For anyone lucky enough to live in a rural area, or just admire that way of life, the Country Life Coloring Book is a real delight, and overall, it’s one of the best coloring books I’ve ever seen. It features all-original drawings, with each animal, pattern, sign, or scene, drawn with a consistent, medium-width line. Most of the images are made up with clever patterns which evoke the subject, yet are fun to color, too.

The images include all sorts of critters, fruit crate labels, cross stitch images, quilts, rural scenery and still lifes — all so clever, cute, and imaginative — designed with great care. The book has a thick cardboard backing and the pages easily detach for framing (which you may well want to do). As grown-up coloring books go, especially for rural folks, this is a kind of masterpiece.

Color your own greeting cards is a charming concept, and so well executed, too. There are 30 full-size greeting cards, printed on fine white cardstock, which can be easily removed for you to color yourself, personalize however you like, and pair with the included color-yourself envelopes.

The drawings are very nice, simple and fun to color, and appropriate for any occasion. Each is a gift in itself, and by coloring it yourself, or having your children or others color, it offers and endearing and enjoyable element to what could have been a simple greeting card. Very nice idea and very well done.