August 2010 Notable Toys — Books

With more than 200 drawing and coloring activities, ARTastic! is designed to fuel kids' creativity, teach them drawing basics, and inspire their minds. Kids will complete pictures by adding their own creations, learn to draw simple images themselves, explore different colors and more. "High production values mean kids can use whichever scribbling or coloring medium they choose," Kendal Gerard, Marketing Associate, Owlkids, told TDmonthly.

A pony in a field moves a child to play giddy-up on her father’s shoulders; a plane high above invites kids to pretend they are birds soaring in the sky. Everyday things, seen here in striking photos, are the catalyst for imaginative play, which is captured in lively illustrations. Short bursts of energetic, rhythmic poetry are designed to inspire preschoolers to create their own fun from what they see around them.
Awards: 2009 First & Best List, Toronto Public Library; 2010 Next Generation Indie Book Award

This lively "un"cyclopedia gives young readers an eye-opening broad basis of general knowledge. From a tour of the human skeleton and the five senses to modern technology and inventions, from life in a desert to a day at the fire station, children will be delighted and fascinated at every turn of the page. "Special features throughout make information fun and accessible: Kids' Questions sidebars, What About You? bubbles, Figure It Out! activities, Did You Know? sidebars, Number Time bubbles, Day-in-the-Life pages, and more," Kendal Gerard, Marketing Associate, Owlkids, told TDmonthly.

This collection for kids who are just developing craft skills shows readers how to transform common household materials into costumes, puppets, toys, games and more. The book contains simple step-by-step instructions and photographs. "I Can Make That! consolidates the 5 books in the original I Can Make... series so this is the ultimate treasure trove of art ideas for crafty kids," Owlkids Marketing Associate Kendal Gerard told TDmonthly.

It's All Fun and Games contains more than 230 activities from crafts to magic tricks to outdoor activities. The activities are color coded by type, so kids can easily find exactly what they are looking for. Each activity lists the materials needed, the object of the game and the number of players required, along with easy-to-understand instructions and fun visuals.

My Beastly Book of Monsters offers kids the opportunity to scribble, doodle and reconfigure over 150 monstrous creatures. Tie a monster's shoes together, draw a creature that's part monster and part pickle, or scare a monster with a mouse. Each amusing scenario encourages kids to use their imaginations and their budding artistic skills.

My Beastly Book of Silly Things offers young children the opportunity to scribble, doodle, and explore over 150 silly scenarios. Armed with only a pack of crayons or markers, children interpret visual cues and solve funny mix-ups in their own distinctive way. What objects will they throw into the garbage? What's about to be hit by the little man's club? And just what are the silliest things they can think of? The ridiculous possibilities are endless.

Everyday childhood activities, such as an excursion to the park, splashing in the bathtub or fixing a snack in the kitchen, can prompt many questions from young children. This special edition of Why? celebrates the book's 10th anniversary and provides kid-friendly explanations for nearly 100 of the most common questions kids ask. "Each of the questions included in this book was carefully selected from a pool of thousands of questions submitted by real children," Owlkids Marketing Associate Kendal Gerard told TDmonthly.
Awards: 2002 American Association for the Advancement of Science Best Books for Children; 2002 Canadian Toy Testing Council 25 Great Books for Children

Designed to be both entertaining and educational, Animal Babies is an interactive book about the birth and growth of animals. It is full of tabs, flaps and touch-and-feel elements, and includes a 4'6" x 3' pullout poster with life-size images of baby African animals.

Welcome to the wondrous world of Diana Schoenbrun's "Beasties," where mythic and imaginary creatures come alive from simple materials, such as scrap fabric and thread. From werewolves to zombies to yetis to unidentifiable yet adorable beasts, these projects allow crafters to push the limits of their imaginations to sew a menagerie of whimsical beings.
— “Author Diana Schoenbrun does a fantastic job of presenting an array of wonderful creatures to create,” proclaimed BookLegion. According to the reviewers, the monsters created based on the book “make great personalized gifts for others.”
— Jocelynn Brown of the Detroit News Handmade Crafts Blog loved that the book encouraged the resourceful use of fabric scraps, since the “more woven and textured scraps of fabric, the more interesting your creatures will look.” Her colleague Erik Henrickson loved the irreverent designs of the monsters, from the “soft and fluffy” Tomte to a “patriotic Werewolf” complete with “red, white and blue fur.”

This Read Along Storybook, the first in a series of five, is a companion piece to Queetles plush toys.

Featuring a padded cover and sturdy board book pages for easy handling, this 24-page book follows inquisitive Caillou as he explores the zoo and finds all kinds of interesting wild animals. Each page features a different animal and its name, including a panther, tiger, parrot and giraffe.

