# Reccomend a how to draw book for 7-9 year olds. **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [December 9, 2004, 8:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/reccomend-a-how-to-draw-book-for-7-9-year-olds/278990 "2004-12-09T20:30:20Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 5\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Lobsang](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lobsang/32/4067_2.png) [@Lobsang](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lobsang)\ **Post date:** [December 9, 2004, 8:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/reccomend-a-how-to-draw-book-for-7-9-year-olds/278990/1 "2004-12-09T20:30:20Z")
I usually can’t think of anything other than generic presents for my two oldest nieces (now 7 and 9) but this year I think I know what to get them… A decent how to draw book (maybe one to share and another present each, or even a book each). I spent the last week with them (and my 3 year old niece too) and it has become pretty obvious that they like to draw and seem to have potential. They were inventing Incredibles costumes last night and I was surprised how well they drew the human form. It was then that I decided what would be a great christmas present. I’m looking for less artsy more cartoony type books. So, any reccomendations? ---
**Author:** ![even\_sven](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/dfb087/32.png) [@even\_sven](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/even_sven)\ **Post date:** [December 9, 2004, 9:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/reccomend-a-how-to-draw-book-for-7-9-year-olds/278990/2 "2004-12-09T21:29:14Z")
Learning to draw as a kid is a gift for life. I think it’s a great gift idea. As a kid, I was a huge fan of Commander Mark and the Draw squad, although I’m not sure that his stuff is still available. He taught a very whimsicle cartoony style, but worked in a lot of lessons on perspective and shading and stuff. A good gift for an older kid is a set of chalk pastels and some black paper or a full set of drawing pencils. As a kid, I was facinated by the idea that there could be different kinds of pencils and inordinately proud that I owned all these mysterious art pencils. ---
**Author:** ![Tangent](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tangent/32/3098_2.png) [@Tangent](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tangent)\ **Post date:** [December 9, 2004, 9:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/reccomend-a-how-to-draw-book-for-7-9-year-olds/278990/3 "2004-12-09T21:53:52Z")
When I was a kid I used to check out books from our school library that were part of a series. They were called “Draw 50 Dogs” or “Draw 50” animals, planes, people, cars, horses, etc. They taught me a lot about form and how to draw by simplifying an object to its basic shapes, then building from there. They were really just pages and pages of step-by-step illustrations showing the process of drawing each individual type of dog, animal, plane, etc. [And I see on Amazon that they are all still available.](http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/search-handle-url/ref=dp_searchBox_1/002-1947030-7669632?url=index%3Dbooks%26dispatch%3Dsearch%26results-process%3Dbin&field-keywords=draw+50) Good stuff–check them out. ---
**Author:** ![Tangent](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tangent/32/3098_2.png) [@Tangent](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tangent)\ **Post date:** [December 9, 2004, 9:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/reccomend-a-how-to-draw-book-for-7-9-year-olds/278990/4 "2004-12-09T21:58:57Z")
> [@Lobsang](#): > > I’m looking for less artsy more cartoony type books. Oh, and if you follow that link to Amazon, you’ll see that one of them is “Draw 50 Famous Cartoons”. ---
**Author:** ![Khadaji](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/9e8a1a/32.png) [@Khadaji](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Khadaji)\ **Post date:** [December 9, 2004, 11:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/reccomend-a-how-to-draw-book-for-7-9-year-olds/278990/5 "2004-12-09T23:37:56Z")
In addition to what Tangent said, I have found that the [How To Draw series](http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/search-handle-url/index%3Dbooks%26field-keywords%3Dhow%252520to%252520draw%26store-name%3Dbooks/104-5902216-7859149) have some good books as well. Especially for what you asked for, cartoony type stuff.