Block Building for Children: Making Buildings of the World with the Ultimate Construction Toy

This book is lovely. A true treasure. I will be keeping this one after my kids are gone. It has "plans" for building everything from a car wash for toy cars to an airport complete with hangers for the planes. The illustrations are very well done and easy to see which block goes where. One important note- you need a FULL set of unit blocks to build most of what is in here. A little kit of 50 blocks just isn't gonna cut it. Unfortunately it's not so easy to find a good set of block for your kids. In my opinion, however, it's worth it. A quick internet search should lead you to a source. Keep in mind, they aren't cheap. You have to look at them as an investment. Blocks are something that will easily provide 10 years or more of play. And don't forget the future generations. So do your kids a favor and get them a big ol set of unit blocks and a copy of this book and watch the fun begin!

Genuine hardwood unit blocks are THE best toy for children. I have a fairly large set of them and my children, who range in age from 2-8, all sit down together (and separately) and play with them. The blocks become horse stables, airports, buildings, hotels, doll houses, highways, you name it!! And when other children come to our home, the blocks are invariably the first thing pulled out and played with.In general, I've held that open-ended toys like blocks should be open ended, that kids should be encouraged to make their own creations, not carefully recreate someone else's construction.I make an exception for Lester Walker's exceptional book. Some of his buildings are so realistic - his cathedral, roman temple, and skyscraper, for example. It is so interesting to see how he takes the basic block shapes to make such complex looking structures.Other projects in the book invite hours of play, such as his shopping mall, airport, and boat dock.I highly, highly recommend this book.

I had heard this book was great for young children, however I didn't read up enough to understand that this book is probably suited better for older children. I teach PreK and was hoping it would show color pictures as well as pictures that were larger. The book has black and white pictures and the pictures are not that large. The book has extensive descriptions and directions for each item. All in all it was an ok book and I still placed it in my block center for the children and they do use it.

Wow! This book is even more fun than I expected. I know building with blocks should be intuitive and for the most part it is. But. It's also so important to learn the process of following steps; starting with parts that are synthesized to a whole; and working with someone else just adds to the fun.

I got this book when my oldest was very little. It is so exciting to see him now, at 6, really delve into it.

What a Great book to Spark the Creative in all kids. Wooden blocks let them learn and explore .... while being creative. Awesome book.

As I don't have a lot of building imagination, this book has great suggestions for me to build with my grandson.

Great book for all aspects of block building from the beginner to the advanced. My son is almost 4, wish I would have got it a couple years ago.