Fight Boredom with Pocket Doodles for Kids

If you’re tired of “Are we there yet?” and prefer to nurture the kids’ imaginations with something other than a portable DVD player, author Bill Zimmerman’s Pocket Doodles for Kids makes a great backseat companion for flights, car trips and other long stretches. Compact enough at 4″x6″ for little hands to take just about anywhere, the book features 272 pages’ worth of open-ended illustrations, each of which encourages kids to fill in the blanks and pin the tail on the storyline.

You can sample a few of the illustrations (including the comic strip pictured here) at Bill Zimmerman’s website, which offers four free pocket doodles to print out and color. Zimmerman and Pocket Doodles for Kids illustrator Tom Bloom also encourage kids and parents to send in ideas for future pocket doodles — brainstorm your own while you wait for the book to arrive, and be sure to check out Zimmerman and Bloom’s online comic creator Make Beliefs Comix! for additional inspiration.

$9.99 from Amazon.