Home > Categories > Books > Activities / Crafts > Kuwi's Creative Colouring Book for Big and Small People review
Kuwi the Kiwi takes you on a native New Zealand journey through intricate line art. The illustrative magic of Kat Merewether comes alive with this creative colouring book, stunningly illustrated for all ages.
Certain pages are intentionally unfinished and encourages your creative side. A perfect project for adult and child to work on together (so you don't have to hide your colouring book from the kids any more!)
Product reviews...
I was so excited to receive the kuwi's creative colouring book, the book itself is so eye catching and appealing. I love the picture on the cover the book and the mix of some coloured in and some not. I think the cover makes you want to open this book to see what pictures are inside. If I were to see this sitting on the shelf in a shop, it would appeal to me to pick the book up to buy it.
The book itself and all the pictures are amazing! I love the detail of the pictures and the little stories on the pages. It was the best book so sit down with my son and do some colouring. I found the book very relaxing and when I sat down to do some drawing I felt like a happy little kid again. Seeing the smile on my son's face as we coloured in together was awesome to see as well. Sometimes it's the little things in life you take for granted and forget.
Over all I would buy similar colouring books like this in the future. It is great value for money and the detail in the pages is worth it. I love how it has so many varieties of New Zealand goodies in it, like the kiwi, chocolate fish, jet planes, kiwifruit and so much more. It would be a great book to send to anyone overseas to remind them of home, so they could sit down and enjoy the awesome colouring in book. I love it and I can't wait to colour in more pages with my son.
I haven't coloured in for years apart from the odd doddle on paper at work and colouring that in. But with a colouring in book nope. My kids keep asking me to colour with them but I just don't feel like it as the books seem so far apart to what I actually want to do so it pulls me back and I don't want to do it. I never thought I buying an adult book in case it was going to be a waste of money with one page done and never open it again. So asking KIWIreviews to review this colouring book was the best idea I had.
The book is so clean and a nice size its not overwhelming for someone who hasn't coloured for a while and it has great instructions inside it, explaining everything about the book. Big and little kids of all ages can use this book, one side (left) is a easier verison of the other side (right) of the book. The left side leaves gaps where the creator can add more detail in if they wish to. The pages can also be pulled out and used on their own if they wish (not something I will do unless I have to as I don't like paper all over my house). We started colouring (my kids 6 years and 8 years) all with our own colouring books to start with until my daughter (8 years) asked if she could colour next to me with my colouring book. I did stop to think as I didn't want to change page yet but I gave in and let her have a go with me on the next page, I found colouring with someone next to me was ok since she is left handed so there was no banging of arms and she would watch my page and then got creative with drawing her own snails and spiders.
I found colouring with felt didn't go onto the next page which is always a bonus when it comes to a colouring in book. I gave it a go with felt which I didn't like as the areas were small, I tried it with my felt around the edge and pencil inside like I did as a kid but nope didn't like that for these pages either, coloured pencils seemed to be the go on a nice white page and looked good. My daughter used felts and pencils as well.
I like this colouring book and it was a great bonding moment with my kids even though one did the book with me and the other had his own book. But they have both decided each time I do a new page the other one gets a turn so it will be my son next, sadly I only get weekends to do this with them and only every second weekend. I put a photo on facebook and had a friend message me for the book title and where to get it from as she wants it for herself and 4 year old, since the 4 year old always wants to colour in her mums book, this way they both can do their own creative drawing/colouring.
This is such a fantastic book, anything that promotes spending time with your children and creativity in my books is a hit! So much of our lives are taken up with work, technology, and constantly being on the go, often to busy to stop and appreciate the small things. I was really happy to get this book, and to be able to sit with my daughter to read and colour together in a calm and relaxed manner.
This is not just a colouring book, there are some creative pages that encourage you to think outside the square and do more than just colour. Miss 9 made us go out and find bits and pieces in the yard that she could use on one of the pages. Given the weather at the time, she did not find all that she wanted, so has put them aside for a nicer day when she can collect the rest that she needs to finish her page. A book that gets you out into nature as well. you have to wonder why no one thought of this before lol
The great thing about this is that its not just for adults, but for kids too, so you can sit with your little one and colour together. The picture intended for the adults is a lot more detailed, while the childs picture is more simple with parts that they can add their own creative drawings to complete. There are also facts and information through out the pages, allowing for many discussions to take place, and it is not just the kids that learn from it.
The kiwi is our national bird, and I learnt more about kiwis going through this book with my daughter, then I have in my near 40 years on this earth. I absolutely love it! I love the pictures, the detail, the chance to be creative, the learning that comes with it all! It is worth every single cent of the asking price. The illustrations are beautiful even in their unfinished state, and when completed, you can even take the pages out to make your very own art works for your home.
