Nneka Edwards

Trace to Ace Nneka Edwards

Trace to Ace: Shapes is the first book in my soon-to-be (or eventually-to-be) trace-to-ace series which will focus on teaching art to young learners through tracing exercises (including the writing of Chinese script). This particular book has a distinctly Caribbean feel, what with images like a bele dancer, palm trees, crabs, a sailboat and more. The images were created digitally and are all outlined in grey, to make for comfortable tracing with a dark pencil or a pen or marker. This book includes fun discussion sections and sections which encourage young artists to explore Chinese. Of course, tracing is not the only way in which little Picassos can learn how to draw, but it's certainly one way which can prove effective. Chinese is included because writing Chinese words or script is very similar to drawing, requiring precision within linear simplicity. This the first book in this series focuses on shapes - circles, squares, rectangles and the like. Emphasis is also placed on colours and counting. Young readers can count all the different shapes that they see in each image (which makes for a great Math lesson) and they can also learn to recognise different colours. There is so much that can be done with this little book. It's really up to the class instructor to be as creative as they might want to be. I would recommend this book for children in pre-school or children in entry-level classes of primary or elementary school.