It's nearly summertime and therefore long car and plane trips to Grandma's house are on the horizon. These new, innovative activity books will keep children occupied without any electronics.
"Fill-me-in" by Moose Allain; Big Picture Press/Candlewick Press; 98 pages; $16.99.
Full of intricate black line drawings with fun, colorful prompts encouraging kids to doodle, dream and imagine, this soft-cover activity book is much more than a coloring book. Subtitled "Write, Draw, and Color With the World of Moose," creator Moose Allain's book encourages youngsters to fill in feathers on birds; finish what underground workers are digging; become an architect to finish a city plan; and complete an umbrella-filled rain scene.
Perfect for a rainy day, "Fill-me-in" fills up imaginations and bored hours. My favorite is the page spread with encouragements to "fill in these bubbles to make everyone's dreams come true."
"Wise Words to Color" by Zoe Ingram; HarperCollins; 94 pages; $15.99.
Coloring books aimed at all ages are everywhere these days. Though many only offer intricate illustrations for budding artists to color, Zoe Ingram's new book, subtitled "Inspiration to Live and Color By," features largely penned, inspiring quotes and drawings for coloring. Walt Whitman's line "I am large, I contain multitudes" is paired with bold plants and leaves. Oscar Wilde's line "We are all in the gutter, but some of us are looking at the stars" follows a page of mod trees and lots of bold stars. The phrase "Curious and curiouser" is backed by a page of "Alice in Wonderland"-inspired mad hats, teapots and playing cards.
Mandalas, pop-art flowers, delicate patterns and pages and pages of gorgeous pen-and-ink drawings plus inspiring quotes make "Wise Words to Color" a thoughtfully rendered coloring book.
"Real or Fake?" by Emily Krieger; illustrations by Tom Nick Cocotos; National Geographic Kids; 206 pages; $7.99.
With "Far-Out Fibs, Fishy Facts, and Phony Photos to Test for the Truth," the latest bold, incredibly fun National Geographic Kids book is small, easy-to-tote and certainly laugh- and thought-inducing. At the start, kids are encouraged to test their inner lie detectors by perusing details, using their noggins and going with their guts. There's also a "fib-o-meter," which is a colorful gauge invented for determining the level of dishonesty or truthfulness. Kids ages 7 to 12 can then try to answer statements such as "Fireflies don't light up in the western United States," "The binturong, a Southeast Asian mammal, smells like buttered popcorn when excited" and "The indentation below your nose is called a philtrum." Some page spreads feature a single subject, such as sloths' slowness.
With lots going on on every page, "Real or Fake?" will command the attention of kids used to screens and multitasking. With signature bold, colorful National Geographic photography and funny collage art, it's a fantastically fun book for amateur nature detectives.
"My Family Travel Map" and "My Travel Journal" from Lonely Planet Kids; $14.99 and $12.99.
Colorful, with exaggerated illustrations and 180 stickers, "My Family Travel Map" is a fold-out, fact-filled poster for children to complete. Featuring brightly colored numbered countries so kids can add the stickers to chart their family's travels, the map can be hung on the wall for a personal poster of trips together. The poster also has over 200 fun facts on the opposite side. Stickers say things like "I live here," "Been there!" and "Going here soon," and they depict airplanes and animals and postcards and weather.
"My Travel Journal" is more than blank pages; it offers prompts for kids to scribble, jot, draw and decorate with all their adventures. There are lists, collages to create, scenes to sketch and blank thought bubbles to fill in with jokes. Decorated pages will help solidify vacation memories.
To find out more about Lee Littlewood, and read features by other Creators Syndicate writers and cartoonists, visit the Creators Syndicate Web page at www.creators.com.
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