This is a very beautiful book, that will be enjoyed for a long time to come, and it is so beautifully made that it would make a truly wonderful gift for anyone...no matter their age!
I was so thrilled to get this colouring book. We have been big fans of Kuwi for a while now. I had been watching the colouring book's creation on Facebook and was very keen to get my hands on it. Kat Merewether's illustrations are amazing. She has the ability to make even the creepiest of crawlies quite adorable. Wetas and Huhu grubs full of cutesy charm. As for the kiwis and the other native bird sin this book, their eyes twinkle with mischief.
The book itself, is designed to be used by both young and old. This gives it family appeal. It's an activity you can do together as a family. Plus each page can be torn out and used for posters or whatever you like. There are pages with numbers which I loved for making a room border for my youngest. There are also some activity pages, so you can create your own insects and birds too.
I am a bit of a control freak with these types of books though. It takes a lot for me to take the plunge to actually colour a page. So for me to let my kids loose on it was a bit of an ask. I did feel better though, that the pages could be removed and they could keep them for their rooms. My eldest is very creative and often struggles to do colouring in activities so the creative pages were more her thing. She wanted to create her own birds and other creatures.
The pages in this book are nice and thick too. I haven't tried my sharpies on it yet, but I tried pencil and gel pens and I had no leak through so far. I also liked the addition of the kiwi facts in the back of the book. My eldest loved the illustration glossary too. She loves native birds and insects and found this really interesting.
There are two words that come to mind with this adult and kid colouring book...simply amazing!!! The images that have been created based around the Kuwi the Kiwi character are superb; we have never seen a colouring in book quite like it! My 4 year old daughter loved all the little kiwis throughout the book, and would count how many were on each page before we got to work colouring them (learning while having fun colouring = win win!). The drawings suited us both in terms of the size of the pictures. The small detailed pictures suited me fantastically, while the bigger ones were enough to challenge her 4 year old hand, yet simple enough to keep her focussed for a good length of time (which can be a hard thing to do at times!).
It is nice to find a book which is fun, yet educational as it houses a lot of kiwiana animals, bugs and flora and fauna and I was able to teach some of these to my daughter as we were colouring in together. It was nice to share this book with her as I often get 'bored' with her colouring in books, and she is never fascinated in my books as she finds them too little for her big crayons. We used mixed media with Kuwi, my daughter with pre school crayons and myself with colouring in pencils and felts. I can't recommend this book enough to anyone who loves to colour or needs some simple time out. Everyone should make time to colour in their week.
A lot of friends have been telling me how relaxing it is to colour in and adult colouring books have been recommended so when life suddenly became really sressful and I was having nightmares making it really difficult to get any sleep I thought I had nothing to lose by trying some books. I found it was actually very relaxing and I was able to sleep. I had been trying to win a copy of this book as it looked fantastic but competition is fierce so I thought it would be a lot easier to find it in the shops and buy, best decision ever.
The pictures are great with an option for detailed picture or if you have a younger budding artist then there is a less detailed picture so you can work side by side or if I feel more creative then do both sides but adding details on the easier picture. I like how you can read interesting information about the kiwi as you colour the pictures. I mostly like how I can make my kiwi rainbow colours and no body can complain about the colours used. I like how the pages are thick so that the ink from the gel ink pens don't bleed through the page to the other side. I really hope that there are more of these type of books available in future, there are great pictures of native birds and kiwianna and it is great that if you want to encourage kids to join in then they are able to.
I know that I will have a lot more sleepless and stressful nights ahead of me but with some relaxation techniques I hope to make it through the darkest times without too much hassle and I can guarantee that if there are any more books by Kat Merewether then they will find a home with my other books.
One thing I wasn't too fond of is I noticed that the cover kind of looks like it could be coloured in but when I checked on it the next day I saw that the ink wasn't dry and it rubbed off so that back cover is still black and white and calling for me to add colour.
My daughters and I love the Kuwi the Kiwi books and had a chance to meet Kat Mereweather when she was promoting her first book last year. They have so much detail in the illustrations that I knew we would love the colouring in book. Miss 7 3/4 loves adult colouring in books so I selected this book mainly with her in mind.
I sat down with her so we could colour together. The book is designed so that on one page it is simpler for younger children (or to add your own details), the facing page has lots more detail. I decided we would use felt tip pens and was pleased to see that the paper was thick enough that it didn't bleed through. Miss 6 chose to join in and we were able to all work on the book at once. After about an hour we still had not finished the double page but had spend quality time together chatting about all sorts of things.
