Worlds of Wonder: A Colouring Book for the Curious

As a massive fan of JB I was very excited to receive my copy of this book...sorry to say but what an utter disappointment...completely underwhelming in fact ...I was hoping for something a little whimsical and slightly unusual as the title ‘world of wonder’ suggests but its nothing of the sort the houses (and there are lots and they could have been drawn by a child) are just the same replication throughout with barely any fine details, patterns of singular cakes and ice creams for example that fill out an entire page you will recognise all the images from the lockdown printable from 2020 like the 4 birds (nothing wonderous about those) if your happy to colour the same pictures again then you won’t mind spending £10-12 on this. There is nothing out of the ordinary here you will see the reuse of trees and owls and fish from previous books the repeat of the 2020 free lockdown printable, and the rest of the images are lack lustre and uncreative with no fine details plenty of white space though if you like to add your own backgrounds, there is no dust jacket on this book which is a shame, the paper quality is still that of the previous books which is great and I’m sure a child of 4-8 would love this book but it’s sadly not for me - for anyone that’s a diehard JB fan on the colouring groups spouting ‘best book ever’ - it’s great you all want to support but...really? are we looking at the same pictures, sorry I just don’t buy it....you didn’t flick through this book and feel tinged with thoughts of..oh is that it...i don’t really see anything here I want to colour.. what’s all the fuss been about?...I’ve seen these pictures before?...because these were my first thoughts nothing captured me creatively I didn’t have that same I can’t wait to get my pencils out like I did with the World of Flowers or Ivy I’m just really disappointed and very saddened this could easily be renamed to world of no wonder - I own all her books 3 times over but this one will be a singular one hit no wonder.

My favourite since Enchanted Forest! Lots of variety of pictures, and I like the pages with lots of smaller images for quick colouring sessions or to try out new colour schemes.Yes it contains the pictures released for free last year, I don't think the artist should be punished for that act of kindness and generosity on her part. They were released early as a response to global events last year, they were always intended to be published in this book.

It is a nice book But, the images are definitely more juvenile than before another reviewer put about the houses looking like they were drawn by a four year old and I concur with this there is also an awful lot of white space where in previous books there wasn't and full page spreads are at a premium it is a pretty book but it is clear now that it is becoming a money making thing and there is little effort that had been put into this again another reviewer put that images have been used before and again they are right to sum up it s a nice book but there is nothing here that hasn't been done before and a great deal of space has been wasted because there id nothing on it to color, if you like large expanses of white to do back grounds then get it if you don't then this maybe isn't the book for you my own feelings are this book is the emperors new clothes, a wasted opportunity here as well

I personally love the book and the fact it’s not quite as intricate as some of her previous books. I have all her books going right back to originally buying Secret Garden in 2013 when it was first published and think this is the best book yet !!Very disappointed in some of the reviews saying that they felt cheated as the designs were repeats of free downloads. Johanna Basford gave away the free Flourish downloads last year stating that they were from the book she was currently working on.

I would never have thought that I would have to leave anything less than a 5 star rating for one of Johanna's books, but I have to leave an honest review of her latest book and much as it saddens me to say this, Worlds of Wonder is extremely disappointing. For the most part it is totally lacking in the intricate and imaginative inky detail much loved in all Johanna's other works and which has always made her stand out from all the other colouring books on the market. I have long been a very supportive fan of Johanna and I have all her other wonderful colouring books, some of which I purchased additional copies of and am colouring my way through them a second time. It was therefore with much anticipation that I awaited Worlds of Wonder only to be so very disappointed. It is more like a colouring book for children with very simplified drawings on most of the pages along with absolutely far too many pages which are all full of balloons, cakes and ice cream, none of which are the least bit interesting to colour in. Other pages have a simple image in the middle and large amounts of blank space. Whilst some space is good so that you can add backgrounds, too much space means that you are virtually having to do the art work for most of the page! Along with the plethora of balloons and her obsession with so many cakes, there are far too many pages containing houses, houses and yet more houses, which are equally boring for adults to colour. I think children would love to colour in this book, because all the pages are very simple and very childish. Maybe lockdown with two small children influenced the creating of this particular book too much. I say all this with huge sadness and disappointment because Johanna is so much better than the images produced in this latest book. Unfortunately, 'Worlds of Wonder' it is not and I feel it is such a missed opportunity where she could have created some really magical scenes rather than pages of mundane food and buildings.I am a huge fan of Johanna's and hope my comments will be received as constructive criticism to be born in mind for any future books. I think a lot of Johanna's fans are currently just jumping on the band wagon, because as its one of Johanna's books therefore its automatically lovely, without thinking are they really going to enjoy colouring so many individual cakes and sweets and endless buildings? - there being only so much you can do with an image of one house, let alone loads of them! I think people don't want to speak out for fear of seeming disloyal but unless others also come clean, that it's not really up to the standards of all the other books, or what they would normally enjoy colouring, the next book will end up being the same. Either that, or her audience has changed, to people with the attention span of a gnat who just want simple shapes to colour in. The excitement I usually feel of having a whole new book of inky wonder to colour in is just not there with this book. On a positive note, and yes, there is one! there are still a few pages with her lovely botanicals and toadstools to colour and I do love most of the big double page spreads in this book, these being its only saving grace in my opinion as this is where we see Johanna back to doing her best work.