I never really thought I would be calling any toy a godsend, but the Crayola Glow Book has done something for my ten-year-old son that none of his school teachers (and certainly not his art teacher) has been able to do. I've tried, too. I've tried asking, showing, cajoling, ordering, limiting privileges, exaggerated sighing, and using his full name, but my child's penmanship is abysmal and his art skills mostly stink.
The reason for this is relatively straightforward: in my family, kids develop their fine motor skills later than most kids do. My parents and teachers made me work at it, but I at least was getting a lot of practice all the time. My child goes to a school where he gets to type a lot of his assignments. He's learned a lot in art about color and perspective and design, but he gets extremely frustrated trying to execute what's in his head, so he stopped enjoying drawing and painting pretty much as soon as he hit kindergarten.
When I ordered this, I thought it was going to turn out to be just a gimmicky gadgety thing he'd use once and then I'd get to use it to leave notes my husband would have to work to ignore, but my son loves it. He can write, draw, erase, illuminate, and animate without having to commit anything to paper or to critical eyes (except his own). Because the illustration plates are layered, if he's happy with one part but not another, he can re-do the one without having to worry about smudging or wrecking the other. As a result, he is spending time using his fine motor skills, they are improving, and he is much happier with the work he is doing.
I gave this five stars for fun, based on his recommendation. I rate it five stars for educational value and five stars overall for how much help it has been in an area in which my child needed some help. I gave it four stars for durability. It feels a little flimsy, but it's holding up well so far.
Review By. L. Gildart
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