The Dark Dreamweaver

I loved the whole concept of The Dark Dreamweaver, a fantasy story by Nick Ruth targeting tweens (ages 9-12) about an ordinary boy who shows extraordinary courage in the face of an epidemic of nightmares:

Eleven-year-old David is suffering from nightmares. Over and over again, he dreams about a strange, bear-like man with black eyes. He's not the only one; an epidemic of nightmares seems to have infected the Earth. David takes matters into his own hands and embarks on an adventure to Remin, a land powered by dreams. Aided by a caterpillar wizard, a jellyfish-man, two wise-cracking water serpents, and several other unusual characters, he sets out to find and confront the evil wizard who is causing the nightmares. The challenges that he encounters will require all of his intelligence, his courage, and most of all, his imagination.

The book has enjoyed praise from other bloggers and won a "Mom's Choice Award" in 2005. It's no Harry Potter, but I found it to be a lively, entertaining read featuring a memorable main character to whom many kids can relate.

I think any book that inspires self-reliance, creativity, and bravery in the face of evil is a good one.

Older kids (9+) may find the resolve to challenge their own nightmares as David did. Younger kids - and particularly those with active imaginations, like my eight-year old daughter, might get spooked into nightmares of their own, though on the whole the book is not terribly scary.

If you're a fantasy fan or know a tween who is, The Dark Dreamweaver, the first in the Remin Chronicles series, makes a great choice.

Leave a comment over at Parent Bloggers for your chance to win a free copy of the book!

Noah's Pals

When it comes to small plastic toys, my children - second only to my vacuum cleaner - can't seem to get enough.

I'm not proud, but my six and eight-year old darlings have subsisted on a steady diet of craptastic plastic for several years; namely, signature lines of toys falling into the Littlest Polly-Transformer-Barbie-Power-Pet-Ranger-Shop variety.

That familiar thlunk I hear while vacuuming never ceases to remind me that somewhere, some toy company executive just got his wings (a.k.a. a new private jet).

I don't feel good about throwing money away on insignificant plastic, but plastic with significance? Well, that's another story.

Noah's Pals is a collection of plastic figurines representing Noah, his famous ark, and forty different pairs of animals - from "endangered" snow leopards to "vulnerable" giraffes to "common" kinkajous, aardvarks, and jackals.

Each male/female animal pair comes with its own "credit card" containing personal identifying information such as names (both scientific and personal -e.g., Aidan and Autumn for the antelopes), size (height, length, weight), geographic location, and habitat.

These informative snapshots also bear a scratch off identification code that allows children access to the company website where they can register their toys and keep track of their collection on a "boarding list." Collectors who gather all forty animal pairs receive the special incentive of a "Caboodle" - a box full of exclusive rewards from Noah's Pals. (I don't know what this might include, but they do offer other stuff in their online shop such as t-shirts, an umbrella, and a backpack.)

Whether you believe the fantastical story of Noah's ark or not, this collection of toys can provide parents the opportunity to educate their children about a legendary biblical story in a fun way.

In my case, I did just that - that is, before my children absconded with the box containing Noah and some of his animals and proceeded to engage in imaginative play for at least an hour. Both of my kids loved everything about these little plastic animals, and they somehow felt legitimized by registering them online. Of course, naturally, they immediately felt that familiar, consumer-driven hunger for MORE, for the entire collection, for the Caboodle...

You can check out Noah's Pals HERE. And if you're interested, my friends at Parent Bloggers report that the entire Noah's Pals set is available on Amazon for $269.

I applaud the nice folks at Noah's Pals for developing plastic toys of significance, ones my vacuum cleaner can only dream of ingesting.

Educational, meaningful, interesting plastic: now that's my kind of toy.