Everyone needs a little inspiration now and then. If your kids occasionally need a little help in this area too and they like to draw, I have a cool product for you. Penny and Drew's Penciltips, from ThoughtRockets, Inc., are coloring books with a twist. Basically, each page is blank, except for the Penciltip -- a simple description of what should be drawn.

The Penciltips vary depending on which book you get -- there is Draw THIS! with general suggestions ("A lady watering flowers in the garden"), Transportation ("A dump truck unloading cupcakes"), Animal Alliteration ("Rattlesnakes on rafts racing down the river"), and Idioms ("The pen is mightier than the sword"). I like the fact that like classic Legos and the old Fisher-Price little people, the Penciltips are open to interpretation and stimulate creativity, rather than letting kids recreate scenes from a movie or TV show.

Each book contains forty 5x7 pages and sells for $4.95. I bought some as holiday gifts for my eleven- and twelve-year-old nieces; I'm pretty sure they'll have fun drawing and coloring them and even more fun comparing what they came up with.