family matters c
GIFT GUIDANCE
Just Imagine
Kids may bedazzled by the
lights and sounds of the holiday's
hottest items, but it's the
simple toys that spark youthful
creativity the most.
BY
STEPHEN C. GEORGE
PH O TO S
KATHRYN GAMBLE
PRO DU CED BY
KELSEY AIKIN
C
very holiday season
B you see them, first
1
in TV and Web ads,
then on the wish
lists of children
everywhere. The action figures
tied to a cartoon or recent movie.
The hot video game of the
moment. The latest computer
chip-controlled “smart” toy.
“Kids are dazzled by them,
but the dazzle wears off,” says
Stephanie Oppenheim, who
tells the story of a little girl who
recently got an interactive doll,
the kind that responds to voice
commands and talks back to its
owner. “She took it to another girl’s
house for a play date. On the way
home, her mom realized that she’d
left the doll behind. But when she
offered to go back and get it, the
little girl passed. ‘That doll talks
too much,’ she told her mom.”
The girl’s reaction isn’t all
that unusual, says Oppenheim,
cofounder of the Oppenheim Toy
Portfolio (
toyportfolio.com
), an
independent consumer organiza-
tion devoted to evaluating toys and
children’s media. “There are a lot
214 DECEMBER 2008 BETTER HOMES AND GARDENS
