Happy National Coloring Book Day! Long gone are the days when coloring books were just for kids — although, were they ever really? Now choices available for coloring books are quite varied; there are ones for kids, for adults, and even some for all ages based on beloved books for children. The Little Prince Coloring Book (HMH, 2015) doesn't specifically say it’s for adults, although it does start with a grown-up-centric The Little Prince quote: “It’s hard to take up drawing again at my age." More a hybrid coloring book/sketchbook, it encourages outside-the-lines exploration by artistes of any age.

Quotations from the book are accompanied by its familiar illustrations: the Little Prince himself, the boa constrictor digesting an elephant, the fox, the snake, and more. The drawings are intricate, with many complex, kaleidoscopic patterns, so I had a bit of trouble staying within the lines using my (admittedly not-the-sharpest) colored pencils.



Some pages have a lot of blank space; others offer delicate designs too small or open-ended to really color, instead meant to inspire your own creations.



If you like a lot of structure in your coloring pages, this coloring book might not be the one for you. But it gave me a bit of a push to get creative, adding a little doodling of my own. All this white space is going to keep me busy for a while!

Adult Little Prince fans should also check out A Guide for Grown-Ups: Essential Wisdom from the Collected Works of Antoine de Saint-Exupéry (also a 2015 HMH release); the 70th anniversary book/audiobook gift set; and The Pilot and the Little Prince, Peter Sís's 2014 picture-book biography of Saint-Exupéry. And adult coloring book fans might like I ♥ My Hair.