Cool Creations in 35 Pieces
After four thematic books in which Kenney used LEGO blocks to construct castles, robots, vehicles, and a city, he shifts gears and takes on a new imaginative challenge: What can he make using just 35 LEGO bricks? It will be no surprise to fans of his Cool Creations series that Kenney dreams up an impressive assortment of robots, transformers, spacecraft, buildings, furniture, vehicles, animals, aliens, and “goofy faces.” Directions for some, but not all, of the projects appear as step-by-step, digital drawings on an adjacent page or sidebar. Photographed, the completed creations show up clearly against clean, white backgrounds with just a few black lines suggesting settings. In the introduction, Kenney displays the 35 pieces he uses in the projects. Most are more specialized than the typical LEGO blocks. Readers who can’t scrounge the same parts from their own collections can order a kit from his website or, better still, choose their own 35 pieces and challenge themselves. Preschool-Grade 3. --Carolyn Phelan