Ed Emberley's Drawing Book of Trucks and Trains
Learn to Draw the Ed Emberley Way!

Ed Emberley

Review by Molly

Ed Emberley's Drawing Book of Trucks and Trains: Learn to Draw the Ed Emberley Way! Is another of Emberley’s dandy how to books respected by teachers and others who may be a bit artistically challenged while nevertheless face a necessity now and then for producing a train that looks like a train or truck that looks like a truck.

From old time engines having cow catchers and smoke stacks to immense 18 wheelers; Ed Emberley's Drawing Book of Trucks and Trains: Learn to Draw the Ed Emberley Way!  is an excellent edition to use to guide young children toward increasing center of attention and concentration while increasing poise in their drawing. 

As we begin an exercise I do not tell Little Artists what we will be depicting, rather I begin line by line and shape by shape and Little Artists mime each line amidst much conjecture regarding what it is we are drawing. 

Through use of the simplest of lines, letters and geometric shapes; Emberley provides step by step training for fashioning a considerable assortment of items I might otherwise not attempt.  Emberley’s books have proven themselves in my classroom many times over durign the years I have spent in the company of Little Learners. 

Emberley’s works maintain a simple format composed of two lines of shapes; the bottom line designates what to draw and the other shows where it goes on the drawing.

Representations created from the first page of the book right down to the very last one located on the last page are very identifiable by Little Learners and teacher too.  Emberley’s uncomplicated instructions, if followed, will fabricate drawings that actually do look like the train or the truck we set out to generate.

My threadbare edition of Drawing Book of Trucks and Trains: Learn to Draw the Ed Emberley Way! Has been used to direct many classes of Little Learners per how to fashion small to big trucks, locomotives and the train cars pulled by them by putting together fundamental geometric shapes including circles, squares, triangles, and what not required by state standards by means of effortless to follow directions. Slowly but surely, a mixed bag of lines, dots or shapes are united into a final creation from cable car and trolley to pick up, vans and more.  At each step, the precise instruction offered is such that even the most fumble fingered can produce credible drawings.

Emberley’s basis for sketching is elementary; he believes that just about anything can be generated through use of scribble, squiggles and geometric shapes, as well as with the intermittent addition of dots and lines, and, letters and numbers.

During my earliest teaching year in California, Ed Emberley's Drawing Book of Animals was the original Emberley book I bought way-back-when. The K – 1 classes I taught all those years ago loved the book, and had enormous fun, and pride, creating critters everyone recognized. Little Artists enjoy it as much today.

Happy to recommend Ed Emberley's Drawing Book of Trucks and Trains: Learn to Draw the Ed Emberley Way!

Suggestion: rather than simply buying book and paper and pencils and tossing to age 4 – 7 year old Little Learner; parent, older sibling, teacher and child, or children drawing together will provide good together time, better results and less frustration for the Little People.

While I don’t have all 80 Emberley books; I have long since added to my first book and my own collection is large and continues to grow. Ed Emberley's Drawing Book of Trucks and Trains: Learn to Draw the Ed Emberley Way! will likely not be the last of the Emberley books I add.