In this paperback children's book, a little girl named Lily travels into space to talk to the moon.

This selection from author Will Dodson consists of six oversized movie poster postcards and a flat-spined book filled with vintage stills. "Cult Films" focuses on the sometimes campy, sometimes gruesome, sometimes thrilling movies that have attracted a small yet dedicated knot of fans over the decades. This collection is vividly illustrated with black-and-white and color images throughout. "There’s something about the quirky and bizarre nature of cult films that appeals to the movie-watcher in all of us. Cult Films strikes that same chord, covering ground never before seen by non-hardcore cult movie enthusiasts," Langenscheidt Publishing Group Marketing Assistant Andrea Sper told TDmonthly.

The Complete Hawaiian Reef Fish Coloring Book includes more than 200 colorable illustrations designed to help teach children how to identify over 80 species of fish. Each illustration is accompanied by a complete description of the fish, with information about anatomical features, coloration, body designs, feeding habits and reproductive strategies. An overview of coral reef ecology is provided to help children understand the relationship between the fishes and the coral reef as well as the importance of conservation. This eco-friendly book is printed on recycled paper. "This book is often referred to as a coloring textbook or even coloring encyclopedia, because it is the most complete source of information about reef fish that you will find in a coloring book," Lucid Publishing Author Monika Mira told TDmonthly.
Awards: Summer 2010 Dr. Toy Best Vacation Children's Products; 2010 Creative Child Magazine Book of the Year Award

Eisner award-winning writer and illustrator Jason Shiga promises 3.856 story combinations in his Choose-Your-Own-Adventure style comic “Meanwhile.” Tabbed pages send readers backward, forward and even across alternate universes as they help main character Jimmy choose ice cream flavors and explore a mad scientist’s lab. “Meanwhile” features 80 full-color pages.
— Common Sense Media cautioned that some of the book’s paths do contain death, though only through simple, gore-less representations. Common Sense Media ultimately declared the book “Quirky, inventive, and absorbing.”
— Tanya of Books4yourkids liked the book’s thick, glossy pages — perfect for a book that will be flipped through time and time again. She said the comic “is IDEAL for long car/plane/train rides and should appeal to boys and girls alike.”

Why do cats' eyes glow in the dark? How do our ears stop us from falling? This close-up look at human and animal senses delivers clear and concise answers to the questions children ask.

Why do cats' eyes glow in the dark? How do our ears stop us from falling? This close-up look at human and animal senses delivers clear and concise answers to the questions children ask.

Children want to know "Why don't ships sink?", "Which is the fastest jet plane?", and "Why do cars need gasoline?" Climb aboard and discover the answers in this intriguing look at transportation.

I Wonder Why the Wind Blows answers all sorts of tricky and fascinating questions about Planet Earth, such as "How cold is snow?", "How hot are deserts?", and "Where do rivers end?" An entertaining introduction to our planet for budding scientists and beginning readers.

Discover the secrets of chemistry, and learn about the properties of matter and the ways in which they interact, combine and change. Chemistry is a compelling guide to a community of characters who make up everything around us.
— SimplyScience’s Shirley loved the book’s “funny (and accurate) introduction to the periodic table.” She imagined “the kid who is fascinated with science picking up this small trim-sized book, reading it, and showing it to all his/her friends.”
— Despite some issues with the book’s organization, Roberta Gibson of Wrapped in Foil found that the book makes chemistry concepts “fresh and interesting” by presenting the terms as characters. She loved that “The sections are written in the first person from that character’s point of view, and each section stands on its own.”

Meet Zero, a bubbly fellow who will dissolve you to nothing, and say hello to the all-action Units, who just love to measure. Get a load of greedy Multiply, a big guy who hoards numbers together, and stand amazed by mysterious Pi, who goes on and on and on ... to Infinity. Multiply your number know-how with Basher’s unique one-stop guide to the building blocks of mathematics. Packed with top tips and memorable characters, this is an essential book for students ages 8 and up.

With its lively, creative approach, this is a unique and highly memorable one-stop guide to using punctuation marks correctly. Each mark is each represented by its own character – from unassuming Semicolon to loud-mouthed Exclamation Mark – who explain in their own words what makes them tick and how they are used. “Do’s and “Don’t”s provide practical advice to help every child unravel the rules and regulations of the English language.

From Basher, the illustrator who showed the periodic table in a whole new light and gave us his fresh spin on physics, bioligy, astronomy and rocks and minerals, comes Planet Earth, a book that sheds light on this rock we live on, from its mountains and ocean depths to the storms that whirl around it.