Book Review and Giveaway – Wood shop

Wood Shop: by Margaret Larson

A complete carpentry-camp-in-a-book, Wood Shop is the perfect gift for young makers and aspiring woodworkers. 17 cool projects teach kids the basics of woodworking as they build cool, useful creations. This book is great for boys or girls and is perfect for the older child who is looking to learn new skills with power tools.

I am a firm believer in girls can do anything and this book is perfect for confirming that. Boys will learn the same skills as girls which will teach them fine motor skills as well as the basics to home DIY.

We are giving two lucky Craftgossip.com readers the chance to get their hands on this book. For your chance to win signup to our newsletter and comment telling us who you are winning this book for.

Giveaway open to US addresses only

Giveaway closes 30th November 2018

Kids all seem to go through a phase of loving trivia, and if you’ve got kids who want to know about the tallest, biggest and weirdest things in nature, they’ll enjoy the book Once in a Blue Moon by Emily Hawkins.

The book explores wonders of astronomy, meteorology, big trees, weird animals, volcanoes and more to show off the rarest events and phenomena in the natural world.

Kids ages 7-10 will learn about the lake (Lake Hillier, on an island off Australia) that has water that’s bubblegum pink, the world’s deepst came (Veryovkina Cave in the country of Georgia) and the world’s biggest tree, a banyan in southeast India with a canopy that covers more than five acres!

Readers will learn what a blue moon is, how supernovas happen and about Haley’s comet and solar eclipses, among other space-related phenomena. Closer to home they’ll learn about stinky flowers, bleeding trees, glowing fungi and pizzly bears.

There’s content about times when it’s rained frogs (and when frogs have exploded en masse), when snow made giant snowballs all by itself and how clouds stack on themselves like pancakes. The book also explores ball lightning, sun dogs, St. Elmo’s fire and more.

I love books like this and I know kids do, too. There’s so much weird and wonderful about our world and even as adults we don’t know about all of these things. I found it fun to learn, for example, that there’s a volcano on the island of Java that not only sends out blue flames from vents near its crater, it’s also home to an acidic lake.

Illustrations by Vlad Stankovic illuminate these weird natural wonders and are sure to get kids interested in learning more about some of these remarkable animals, plants, rock formations and more.

About the book: 80 pages, hardcover. Published 2026 by Wide Eyed Editions. Suggested retail price $30.

Have you read?