1. Star carries
The Force will be with you with Star Wars supplies from Mead. Yoda graces the Student Day Planner (about $20), and Darth Vader is on the zipper binder (about $28), spiral notebook ($1.79), folder ($1.25) and zipper pouch ($5). Look for them where school supplies are sold.
2. Bitty binder
No–it’s not a shrunken Trapper Keeper. Kids in Europe have been using pencil cases like this one for decades (as in they’re a classic). And the cases have and hold it all. Gap makes the American version, which comes in red, black, blue, green and orange and costs $16.50 at GapKids.
3. Lunch armor
Mushy chow is a thing of the past with super-stiff metal lunch boxes, which are sturdy and sweet at the same time. Find all sorts of patterns, such as our happy face, at Uncle Fun in Chicago (773-477-8223).
4. Mutating planners
You’ll have to do a double-take to take in both pics on Day Runner’s Lenticular Student Planners, because they have 3-D images that change with every move. Look once and it sports flowers and butterflies, then shift it a little to show peace and love symbols. Find it in two styles (Peace, Love and Butterflies or World Wide Web) on two different systems (loose-leaf for $20 or spiral-bound for $15). Call 800-635-5544 to find out where you can get them.
5. Math enchancer
Math may be a little icky now and then, but at least the tools can be useful and cute. Take this Fiskars Protractor (about $2.75), which is newly designed for function (it’s see-through, shatter-resistant and has special features like guide holes and a swing bar that make measuring angles easier) and fashion (it has flashy hot-stamped foil markings instead of boring black). Find it where school supplies are sold.
6. Nifty notebook
You’ll have tons of fun keeping notes on what’s really important in the Koosh Mini Notebook ($4.40). It looks like a baby-sized binder in a funky shape, and there’s a ribbon page marker trimmed with a teenie Koosh ball to keep your place. Look for it at Target, Sports Authority and Zany Brainy.
