Farm and Feast: Gather Together with Friends and Food (American Girl)

These little books are cute, and arrive packed with adorable stickers and materials to craft items pertaining to the subject. However, the perforated sheets are cheap; it was difficult to separate the items without tearing the paper. My daughter was so disappointed, so I returned it. They are not like the original book/activity kits that American Girl use to publish. If you are looking for that quality, do not purchase these.

Wonderful book with crafts and cute accessories.

Granddaughter’s enjoyment and AG summer class.

This is a beautiful book to read. It contains gorgeous pictures of dioramas of American Girl dolls performing various farm chores. The plants, animals, tools and settings are all crafts that presumably a child can make. And therein lies the problem. The crafts shown are beautifully done, clearly by an artistic adult. The instructions provided are just lists of steps with no diagrams. Some of the materials called for could be hard to find--and are often things that must be purchased rather than materials you are likely to have. And the crafts made are really suitable only for a diorama: wheels don't turn, some crafts look fragile. They are nice to look at, but would probably have limited play value.When I was a child, I think I would have been frustrated trying to make these crafts; I know my mother would not have wanted to try to track down materials. This could be a wonderful springboard for creativity for a talented child with a skilled, artistic parent. I do have friends who would probably enjoy it. However, these are not quickie crafts for a rainy afternoon that any child can do. If you are a craft person who knows where to find the materials and want to spend time with your child, this could be a good book. Otherwise, try to find a more doable project for your child.

I really love the idea of creating a DIY crafting experience around the American Girl Doll Collection. Once you have the dolls it's easy to get consumed by purchasing the clothes, accessories etc that come with the brand. A more thoughtful experience would encourage another level of creativity with the doll. Make clothes for her or use household/disposable items to craft her environment whether it be furniture, food, etc to play pretend.This book jumpstarts creativity, but I have a few thoughts:1) There are many good ideas to get the creative juices flowing, but you would need to purchase a lot of materials from the craft store to make these ideas happen.2) Rather than suggesting items that would most likely need to be purchased, it would be better if the book repurposed more accessible household items (ex: maybe empty shoe boxes and leftover fabric to make her a bed or seat). They do this a little bit in the book (ex: craft sticks to make tongs) but I'd like to see more of it.3) The instructions aren't written in the best form of user information. Each spread has several projects listed on it, and each project is numbered to correspond with the final craft shown in a photo. That works fine. But when you read each project it's in a paragraph form. It would be easier to follow if each project had a bullet pointed craft supply list and then followed with an instruction list. Instead I need to hunt through each project paragraph to know what items I need to acquire.4) The stickers and punch out cards add a nice level of fun to the crafting experience. Nothing that you can't do with your own paper, glue, and coloring materials, but they compliment the book. The oven mitt is a nice 3-d touch too.5) For some of the projects I'm not sure why they didn't just provide the materials. For example, the beehive calls for honeycomb patterned paper and bee stickers. There are 4 rectangular stickers that say "busy bee" but why didn't they offer a bunch of bees that your kid could scatter around their beehive box. Or give a sheet of paper with the beehive pattern on it. Super easy and connects better to the book.Fun crafting, good ideas, but the execution could be taken up a notch if they produce a revised version of the book.

This packet contains a 32-page book filled with fun ideas for crafts. At first I thought this was a cook book with recipes but instead, the "recipes" are really instructions for how to make various dioramas related to farms, farmers markets, farm kitchens, etc. For example, the book contains instructions on how to build raised garden beds, a kitchen canning station, a cow wash, and even a tractor. You can also learn to make doll food such as a Thanksgiving turkey, cakes, pies, cookies, etc. out of common household crafting supplies. But, no actual cooking recipes. The accompanying pictures are all full color photographs of various AG dolls set up with the completed dioramas.Also included is a sticker set and a doll-sized oven mit.Taken together, this is a high-quality set, full of neat crafting ideas and educational at the same time.

My 11-year-old daughter loves all things to do with American Girl. She only has a couple of actual dolls, but lots of accessories, and several story books. She was curious about AG craft books recently, so we started with this one. After my daughter and a couple of friends teamed up to do some projects from this book, I'd say it was worthwhile to get it.The book packet contains most materials needed for the projects. A few necessary items were not included in the packet, but it was not that difficult to get them. If I could make one suggestion up front, however, I think AG should include all necessary items for the projects. That way, kids could truly do the work independently. The projects themselves are related to a nice subject matter: food and nutrition, animals, and various farm scenarios. The projects are interspersed with good writing on these subjects.Overall, this book is a good source of creativity, and it engages kids very well.

Tolles kreatives Buch für Kinder und Liebhaber von American girl