December 2011 New Specialty Toys — All

This stuffed owl comes with a embroidered heart on its belly. Also available in 6" size. For Valentine's Day and year round.

Block Mates build upon the foundation of unit blocks by providing children with a themed exploration set, designed to enhance the original principles of block—building. All Block Mates are designed to fit standard unit blocks and can be built in their natural form or mixed and matched with others in the set to create new, imaginative vehicles or creatures. Patented gasket design ensures a snug fit. Set of 4 construction vehicles: Dump Truck, Sanitation Truck, Back Hoe and Cement Mixer. Features rugged sure—grip wheels with steel axles. Blocks not included.

Howard R. Garris's stories of the kindhearted, resourceful rabbit gentleman, Uncle Wiggly Longears, have been an irresistible source of joy for generations of readers. These charming modern classics offer gentle lessons amid laughter as the clever, courteous rabbit ingeniously helps his animal and human friends. Jim reads an assortment of favorites from the book for this recording.
Awards: Film Advisory Board Award

This plush rocking dinosaur comes with a soft seat for little ones to sit in. Rocker base is made of durable hardwood. Seat is elevated 9 inches off floor.

Many creative building and stacking combinations — ideal for stacking experiments. Includes both round & angular blocks. 22 beechwood pieces and two boards. Made in Germany.

Designed for use with Breyer Classics and Pony Gals. Includes 2 horse stalls with planked floors and storage containers, tailgate that drops down to a loading ramp, roof opens and has fold-out awning, snap-in feed bins, hooks for hanging tack and equipment, two front seats (with seat belts) that swivel in two directions and have storage pouches, steering wheel slides from left to right for international trips and 3-position license plate, visors, pull-down steps and adjustable side mirrors, rear seat slides forward and forms a bed, cup holders and a table that opens, roof doubles as an observation deck complete with television screen and an extra fold out table, with a roof compartment that stores a ladder and deck chairs.
— As of 12/01/2011 this product had 4.8 out of 5 stars from 16 reviews on Amazon.com.

CHEM C2000 is a complete introduction to the most important topics in chemistry, with over 250 unique experiments and a 96 page full-color experiment manual. A cartoon Professor Probenius guides kids through all of the experiments. Quality equipment, lab manual and chemicals provide the correct tools for serious learning. Ample chemicals for repeated experiments. Parental supervision required.

Young fashionistas get to design their own outfits, makeup, hairstyles, and accessories with our 75 pages of lightly printed outlines of faces, figures, and fashionable extras. The grand finale to the fashion show is the Look Book portfolio of keepsake album pages with die-cut frames, perfectly sized to display their best work. Launch date: August 2011.

This wooden kitchen designed in Switzerland features a sink, stovetop, cupboard, oven with see-through plexiglass door, and backsplash with three pegs, and includes 23 wooden pieces of play cookware, food and utensils. Made of Baltic birch.

Olly Oogleberry™ is a curious and lovable alien seeking adventure and discovery.  After traveling 11 million light years from his home planet of Oogleberry, Olly and his merry band of alien misfits finds the companionship of young earthlings who share with him all the wonders of your extraordinary planet, Earth. In return, Olly Oogleberry teaches earthlings about space, aliens, UFOs and distant galaxies. Launch date: June 2011.
Awards: 2011 Davey Award for Education and Youth Web Site (OllyOogleberry.Com); 2011 IMA (Interactive Media Awards) Outstanding Achievement Award in category of Teens for www.OllyOogleberry.Com

A completely new, patent-pending "two-in-one" board game, SOUND IT! FOUND IT! is both a guessing game AND a hidden-object game based on silly sounds other players make.  With 96 cards and eight giant-scene boards, it's perfect for today's kids, combining visual fun with the unique twist of guessing sounds to offer hours of laugh-out-loud fun. Launch date: February 2012.
Awards: 2013 TDmonthly Seal of Approval
— "What a cool game! If your kids like acting out (not acting up), this game is made for them. I had fun playing with Alex and her friend Lily...Alex and Lily are both tweens, but even kids a few years younger or older would love this game. Being silly is the only pre-requisite." - A review by Mike on the blog Just Find it 4 U.

SOUND IT! is a hilarious new card game that offers two great ways to play: On one side of the card, guess the picture based on hearing the silly sounds other players make. On the other side, read the special clue and quickly identify the correct sound to make. Fun and challenging but simple to learn, a deck of 96 SOUND IT! cards offers unlimited possibilities. Launch date: February 2012.

Coloring meets crafting in the innovative, patent-pending COLORGAMI. It debuts with several thematic sets, including "Space Adventure," "The Red Carpet Collection" and the "Puppet Maker Activity Kit."  Each COLORGAMI kit includes markers, giant COLORGAMI design sheets with characters, accessories, themed environments and more. When the coloring is finished, the illustrations can be popped out, folded and constructed into a three-dimensional scene. Launch date: February 2012.

