Book Review: Totally ’90s Coloring Book by Christina Haberkern

Ok, I admit it – I’m a HUGE fan of adult coloring. Let’s face it – life, especially these days, is stressful. Why not regress a little and entertain yourself in a totally stress-free way, doing one of the most fun activities of childhood: coloring?! I have zero artistic ability. I can’t draw a straight line. I can’t even paint by numbers well (who knew you actually needed to know something about brush size, strokes, and the like to follow a paint-by-numbers??). But what I CAN do is stay inside the lines (in fact, it’s pretty much the mantra of my life), and with so many cool, complicated, gorgeous, fun adult-themed coloring books out there, now I can use my rigid need to follow instructions to create pretty pictures AND relax at the same time…

I was asked if I’d take a look at a new coloring book focused on the ’90s. I’ll admit upfront that I’m not exactly a child of this era. I was actually in college in the ’90s, but I still get all the references (my sister is a decade younger than I am, so I watched the trends through her kid eyes as well as my young adult ones). I watched Saved by the Bell and Full House, saw Friends burst onto the scene, and cried when all my carefully curated mix-tapes were rendered obsolete by CDs. I remember the catch phrases (I STILL say “It’s not a tumor” in my best Arnold Schwarzenegger voice whenever I come back from the doctor) and the trends (yes, Trolls, I remember your earlier iteration as pencil toppers and loved you just as much then as I do now). So this coloring book was a great fit for me – and super fun to look at and reminisce over!

Christina Haberkern has done a marvelous job capturing the essence of the era, and translating it into pictures that an adult can laugh at, smile over, and thoroughly enjoy coloring. The designs are a mix of line art, shadings, and little narrations that explain some of the pictures. It doesn’t require a sophisticated coloring ability – I’d rate it as a medium for complexity, with a lot of larger elements and spaces to color in most of the designs. I used colored pencils, because that’s my favorite way to color. You could easily color these with crayons or markers or brush pens though, largely because of the larger design components. The paper is a decent thickness that would allow multiple media for coloring also, and is a bright true white that really makes the colors pop. My only issue (not really a complaint, just a personal preference) is that the pages are not perforated. I find it tough to fold over pages and color, since as an adult I no longer have the ability to sit cross-legged at the coffee table, as I did when I was a kid… Now I sit on the couch, using a clipboard as my surface, so I find it much easier to be able to remove pages. Still, I managed (we persevere, it’s what we do) and you can judge for yourself how the results turned out. I was pleased…

If you’re looking for a fun way to relax AND reminisce, this is a great way to do it. I’ve included a few thumbnails so you can get a sense of the picture styles and level of complexity included. (I like to know that before picking a new book and figured you might too.)