Some Amazing Shoes (and Dresses) to Fill

Children have a way of seeing the possibilities in almost anything—a sword in a stick, a fortress in a cardboard box, a train tunnel in a toilet paper roll. It shouldn’t surprise anyone, then, when a child’s ability to envision the type of person or creature who would “fill” a particular article of clothing exceeds the imaginative power of many adults. Rosie Flo’s Coloring Book (Chronicle Books), a unique work given to the world of creative kids by English designer/mom Roz Streeten, honors this very phenomenon. By providing page after page of dresses sans damsels, Streeten sets her young readers free to flesh out the head, legs, arms of each picture—or, for that matter, to plant a beak, paw, or fin where a human appendage might otherwise fit. As a companion volume, Rosie Flo’s Garden Coloring Book picks up where the cherished original left off, and adds a few new twists—or fairies, gnomes, animals, and other garden dwellers, to be precise.

Finally, the third volume in this delightful set, Rosie Flo’s Animals Coloring Book, is themed entirely on the fauna of our world. Zebra-inspired gowns, pants tailored for monkeys, empty suits strolling beside bulldogs, this book is an invitation for animal lovers of any age to ponder the endless connections between our furry friends and ourselves, and to take our own lives a little less seriously. Whether as a welcome antidote for road trip boredom, an effective oil with which to grease your little one’s creative wheels, or a gift that’s just plain different, Streeten’s books are a timely throwback to the days when kids had time to imagine, and to let that image take on a life all its own. To order a personal copy of any of Roz Streeten’s books, visit Chronicle Books.com.