Just in time for the travel season, this 14 piece bingo set has four sturdy playing boards with eight double sided playing cards that slide in and out of the frames and wipe off markers for keeping track of items that players must spot as you travel along. Check off the bridge, train, gas pump, bus, etc. Play a quick game to find four items in a row or play to find everything on your board. There are two levels of play; one side has 16 smaller images the reverse has 12.  All the pieces are stored in a sturdy box with magnetic closure and fabric handle. A good time chaser for the back seat and the eternal question--are we there yet.4-8

Age: Preschool, Early School Years. Award Year: 2013.

Originally an online game, Bejeweled has now been adapted for real time play, complete with playing board and shimmering playing pieces. Basically this is the same game as the digital form, the object is to collect three of a kind in a row. But the big glitzy playing pieces are good looking and pleasing to slide across the playing board. Game play requires some strategy and logic. 8 & up.

Age: Early School Years, Later School Years. Award Year: 2013. Click here to purchase the product on Amazon.com.

Deal out the penguins and take turns putting one on deck at a time. But watch out! Going through the Drake Passage can be rough and one too many penguins will send the all the others overboard! The tippy boat sits on a post that makes for a tricky balancing act. Takes some logical thinking, simple strategy, dexterity and good luck to avoid knocking them all off the boat. A quick to learn, fun game with lots of opportunities to win and lose. A word of caution, if you have small children who still mouth their toys, keep the penguins out of reach. 5 & up.

Age: Early School Years. Award Year: 2012. Click here to purchase the product on Amazon.com.

An active early listening / reading game. An adult either reads the directions on the cards or kids use their beginning reading skills to follow the directions. On a player's turn he chooses a red doubloon and a blue one and reads the challenge that the two combined create. If he thinks he can do what it says to do he shouts, Yo Ho, Let's Go! If he does it successfully he wins gold doubloons for his team. If he can't do it, then he can pick another blue one. But be careful! If a player picks three game-over cards the game is over and his team loses! The cards have images that help the beginning readers and the idea of a pirate game will often charm beginners into playing and building their reading or listening skills.  Marked for 3 & up. We think this will be a better bet for older 4-7.  A fun game for a pirate themed birthday party, too.

Age: Preschool, Early School Years. Award Year: 2012. Click here to purchase the product on Amazon.com.

Instead of the usual small letter tiles, this Jumbo set comes with 144 tiles that are over 3-inches squares and made of a pliable material. Ideal for playing out of doors, on the floor of the family room, or in the classroom. Players do not take turns as you do in Scrabble. Game play is faster and everyone plays at their own level. With younger kids, try playing on teams or cooperatively. Each play takes 11-21 tiles, depending on the number of players. Someone says SPLIT and all players turns over their tiles and arrange and rearrange them until someone, who has used all his tiles yells PEEL! And takes one more tile from the spare Bunch. Everyone else must also take one tile. A player who cannot use a tile can throw it back but has to take three in exchange.  Play continues until there are no tiles left in the spare Bunch and one player has gotten rid of all his or her tiles. This is great multigenerational game for family gatherings. Be forwarned this Jumbo Set is physically heavy!

For a smaller and less expensive game, check out the original Banangrams($14.99) or the company's Zip It!, both good games for home or easy to pack travel toys.

Age: Early School Years, Later School Years, Tweens. Award Year: 2012. Click here to purchase the product on Amazon.com.

Fans of everything pirates and specifically the Disney show Jake and the Never Land Pirates will enjoy this treasure grabbing game. The board sets up with Captain Hook taking a nap on his hammock -- he's surrounded by all of his treasures.  On each turn you will be instructed (by where you land) on which tool you will use to remove the treasure from the hammock.  Use the little plastic sword, fishing pole, tweezers (the easiest) or the shovel to grab your treasure. BUT be careful--if Captain Hook falls off the hammock, you lose the round. Fun and fast rounds.

Age: Preschool, Early School Years. Award Year: 2012. Click here to purchase the product on Amazon.com.

A silly time is had by all when you play the game of Fibber. Players wear a pair of glasses with a knobby nose. Players who get caught fibbing about the cards they put down have to add another length to their nose. If a player calls another player a fibber and she is wrong, she has to pick up all the cards discarded and add a length to her nose. The object is to be the first to get rid of all your cards. It might be a stretch to call this an educational game. But maybe there is some learning going on. What do players learn? For future poker players or business dealmaker types, this may have some long term value.   Obviously, we would not be promoting a game that teaches lying as such. Bluffing, maybe. 

Age: Early School Years, Later School Years. Award Year: 2012. Click here to purchase the product on Amazon.com.

Remember your word maze games? Playing Pathwords is a bit like finding those words. It's a single player game with a book of words that fits under a playing board grid. The player must find the words in the "Find" list and then cover them with the colored see-though playing pieces. The words can be spelled backwards and forward and require overcoming some spatial challenges. There are 40 puzzles in the spiral book that progress from easy to far more difficult. 6 & up.

Age: Early School Years, Later School Years. Award Year: 2012. Click here to purchase the product on Amazon.com.

Players compete to be the first to spot matching attributes on the shrimp cards. The attributes are color, size, origin, and quantity. When you see a match you grab and squeeze the squeaking starfish and take you catch. This is a fast moving game that calls for thinking on your feet to become the King of the Prawns. For 7 & up.

Age: Early School Years, Later School Years. Award Year: 2012. Click here to purchase the product on Amazon.com.

Like the original Zip it Game, this is a 2-player game with wooden cubes that are used to form crossword grids. These cubes are several times larger than the original cubes and may be easier for beginning spellers to read quickly. Each player takes twelve cubes and can use any side of the cube to make a crossword grid with her own cubes. The first person to use all her cubes wins the round and advances the zipper on the cloth container one point. The first player to move their zipper ten times wins the game. As with other games from Bananagram, the game play is faster since you are not taking turns but making your own crossword as best you can. Be forewarned, these jumbo playing pieces are physically heavy. A good choice for mixed age groups. The game comes with ideas of how to play a rhyming version as well as ways of scoring long words and palindromes. Your kids will probably come up with their own playful ways of using these cubes, such as a stacking the cubes to make words that can be read from the top down or bottoms up.

Age: Early School Years, Later School Years, Tweens. Award Year: 2012.