I thought this was going to be so cute, but it's actually awful. It's not a "latch hook" craft at all. It does include a hook, but it's a small crochet hook, not a latch hook. The yarn is also not cut into small pieces, and you aren't asked to do so. There's no color guide printed or indicated on the penguin's body. There are a lot of the small holes, so using the printed guide on the instructions and counting the holes is tedious, frustrating, and nearly impossible. You are supposed to pull the yard through the square holes and form loops. There is nothing to hold the loops in place, and they are all connected! One wrong move, and some or all of the loops you have already made will be gone with a domino effect. You have to judge/decide for yourself how long to make the loops -- a very subjective thing to entrust to a kid. You or the kid will probably want the figure to be identifiable at the finish, and loop length will affect that, too. You're also working on a 3D form, making the loops close-up, one-by-one. So getting the loops even is not easy, even for an adult. And, since they are actually big strings of connected loops, you cannot even trim them like you would with a traditional latch hook craft. Also, you need to make sure you don't make the loops too big because you could potentially run out of yarn! The yarn is not a good quality/type for this project, and it is too thick for the included hook. It gets pierced easily, and just falls apart when that happens. It's also difficult to pull the thick yarn through the tiny, inflexible holes. If you put the plastic "practice" heart inside the penguin, there's a chance it will catch on the yarn, and destroy your work. Even if something pulls on one of the loops from the outside, your loops can be destroyed. Overall, this is not the fun kit I expected. Even though the body form is decent quality, and the completed project should be cute, getting to that point takes a lot of work and I predict there will be more tears and anger than smiles and laughter by kids trying to make this penguin.
