For girls who love the storybook character, Madeline, there is an abundance of good news this season. Four different 63 piece puzzles with scenes from the books that are sure to please her fans. There's Madeline and the Tiger with all the other girls clinging to Miss Clavel in fear, while Madeline stand alone smirking at the tiger in the cage. Or consider puzzles with images of Pepito and the Bad Hat, A Walk in London, or The Cats of Rome. Also sure to please, Madeline arriving at Le Pont D' Avignon. This one comes in a box with a carry handle and includes 4 crayons and four pictures to color. All of these 63 piece puzzles are pretty challenging. Marked 4 & up, we'd say these will be a challenge for most 5-6's. So, unless you have a puzzle master in your house, you might want to build confidence before you bring home a puzzle that is too frustrating. These make good birthday party gifts for under $10.

Age: Preschool, Early School Years. Award Year: 2010. Click here to purchase the product on Amazon.com.

The way the pieces are cut make these 24 piece puzzles relatively easy to put together. It's not hard to see how to fit the engines together and to add the other parts of the puzzle around their favorite character, Thomas the Tank Engine. The pieces are smaller than those in the giant floor puzzle, but big enough for little hands to get hold of and rotate until they fit together. Marked 4 & up. If your child is not entirely new to puzzles, this will provide some challenge without utter frustration. A good choice for kids who are big Thomas fans and have mastered 15 piece puzzles and are ready for the next step up. Also, consider the Thomas & Friends Jumbo Floor puzzles from the same maker.

Age: Preschool, Early School Years. Award Year: 2010.

A red backpack that opens to a small track and storage container for hot wheels. It comes with just one vehicle.

Age: Preschool, Early School Years. Award Year: 2010. Click here to purchase the product on Amazon.com.

Just right for taking along to a play date or Gram's. This backpack opens to a play setting for drag racing your best cars. Shaped like a wheel it transforms to a working side-by-side race track for dramatic play fun. There's a garage area, a winner's circle and built-in parking. On line it says that it comes with two sturdy die cast sports cars, but in fact the toy we tested came with just one vehicle. There are three holders on each side of the drag racing track. Or you can fit as many as 100 loose vehicles in this as a storage bag. Also fun, the HotWheels ZipBin Skull ($20) Shaped like a ramp for race cars to zoom down, this opens into a track and also stores vehicles. It comes with just one car. 3 & up.

The company has signed a verification form complying with our safety requirements. We did not independently test this toy in a lab.

Age: Preschool, Early School Years. Award Year: 2010. Click here to purchase the product on Amazon.com.

First introduced to a generation of kids in 1988, Shark Attack is back!  Our testers loved that the motorized shark moved around the board with the possibility of eating the fish (each player has a fish on the board).  You need to roll the die to keep ahead of the shark. The last fish on the board wins!  Rounds go pretty quickly.  A fun game for kids 5 and up.

Age: Preschool, Early School Years. Award Year: 2010. Click here to purchase the product on Amazon.com.

Bigfoot comes in a big toy box that says he has more than 80 actions and phrases. We didn't count, but it appears he is loaded with lots of tricks. He has icon buttons that make him roar with anger, walk, sleep, laugh, tumble, play ball, exercise, burp (he says excuse me), say hello, pound his fists, and when you can take no more—mercifully, he even has a sleep button! All of these actions and more are controlled with a bigfoot shaped remote controller. Although Bigfoot is the one who does the actions, this is not exactly a sit and watch kind of toy. Kids are actively in control and have to "read" the icons if they want absolute control. So is it educational? Not exactly. Most kids will probably just enjoy the random action of pushing buttons and making Bigfoot go through his paces. It's not what we'd call a must have kind of toy, but it is a big novelty gift that will produce laughter and jolly short term memories. It comes with a rechargeable battery. 3-8

Age: Preschool, Early School Years. Award Year: 2010. Click here to purchase the product on Amazon.com.

Let the building begin. This 106 piece set of 4.5" multicolored planks look a bit like a plastic version Citiblocks. However, 55 of the planks come with notches so that they clip together more soundly than the straight planks. These are a good choice for developing spatial relationships as well as patience and problem solving skills. The come with their own storage bag for safe. Neat keeping. Kids will find their own way of using these, but they can also use them for counters, sorting by color or notched attributes and mixed with other construction sets from the company, such as their Dado Cubes and Squares. Marked 3 & up. We think early school years kids will find still more uses for them.

The company has signed a verification form complying with our safety requirements. We did not independently test this toy in a lab.

SNAP Activities:
Use these pastel colored planks for matching. Sort by color or use them for making patterns…lime green, lemon yellow, melon orange, lime green lemon yellow…what comes next? There are enough pieces here for counting or sorting into ten-stacks and then counting by tens—to 100.

Age: Preschool, Early School Years. Award Year: 2010. Click here to purchase the product on Amazon.com.

An amazing new collection of 18" dolls has just entered the scene and it's good news for consumers. This collection of truly lovely dolls is available with blonde, brunette and black wavy hair. They come in several skin tones and with fashionable clothes. There are three dolls in the collection: Ava, Gabriella, and Rachel. The dolls have soft torsos, sleeping eyes, jointed bodies, but solid legs and arms and each comes dressed in a school day kind of outfit, plus two pairs of shoes. Ava is wearing pink clogs and Gabriella is wearing pink platform sandals, both come with a pair of gold Mary Janes. We did not see Rachel in person. Best of all, you can buy matching dresses for child and doll and they are not only special, they will not break the bank. There are also matching sports clothes, costumes, outerwear, and sleepwear. Dress sizes range from 2T to 16 depending on the style you choose and they are priced from $34 & up. Many of the dresses are perfect for holiday parties. They say 3 & up, but we say this is really a doll for slightly older girls.

The company has signed a verification form complying with our safety requirements. We did not independently test this toy in a lab.

Age: Preschool, Early School Years. Award Year: 2010.

A novelty doll that resembles an old fashioned Cupie Doll with hard head and body. Happily the doll is available as African American, Hispanic, and Caucasian blonde versions. Baby Alive wears a romper that cannot (and should not) be removed. Squeeze her hands and she babbles and bounces up and down. Packaged cleverly in a cardboard cut-out box that looks like a crib, she bounces without falling over. Put her on the floor and "Kaboom!" she falls over. That said, she is fun to hold by her two hands and activate her bouncing and babbling. She is not cuddly. Her open eyes and mouth are frozen in position. Her head is heavy when she falls—so don't let her fall on your foot. We still think in the novelty department she is kind of fun—at least for a while. 3 & up.

Age: Preschool. Award Year: 2010. Click here to purchase the product on Amazon.com.

This is the 50th Anniversary of the Fun Factory, a toy you may have had when you were a kid. It's a big toy with a cool conveyer belt that makes premade shapes and may be more about nostalgia than long term play value. We prefer play-doh for making shapes and smushing and flattening out like a pancake—all done with the hands. Will this toy be fun? Sure, for a while. Is it a must have? Not at all. 3 & up.

Age: Preschool. Award Year: 2010. Click here to purchase the product on Amazon.com.