November 1 it looked like Wood would stay, and who knew DeRo would be traded then?

I still think for younger kids, they’d be entertained by it, and it’s a good way of introducing small children to the Cubs.

"That's my opinion and if you don't like it, well, I have others." ~ Groucho Marx

by Al on Mar 29, 2009 9:59 AM CDT up reply actions 0 recs

That's true.

My reaction was purely emotional (irrational?) and, obviously, my daughter wouldn’t have known the difference (though I would’ve been damned proud of her if she did). Still, they might want to work on figuring out how to push back that publishing deadline. Like I said, the illustrations weren’t exactly detailed. Maybe they could develop some sort of template that would allow them to just switch players’ names in and out a little more quickly and easily.

"That little kid at second base - he is after a job, isn't he?" ~ Lou Piniella, 3/9/09

by dat cubfan daver on Mar 30, 2009 9:48 AM CDT up reply actions 0 recs