17. Doodle All the Days!

Daily Doodle 2012 Daily Calendar

By Taro Gomi

Chronicle Books, 2011

$12.99, 5.1" w x 6.3" h, all ages, 366 pages.

Make every day child's play with this delightful daily calendar that a child helps to illustrate!

Tokyo illustrator Taro Gomi brings his doodling book concept to a tablet box calendar that kids can doodle on every day.

Each page presents a playful prompt and a black marker drawing to finish.

On one day, a child is challenged to draw as many riders as he can on the long narrow back of a horse.

On another, he's given the outline of a pedestal and asked to design the sculpture that goes on it.

My favorite: a dragon's mouth waiting for a pencil to make it breath fire.

Siblings will be racing to the tablet to make their mark. (Keep those drawing straws handy!)

20. Three Guides to Play

Play All Day: A Really Giant Book of Punch-Out-and-Play Games, Toys, Finger Puppets, Boxes and More!, by Taro Gomi, Chronicle Books, $19.99, all ages, 116 pages. Opening this book is like entering a wonderland of possibility, but where does a child ever begin? Watching your child figure that out is part of the magic of Gomi's clever new book of toys. Every folded page is so packed with playthings waiting to be made, little eyes will be darting about just trying to take it all in. Then once they land on the thing they just have to do first, clear the table and stand back. Will it be a garland strung with monkeys and a few long-tailed friends? Or a game of ring toss made from a Parisian themed punch-out -- three hot pink rings and a fold-together black cone? Or maybe a troupe of finger puppets that are sure to inspire a bigger project, such as a cardboard stage? By day's end, don't be surprised if Play All Day is all punched out, though with more than 60 playthings that slide together, fold and/or hang, your child is sure to be amused for days time to come.