by Inko Kotoriyama
Published by Kawade Shobo Shin-sha Style: color inspiration images, double page printing
Pages: 68
Format: Dust Jacket, Flexibound
A gorgeous coloring book full of beautifully illustrated, whimsical drawings. Follow the journey of twin chipmunks celebrating their birthday.
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Happy Birthday Coloring Book Video Review
I hope you enjoyed the video review of Happy Birthday Coloring Book by Japanese illustrator, Inko Kotoriyama.
Happy Birthday Coloring Book Review
I have been in love with this book cover for a long time. Sadly, I bought this book about 6 months ago or more and it is been lying unloved on my bookshelf 🙁 It deserves so much better! When I seen it in the shop it enticed me with cuteness appeal. I mistakenly thought that the cover image was of two squirrels but they are, in fact, Chipmunks! My knowledge of Chipmunks is limited to the cartoon of Chip and Dale that I viewed as a child. My knowledge of squirrels is only based on time spent living in London, many years ago now. In Australia, I guess our closest comparison animal to these cute critters would be a possum.
Cover & Layout
The cover of Happy Birthday consists of a dust jacket with a lovely partially colored image of two chipmunks playing among gift wrapped boxes. They are surrounded by gorgeous florals. The actual cover looks like it has been colored in pencils. The title is in English and surrounded by Japanese text. It sits on a background of hot pink. The spine matches this pink background cover, making it easy to find on the shelf.
The back cover is not as decorative, featuring a gift wrapped box, gigantic bow and some florals. There is a large area of white space in the middle that seems very lonely like it was waiting for a publishing blurb to be inserted on it.
The dust jacket has fold out flaps with a background of dusty pink. The front cover has line art for two small chipmunks. The back cover advertises another book by the same illustrator – review coming soon 🙂
The inner cover is plain card with pink printing on it depicting the cover art. If your eye sight is good, or you have a magnifying lamp you may enjoy coloring the cover. If you have problems with vision seeing the pink printing on the brown card may prove challenging.
The book measures approximately 9in x 9in.
Ancillary Pages
The title page is very plain. It comprises just the title and dusty pink title text. There are some beautiful colored pages at the front of the book. The first page comprises the line art on the back of the book but with a dusty pink frame. On the reverse of this image and over page the same image has been colored in two color palettes: one pastel and one brights. Following on from this is a beautiful coloring introducing the characters being the two chipmunks and a cute little monkey. A reproduction of the line art from the cover of the book follows as an extended title page for you to color in. Across two pages the Story aspect of the coloring book is described, in Japanese 🙁 There are 6 episodes/chapters to the story and a conclusion. The Story has been surrounded by a variety of flowers and some chipmunks for you to color in. At the rear of the book there is a legend. Presumably there are items to find at this Birthday Party 🙂
Layout
The illustrations are presented on both sides of the white, medium quality paper.
Illustrations
The Happy Birthday Coloring Book tells the story of chipmunk twins “‘Luca and Nico’s birthday” and the adventures they have along the way. The chipmunks and their friends are adorned with a variety of cute little outfits to color. Their adventures include travel by land, sea and air. We will find the twins in a hot air balloon, other animal friends including hedgehogs, birds and rabbits. There are also some cute sea based travels featuring a trip in a boat and sea life for you to color including fish, eel, lobster and turtles. The twins appear to have diving costumes in one of the images.
Their adventures on land include images of an underground cave system and a fairy house. It is an imaginative travel adventure that these twins take that sees them coming across elephant in a strawberry patch and riding birds. If you are fan of whimsy then you will love the way that Inko takes you on this journey filled with adorable imaginative scenes to illustrate this tale. Along the way she has broken up the scenes with a few other images to color including elaborate wreaths and a focal point change to other animals like the cute monkey.
Inko has drawn Happy Birthday in a dull black ink on both sides of the paper. The line weight is medium throughout with a few fine lines to give texture when required. All of the images are orientated portrait style. The bulk of the images are in storybook form being double page scenes. The images that are contained within a single page are well away from the spine of the book and have been well centered and positioned on the page. Even images that merge into the binding of the book will not present a problem coloring as the book lays down beautifully flat with easy access to the spine due to the binding used.
You will find that most of the pages are filled with detail and although there is a lot in the picture the elements are not tightly packed. This means that there are large open spaces within a picture making it easy to color in for all colorists.
Happy Birthday Coloring Book Image Gallery
Click on an image to see more detail from the gorgeous Happy Birthday Coloring Book.
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Where to buy Happy Birthday Coloring Book
| Etailer | Yes Asia | Amazon Japan |
Happy coloring x
Lea
You find the cutest books! The fruit trees with slices of watermelon and orange hanging in them are LOL adorable. Puns are the best.
It is gorgeous! I have her other book to review as well next week but first I have the most gorgeous bunny book to upload! So much cuteness! Happy coloring x