Customer Reviews
A Mixed Bag 
2006-06-20
I bought this book on the strength of the reviews, so I'd like to add my two cents' worth.
I believe that woodworking is an important skill to teach children. It helps with hand-eye coordination, manual dexterity, conceptualizing two- and three-dimensional images and introduces them to things such as angles and fractions.
This book has some good designs, the best being the wood frame house, tree house, and post and beam house. There is a "junkyard" house which greatly concerns me. In my neighborhood, a pile of trash would never be allowed, and I'm sure many zoning regulations exist to prohibit it. I am also concerned that a child could easily get a cut from a rusty nail or encounter insects and animals "foraging" for the parts of the house. The book features old uncovered rusty box springs (which I can't imagine where one would get) that could be sharp, rough or contaminated.
None of the children pictured are wearing eye protection, either, and anyone working with sharp metal objects and hammers should be.
There aren't any adults in the photos, which implies these projects could be done unattended--too risky. I would never let children do these alone.
Still, take what you can from a great idea for a book, and supervise, supervise, supervise.
If you want another book on children's play areas, Sunset's "Kid's Places to Play" has some similar structures to involve your children with plus water features, sand, swings, trolleys, swingsets, and bike play structures.
Treehouse in a weekend! 
2005-06-26
I went looking for treehouse books, finding many that were more complicated than the deck and took more materials!
This one was perfect - simple, nonthreatening, and useful for teaching building skills to the kids. We decided we could use the other chapters to elaborate on their simple treehouse design.
My husband bought materials Saturday morning, and by Saturday evening our two kids were stomping on the sturdy platform. Sunday evening we had a treehouse. I know I could not say the same for any other treehouse book I had seen.
Charming and informative 2002-03-20
This is an absolutely charming and informative book. It is filled with delightful pictures of children, busily constructing their own little houses. This is creativity at its best, and should prove an inspiration to children and adults alike.
Housebuilding for Children 2000-05-29
Truely delightful and informative book for young builders and their parents. My son first checked it out of the library so many times in a row we finally decided to just buy it! Great basic building skills and tool knowledge taught, good practice projects, and good playhouse building ideas. The illustrations and plans are very informative. We enjoy the authors enthusiasm about working with kids and their passion for building. My son just can't get enough out of it and he's only in kindergarten. I suppose I'll never pry it away from him when he can read it for himself!
