For the Baby

Brooklyn author and speech therapist Molly Dresner (also the author of The Speech Teachers Handbook and former speaker at our Brooklyn Baby and Family Expo) has a new board book out: You’re So Nice, Baby. The book teaches about the power in little bodies through positive affirmations. Like all Molly’s work, the book aims to teach language as well. The great illustrations are courtesy of Valentina Jaskina.

For All Ages

Kiwi Crate by Kiwi Co

The Kiwi Crate (age 5-8) is the original, but they now have a dozen other kinds of crate and age groups. I have to start out by saying that everyone loves these. They have crates for every age (I get one for my baby and might even get one for me) and they are almost always brilliant. The best part is teaching kids to follow directions. In the course of being a subscriber, my girl went from needing help with every step to reading the directions and doing a lot of it herself. Amazing.

I have to say, this company would not send me one to review and I didn’t bother to set up an affiliate link–so I’m endorsing this 100% because we just love it. During the lockdown, these little boxes were the highlight of our month.

Once Upon a Pancake

These fun work books allow kids to tell their own stories with prompts and places for pictures. They are great for home school assignments and getting little one to write (something I struggled with during the year of virtual). They come in editions for three different age groups: 3-5, 6-8, and 9-12.

Juan Hormiga

by Gustavo Roldan

This story of an ant who is a great storyteller, but not much of a doer charmed me to the core. I loved it. My daughter needed a couple of reads before she decided it was great as well. Originally in Spanish, the translation (by Robert Croll) doesn’t seem to have lost any of the magic. While the the reading level is at least third grade, you won’t mind reading it to the little ones so I would say this is for all ages.  Somehow, you can just hear the ant’s voice.

For the Older Kid

Choose Your Own Adventure

Yes, they still have these and they are lots of fun. The company started our republishing some of the bestselling original old gamebooks and a few new ones in the same classic vein. Now they also have 27 versions for younger readers (which is what we reviewed) under our Dragonlarks imprint. I put these under older kids as they are best read along in your room under the covers when you are supposed to be sleeping. Our favorite is the Haunted House by my kid also loved the Your Very Own Robot one. They really do have dozens of different variations and endings, so they can read one book for hours.

Bitzbox

While not technically offline, this coding kit (Bitz Box) does include offline elements and is certainly not passive. I passed along this kit to one of our writer’s with an older kid to review. She says, “We opened the Bitsbox and it came with set 1 of cards which has 10 apps to create and a binder notebook. It starts with easy apps and builds up. Once you make one you can also change it around with different sounds, colors. Instead of cheering you can make the character burp or make pooping noises which are entertaining.

We were able to scan it/share it to my kid’s phone. You can also email them to friends and if you make changes they could also see the changes. One of the apps is a birthday card and that would be fun to send to friends & family. I think I saw somewhere that it was geared for 6 to 12. My kid is 13 this summer so he felt old for it. In addition to the cards with the app directions there are online activities you can do on the website and you can also create your own app. I think the child needs to be able to read to use this alone and be computer savy. It would be hours of fun for kids that like coding. It is a subscription box that would make a great gift because you get new fun things to try out every month, and I would assume they would build on what you learn in the first box.

• Some of these include affiliate links. While we get a minuscule commission if you use them, we would rather you go to your local bookstore or library when possible. Have fun!