The Cardboard Box Book: Make Robots, Princess Castles, Cities, and More!

by Roger Priddy, Sarah Powell, Barbi Sido (Illustrator)

Don't throw away that box! Why not turn it into something amazing instead? This incredibly creative book shows kids that by using easy-to-find art and craft materials, the ideas, templates and stickers included in the book, and most importantly, a ton of imagination, simple cardboard boxes can be transformed into a robot costume, a princess castle, a circus, and so much more!

Genres: Nonfiction, Crafts

48 pages, Spiral-bound

First published July 1, 2014

About the author

Roger Priddy (b. 1960) is the creator of Priddy Books, which publishes books for babies and young children. Priddy Books is a division of Macmillan Publishers and books published by the imprint have won several Practical Pre-School Awards.

Reviews

[NZBook Girl]

This book has lots of cool projects to make out of cardboard boxes (stove, car, barn, friends...) and it's also a nicely designed book, with die cuts in the cover and an internal spiral binding which is great for projects because the book actually stays open while you're trying to follow the instructions and hold your box/tape/paintbrush/scissors/hole punch all with just two hands.
The projects do tend to be a bit too precise for my liking down to what colour you should paint things - instructions so you can make something that looks just like what is in the picture, you hope, but which in my experience is usually destined for failure as small people will never be able to make things as neatly and precisely as the clever adults who have made this book. For this reason, my favourite project is the city which you make out of whatever size boxes you can find so each final result is going to be different. It would be a great group project where everyone could make their own building to go onto the final base.
So hang on to those cereal boxes and get creative.

[Stefanie Burns]

Attractive book on how to create many different objects, mostly play toys, out of cardboard boxes. Great book for kids interested in creating things. You could use it in a makerspace, but it seems best suited for individuals. Every project has a list of materials and for some you definitely need to plan ahead to gather all the right supplies. Some will take quite a while and need a LOT of boxes. Each step is nicely illustrated with actual items and is easy to understand. Although it isn't for the very young. Nice book, but make sure you look inside to see if you're up for the challenge.

[Lea Ann]

Great ideas for cardboard boxes that have real appeal. Wonderful ideas for classrooms and playrooms. Lots of fun!

[Debra]

This book has many ideas of how to recycle cardboard boxes into cities, robots and toys. With relatively few tools and materials your kids can spend a great deal of time creating and playing with their final product. An adult will need to oversee the cutting of the cardboard and keep an eye on them as they paint. But I want to jump in and make a building or robot of my own.

[Maggie]

Check out again. Fun construction projects for the boys

[Kimberly]

This book was written by someone who has way too much time on his hands, and the only people who would find this book appealing are parents with way too much time on their hands. I do not know anyone who has this much cardboard on hand unless they've just moved, in which case I doubt they'd be up for making elaborate cardboard crafts. Nearly every project in this book would require a trip to a craft store--these are not materials the average person has readily available.

I am baffled by the reviewer who said that this book would be easily accessible for a preschooler. Has he ever met a preschooler? It's pretty rare to meet a preschooler who can read step-by-step directions like, "Make the large cake plates by drawing two circles onto cardboard measuring 9 inches and 6 inches in diameter." Reality check: this is a book for parents, plain and simple. Even an older child would struggle to follow some of these instructions and have their projects come out looking anything like they do in the book--meaning you have frustrated kids or parents who are literally doing all of the work. If that's your cup of tea, that's totally fine, and I suppose an adult could do some steps in advance to streamline the process. I just don't see these projects as being very engaging for a young child.

Aside from all of this, some of these projects seem completely pointless. Making a train out of cardboard, with cardboard wheels? Yeah, okay. That will be great until it gets stepped on, sat on, or squashed by an exuberant little body. The "cool car" and the plane are certainly a lot niftier than the regular old box that my siblings and I played with as kids, so I'll give the author that. However, our giant cardboard box was everything from a plane to a car to a boat to a cave to a secret clubhouse. You'd be amazed what kids can come up with if you just give them a huge cardboard box. I'm not even remotely convinced that a) these projects encourage imagination or b) they are any more fun than real toys.

All that being said, if you are a real go-getter of a parent (or a teacher, though the amount of material needed for each project makes it unlikely this book would be used in a classroom setting), or if you love crafting, then this book might be absolutely perfect for you. Obviously it's gotten some good reviews here, so there's an audience for it.

[Amber]

We have been going through a LOT of cardboard boxes lol

[Jennifer Rummel]

Lots of great ideas