Sleep and Play Anywhere. PRIMO’s PLAY YARD CABANA is for indoor and outdoor use. It comes complete with a removable sun-proof cabana cover and travel bag. It has waterproof fabric, a padded bottom, is lightweight, comes fully assembled, and is portable. Extra large size offers plenty of play room for up to 2 children. Great for home, park, beach, grandma’s house. For ages Newborn to 3 years. Launch date: February 2012.

This beautifully crafted board game is an educational and insightful presentation of the principles of karma. 2 to 4 players. It's Monopoly but with karma instead of money; Chutes and Ladders but for adults; and The Game of Life but the life of the soul. 30-90 minutes. Features "Artistic presentation of sophisticated concepts that even a 5th grader can understand," Linda Look, game developer at Cosmic Karma Game Partners, told TDmonthly. Launch date: February 2012.
— As of 10/5/2012 this product had 4.7 out of 5 stars from 3 reviews on Amazon.com. Pros: Well designed; helps to illustrate the concept of karma; thought provoking.

Kids love our backpacks and lunch boxes, but hugging a backpack isn't much fun. So we've made some of our favorite forest creatures into squishable, squeezable, stuffed toys. These furry guys are sized for maximum huggability and are suitable for kids of all ages. There's no plastic or other little pieces that might be swallowed. Tested lead free and phthalate free. Launch date: December 2011.

People, Places and Things is the second studio album from In The Nick of Time. With a mix of many genres from Punk to Funk, from Country to Blues, People, Places and Things has something for everyone. In the tradition of Sesame Street which borrowed from the best of popular music to teach simple concepts and themes, In The Nick of Time blends the sounds of The Beatles, Bob Marley, Johnny Cash, Bob Dylan, Paul Simon, The Allman Brothers, Jimi Hendrix and Pete Seeger.

Over the course of his seven-year career as a music educator, Nick Deysher has developed a catalog of music that spans the decades and the globe. Parents will love the classic sounds and influences of such greats as The Beatles, Bob Marley, Sly and the Family Stone, Paul Simon, Dandy Livingstone and Woody Guthrie. Children will love the catchy rhythms, humorous lyrics, and sweet melodies. Educators will love the science math and self-esteem concepts which are conveyed in each song.

In addition to true, but gross, humorous, interesting and wacky stories and facts, Arizona Way Out West & Wacky and Arizona Way Out West & Witty: Library Edition make reading about Arizona’s history fun through word searches, crossword puzzles, coloring pages, recipes, crafts and many other amusing activities.

Welcome to Ankh-Morpork - the oldest, greatest, and most odorous city on Terry Pratchett's Discworld, a place where trouble is always in the cards. Players are one of seven personalities vying for ultimate control of this proud and pestilent city, using their cunning and guile they'll encounter wizards, assassins, watchmen and thieves, all of whom will affect their fortunes. A finely detailed map and over one hundred individually illustrated cards depicting the city's most beloved and infamous characters, locations, and organizations immerse the player in Discworld's most unruly city. Discworld Ankh-Morpork blends the distinctive humor of Terry Pratchett's best-selling novels with strategic challenge and a dose of mayhem into one devilishly addictive Discworld adventure for two to four players.
— As of 11/23/2011 this product had 7.06 out of 10 stars from 835 ratings on BoardGameGeek.com.

A green blooded showman whose ego thrills at performing on Pet Town’s center stage and signing autographs for all of his adoring fans. Crude and full of attitude, Warto’s performances get wild when he’s cranky. A master of strange and unusual smells, Cranky Warto displays his talent for making rude noises.

Learning to Play Piano is designed for the parent and child to experience making music together. The pre-primer method book is filled with active participatory activities: writing in note names, tracing hands, writing in finger numbers, clapping, singing and playing melodies. The pull-out Keyboard Tent (included) provides a fun visual reference to associate notes on the page to keys on the piano. Children learn to play familiar melodies with their right hand gain the readiness skills needed to graduate to any commercially available piano method. The full-color book is filled with words of encouragement and praise from the familiar Debbie and Friends cartoon character. 24 pages.

During an ordinary visit to the library, a girl pulls a not-so-ordinary book from the shelves. As she turns the pages in this book about coral reefs, the city around her slips away and she finds herself surrounded by the coral cities of the sea and the mysterious plants and animals that live, hunt, and hide there.

Discover the many wonders of the world in this amazing illustrated tour of some of the most interesting places on Earth. Each spread focuses on one destination, and the amazingly intricate artwork gives readers a visual flavor of the place, with masses to look at and discover the more you look. There are links from one place to the next – historical, geographical, natural history or just simple proximity – for example, there is an ancient Egyptian obelisk in NY’s central park, with two sister obelisks in Paris and London. Find the one in the Central Park using Google™ Earth co-ordinates and it gives you the clue to where you will be going next. You will also need to solve a puzzle with the help of Google™ Earth to collect co-ordinates for your final secret location – again on Google™ Earth. For instance, the puzzle tells you to visit the Statue of Liberty on Google™ Earth and to count the number of points on its crown. This number is one of the co-ordinates you need to find your final destination at the end of the book. Launch date: September 27, 2011.