Barri Leiner

I thought this was a keeper for sure, until I read it. Lots of pretty pictures and good decorating ideas, but the most annoying "cute and clever" (actual quote) text ever. The authors have an unnatural fixation with alliteration. "Some of the best timber treats are primary painted pretend-with-me finds" is a sentence that is atypical only because it's short. It's not very clear, but it refers to wooden toys, also known as "woody-wonders" ... to these authors, who also have a hyphen fetish. Other sentences have as many as five or more alliterative phrases strung together. "Keep a keen eye out for a carry-all case of colorful milk bottles or build 'em up blocks from memory-making manufacturers..." I can't even.

But the pictures are lovely. There are no crafts projects although there is some re-purposing. But pictures. Really, that's why we buy these books, not for the words. If the text was simply banal instead of as creepy as bugs down your back I'd have given it another star.… (altro)