Banish Boredom with Pocket Doodles!

When our kids decide they're bored, we counterattack by getting a stack of paper, some pencils, and the giant bin-o-crayons (full of stumpy crayon pieces thanks to my 3-year-old daughter's erstwhile habit of systematically breaking the things in half when she thought nobody was looking). This is good to keep them occupied for an hour, maybe two on an exceptionally lucky day. But how can you do this in, say, the car, a waiting room, Aunt Edna's house, or at the airport? Enter Pocket Doodles for Kids!

Pocket Doodles for Kids (272 pages, Gibbs-Smith, $9.99), written by children's author Bill Zimmerman and illustrated by Tom Bloom, encourages kids to be creative through writing and drawing and to even learn a little something at the same time. It's a little 4x6-inch activity book that's perfect for carrying around in a backpack, purse, glove compartment, or jacket pocket. Each page contains a clever word or picture prompt that inspires kids to start drawing and writing right in the book. Much more than a simple coloring book, it really grabs hold of child's imagination and keeps them occupied and interested.

Pocket Doodles for Kids was an instant hit in our house, and It's the perfect accompaniment to summer travel and road trips. Highly recommended! You can find Pocket Doodles for Kids at booksellers nationwide and of course on Amazon.com.

But wait, there's more! Bill Zimmerman also offers up a website, www.makebeliefscomix.com, which is really worth checking out. On it, visitors can create their own comix using a any number of 15 different characters (also drawn by Tom Bloom), each with several different expressions, thought and speech balloons, and background colors. Fill in the balloons with your own dialogue (handy dialogue prompts offer suggestions for creating your story), and you can then print your finished comic strips or email them to friends and family.

It's really well done, it's easy to use, and it's free, so make sure you check it out. Of course you'll need the Flash plugin to use the comic strip creation tool. On the website you can also find out more about the author and illustrator, as well as download printable pre-made comic strips (ready for your words) and activity sheets.