Pure novelty, pure fun and green to boot! Crank out this square robot head in the back (no batteries required)...then take the metal stylus and see if you can thread it through the maze at the top of the robot's head.  If you miss, the robot will light up and make noise. The company has signed a verification form complying with our safety requirements. We did not independently test this toy in a lab.

Age: Early School Years, Later School Years, Tweens. Award Year: 2009. Click here to purchase the product on Amazon.com.

We've told you about these Shake 'N Go cars before. To charge them up you have to shake them and off they go.  You get two cars in this new Extreme Speedway set that is packaged with a marvelous set of tracks with a goodly supply of pieces that can be set up in six or more formations. Unlike last season's track, which could only work as a circle, this is far more open-ended. Kids can construct a loop with figure eight track, an oval within an oval, a circle within a circle or many other choices.  Follow the patterns shown or create your own. There are so many ways to use the Easy Track Changeup. The set includes a ramp and barrels for doing tricks. A memorable gift! 

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

SNAP IDEAS: Making the track fit together is pretty open ended now and the pieces are big and easy to put in vrious formations.  But the best parts of this toy are the cars themselves. In fact, you can buy the cars separately. There is no remote controller to make them go. You need to shake the cars and count to ten and va-va-va- voom off they go! There's plenty of built in practice since you ned to count and shake them everytime. What a fun payoff for counting!

Age: Preschool, Early School Years. Award Year: 2009. Click here to purchase the product on Amazon.com.

Our three year old tester loved using the washable markers to color this Very Hungry Caterpillar. Of course, the problem is she also tried to color a few more of her soft dolls. This is one of those toys that is hard to explain to kids. Setting limits on where you use those markers. So, we have mixed feelings about this as a great idea.

SNAP IDEAS: Bring home the Very Hungry Caterpillar book to share along with the Color Me Caterpillar. We like this doll since children can color it one way one day and another the next. Holding and contolling markers takes lots of practise and this toy is an open invitation...with no right or wrong way.

Age: Preschool, Early School Years. Award Year: 2009. Click here to purchase the product on Amazon.com.

This orange Louis Lion with brown felt mane and bright red nose is the cutest of the jungle group. All of them have ribbon tails of satin as well as stitched safe features. Most also have licks of satin trim as well as felt fringes for sensory feedback. There is a black and white zebra with black mane, an orange and black tiger, and a tan monkey with pink ears and muzzle. All of these are good tracking puppets for playing with babies as well as being small enough for young siblings to use with ease for playing with or with out the baby. We pass on the elephant and giraffe that have tufts of fuzz on their heads as these would not be good for babies who mouth things.

Age: Toddlers, Preschool, Early School Years. Award Year: 2009. Click here to purchase the product on Amazon.com.

Hands down one of our favorite toys of the year.  If you have a child in the Hot Wheels zone, this is a must have toy.  Because the play experience involves water (and more the better!) we'd say this is a better choice for outdoors...or parents that don't mind water all over the counter.  The cars react to cold and hot water - and will turn a different color when put into either temperature. Seriously cool.  Best yet, it comes with a squirt bottle so you can change the cars by squirting them.  If you don't want to buy the whole set - we'd suggest buying one of the cars - you can use your own squirt bottle and have the same experience.   The car that turns from blue to yellow is much more dramatic than some of the other color changes (yellow/orange).  The company has signed a verification form complying with our safety requirements. We did not independently test this toy in  a lab.

We waited with great anticipation for the bigger and more tricked out Custom Color Shop ($37.99)...it includes a launcher that sends the car either through a waterfall at the top of the toy or down a ramp.  Here's the deal, we found the launcher somewhat hard to do (to get it to hit the waterfall point consistently was challenging to say this least)...and the water at the top and bottom will need more adult intervention than the Color Shifter Blaster.  It looked like it would be really great, but our testers preferred the less expensive version -- that they could handle more independently. Nice when the less expensive toy comes out on top.

SNAP IDEAS: Quite apart from the "magic" of changing the colors of the little cars, this is a great toy for working on developing hand stregnth. Squirting the water calls for sqeezing the spray bottle and if you want to add to the fun, how about counting to see how many squirts it takes to abra-ca-dabra the change of color. Buy the whole set up or look for the color changer cars that are sold separately. Any clean sqqirt bottle will do the trick!

Age: Preschool, Early School Years. Award Year: 2009. Click here to purchase the product on Amazon.com.

Choose this modern A-frame house with open roof for easy access that allows for playing from the front of the house or back in the traditional manner. This is a smaller house than their Green model or the CHalet, but a good choice for beginning pretend. Multicultural families and furnishings are available and run between $15-20 a set.

Age: Preschool, Early School Years. Award Year: 2009. Click here to purchase the product on Amazon.com.

For the 21st-century child, magnetic letters that talk! Put the "magnetic phonics reader" onto the fridge and it will play one capital letter at a time. The toy will say and sing each letters name and sing the sound they say. Letters are raised to give kids the feel for their shapes. Use these for letter name and sound recognition.  Look for the Fridge Words Magnetic Word Builder version for simple three letter word games. This is labeled 2 & up, but is more appropriate for preschoolers and early school kids. We're heard that the toy will scratch stainless steel fridge doors...so find another home for this if that is what you have. 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: 2009. Click here to purchase the product on Amazon.com.

Although the oversized books are all based on licensed characters, this is an entertaining electronic book collection with a sensor that is chunky and easy for beginners to grasp. The two books that come with the set are based on Finding Nemo and The World of Cars. Touch the big sensor to the text and it reads the page or touch the images on the page and it gives you bits of info, sound effects or things to find. Unlike Leap Frog's TAG, this does not include a library of real books by gifted writers and illustrators. It also does offer the option of hearing the words read out loud with the sensor's guidance one word at a time. That means it is not establishing the understanding of how books work from left to right and word to word. If this option and some real books were added to the mix this would also be a Platiunm winner. That said, this is a pretty good choice with more complex text that slightly older kids might find inviting. We think the 3 & up age label is not correct. This is more like a good choice for 5-8.

The company has signed a verification form complying with our safety requirements. We did not independently test this toy in a lab. SNAP: The easy to operate sensor can be fitted with Velcro and placed in a mitt with Velcro so that it can be grasped with greater ease. The subject matter in these two books may appeal to older kids and still give them the independence of "reading" alone!

Age: Preschool, Early School Years. Award Year: 2009. Click here to purchase the product on Amazon.com.

Kids can use regular fruit juices to make these frozen treats. The kit comes with a stand and 36 self sealing freeze pop bags. It also includes a 4 pop stick holders for making ice pops. Unlike a lot of food machines for kids, this one comes apart easily for cleaning. A fun toy for cool summertime snacks that are healthy with a little in the way of science experiments built into the liquid to solid transformations. A nice big box for a birthday gift that’s under $20. 5 & up. The company has signed a verification form complying with our safety requirements. We did not independently test this toy in a lab.

Age: Early School Years. Award Year: 2009. Click here to purchase the product on Amazon.com.

A cute violet canvas purse with more than 100 felt stick-ons to decorate it. This is pretty easy to do with no cutting and pre-stick felt pieces. Comes with a ribbon that feeds through the loops on top for a finished craft look. This is a simple to do kit with no right or wrong way of designing. Yet, the finished product is pretty enough to carry with the pride of being able to say..."I made it myself!" The box say 3 & up. We'd say 5 & up is closer to the right age. 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: 2009. Click here to purchase the product on Amazon.com.