Reading Time: Creative Books for Kids

From picture books for pint-size readers to more involved, didactic tomes that parents can read to their kids, break out these entertaining and educational volumes for more creative play.

Designing the Creative Child: Playthings and Places in Midcentury America, by Amy F. Ogata
(University of Minnesota Press, 2013)

Housebuilding for Children: Step-by-Step Guides for Houses Children Can Build Themselves, by Lester Walker
(Overlook Press, 2007)

Dreaming Up: A Celebration of Building, by Christy Hale
(Lee & Low Books, 2012)

The Works: Anatomy of a City, by Kate Ascher
(Penguin Books, 2007)

Draw 50 Buildings and Other Structures: The Step-by-Step Way to Draw Castles and Cathedrals, Skyscrapers and Bridges, and So Much More, by Lee J. Ames
(Watson-Guptill, 2013)

Play All Day: Design for Children, edited by Robert Klanten and Sven Ehmann
(Die Gestalten Verlag, 2009)

Sky High, by Germano Zullo
(Chronicle Books, 2012)

Building Big, by David Macaulay
(HMH Books for Young Readers, 2004)

Iggy Peck, Architect, by Andrea Beaty
(Harry N. Abrams, 2007)

Century of the Child: Growing by Design 1900–2000, by Tanya Harrod, Medea Hoch, and Juliet Kinchin
(The Museum of Modern Art, 2012)