As well as being a colouring in book it contains information about the kiwi and lots pictures of New Zealand birds, animals and kiwiana. This makes it a fun gift or souvenir for those overseas. Big sister has Brownie camp next weekend and has elected to take this book as her quiet time activity. I like that it is something she can do by herself or with others.
We absolutely adore Kat Merewether and her Kuwi the Kiwi books in our house... we have the lot and even the soft toys that go along with them! So when I saw that we had won Kuwi's Creative Colouring Book through a KIWIreviews competition Miss 3 and myself were beyond excited! Miss 3 is very into her art, colouring and creating which I love to encourage in anyway I can and I love to join her with this as there is just something about colouring and doodling on a piece of paper that I find very relaxing!
With such a range of adult colouring books now on the market as the new big thing I was quite excited to finally have one to work away at, with Miss 3 of course! Kat Merewether has certainly thought about absolutely everything when putting together this delightful colouring book, and it is designed so that you can work on it alone or together, the left hand side of the book is more designed with younger people in mind, with simple pictures to colour and fun activities which foster imagination and creativity such as decorating your own Kuwi egg and drawing your own sea creatures. The right hand side is more complex with more detailed drawings and finer lines, designed older children and adults in mind. The pages of the book are perforated, which I find is handy as sometimes Miss 3 and I need a bit more room to colour, and these pages make it easy to have this option, I think this would also be handy if you had several children wanting to colour at once.
The pages of the book are made from a lovely thick paper which means they are suitable for a range of different colouring materials, we have used crayons, paints, coloured pencils, gel pens and felt pens and have had no issues with leaking pages. Throughout the coloring book there are lot's of fun facts about Kiwi's and Miss 3 has loved learning about these and sharing her new found knowledge at daycare with her teacher's and friends, she has become quite a Kiwi expert thanks to this colouring book and will often get me to read her her coloring book as her bedtime story.
Just like the Kuwi the Kiwi books the colouring book features some lovely illustrations of Kiwiana and also the Maori culture throughout, with images of Pohutakawa trees, native New Zealand birds, pavlovas and Maori costumes. Miss 3's favourite page to colour so far was the Kiwiana Kai page, she just loved coloring and naming all the foods she could see and was very excited to point out to her uncle that his favourite lolly Jaffas was featured in her book! I absolutely love all the pages but if I had to choose a favourite mine would be the one that features all the various different sea creatures, as it was such a fun page to colour and add many different colours to.
The back of the book features a illustrated guide of the different birds, marine animals, reptiles and plants that are native to New Zealand which I thought was a great idea for teaching children about New Zealand and those things which make us unique. I loved reading about Kat Merewether and her ongoing help and support as a Kiwi ambassador and think it is fantastic that she donates a portion of each of her book sales to this very worthy cause.
With many of my family members have recently taken up adult colouring as a hobby I know exactly what I will be buying them for Christmas! Such a great colouring book which I would recommend for both adults and children, a great way to spend some quality time with your children or to relax and do something creative, would be perfect to take on a holiday or on a long flight.
This has got to be one of the best ideas ever! I started out at the age of nine with a paint-by-numbers kit (I still remember it - it featured a very kitsch bowl of roses) and have never looked back. Artists may laugh at my efforts, but there is something very relaxing about filling-in-the-blanks and seeing your creation grow. I don't care if I can't draw, it is the process that is the fun part. The world is divided into people who doodle, decorating every list and crossword page and blank sheet with squiggles and curvy lines and blotches, and those "artistic" few who draw and design only when they are intending to produce a masterpiece. It is for the doodlers, old and young, that this book was created.
This artwork-in-progress book is for people to share. The older and fussier ones on the right, the young and creative on the left. Four-year-olds love to play with colour and it does not matter too much whether their colours match or stay within the line. Their lines are bold and unapologetic. For us oldies, however, it becomes a matter of pride to stay within the lines - well, most of the time. So we share, both of us enjoying playing with colour on our own terms. A great way for generations to bond!
I told Miss Four we were going to review the book together, and we would both write our own review from our own perspective. (Hers would be dictated of course as she cannot actually write much yet.) She was very keen to do that as her brother and cousins have done several reviews but this was to be her first. We settled to work on adjoining pages (which she chose) and did not argue TOO much about who should use the pencils. Her mother hovered with a camera, and her brother paid an occasional visit to "help" me on my side as he considers that, at six, his colouring-in skills are very firmly aligned with those of an adult.
We spent a fun hour decorating our pages and admiring each other's work. The book will now be put away till my next visit, when we will have fun selecting another pair of pictures to complete. Some of the pictures on the left have an area of white space where the child can draw his or her own pictures, so it might be a challenge for her to do one of them. The pages are detachable so if she completes a really interesting one and wants to keep it, she can pull it out and stick it up on her wall.
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