(Courtesy of Free Comic Book Day)

Imagine a day when geeks, dorks, and nerds can join hands and stand as one. That day is coming. This Saturday, May 4, marks Free Comic Book Day, and most comic book stores across the city (and around the world) will give away comic books absolutely free—no strings attached. It's a great opportunity for you to turn your kids on to this original American art form without spending a cent.

Here’s how it works. First, check out the FCBD store finder to locate a participating shop near you. Then head out early and get ready to wait in line.

“It gets bigger and bigger each year,” says Julie Liu, who works at Jim Hanley’s Universe on West 33rd St. “Last year was a complete madhouse.” By the end of the day, the store had depleted its supply of FCBD books and started giving out its own stock, she says.

According to organizers of this annual event, now in its 12^th year, thousands of shops have distributed millions of free comic books over the years. And these freebies are not dusty, has-been issues. This year 52 different FCBD comics will be available, ranging from Superman to Molly Danger to Dragon Ball. The selected titles are chosen by a panel representing all parts of the industry, including retailers, publishers, and suppliers. The goal is to get kids excited about comics and to support local independent comic book stores.

Some outlets are going one step further and are hosting author and illustrator signings. At Midtown Comics Downtown in the Financial District, Archie Comics writer Alex Simmons and Sonic artist Jamal Peppers will be autographing copies of their work at 3 p.m.

In true geek-speak, we say: May the Fourth be with you.

Santa Claus at Catimini!

Tomorrow, from 2p.m. to 5p.m., Santa will be making a pause goûter at the Catimini boutique at 1125 Madison Avenue (at 84th Street) for a fabulous afternoon of holiday shopping and snacks. Children are invited with their families to this up-beat event and share their Christmas wishes with Santa, discover that perfect Chanukah gift or browse the hip children’s wear. There will even be a special mail box delivering directly to the North Pole, and of course, you can pose with Mr. Claus.

A trendy destination for stylish young ones for more than 35 years, Catimini offers a vibrant, yet chic design concept that is a solid match for New York City kids avec attitude.

Welcome to Who-Ville

For those less in the holiday spirit, who need to be reminded of the importance of cheer, Dr. Seuss’ How the Grinch Stole Christmas! The Musical has opened this weekend at Theater at Madison Square Garden. With near-daily shows now through December 30, the spectacle is bound to delight with its visually impressive costuming and set design--not to mention--classic songs like the Who-Ville anthem “Welcome Christmas” and “You’re A Mean One, Mr. Grinch.

Tomorrow there are three shows (1p.m., 4p.m. and 7p.m.) and on Sunday there will be two fantastic performances (1p.m. and 4p.m.) For more information and a preview of the show, click here.

No, these are not mommy-jackers out to remind us of the labors of parenting. These are parent posters of a different breed, often aiming for the shock-and-laugh effect.

Son: Comment when and where we first met!

Friend: 7^th grade Science

Dad: Nine months before you were born. I brought you on a date and you went home with your mother.

They also seem to have mastered the fine art of embarrassment. Cite: photos of little princess’s head in the potty, or toddler son reading last month's issue of Playboy. While embarrassing perhaps to their subjects, these posts are good for a laugh and make dads not technologically-savvy enough for Facebook look just a little bit better.

Yet, Facebook fathers are not always taken so lightheartedly:

Dad: Just found out McDonalds has a playpen. Put Finn in last night, plan on picking him up Monday.

Mom friend: Please tell me you have Finn with you?

Mom friend: Not funny Steve, is Finn okay?

Image courtesy of Hit Mit

Professional baseball, beach volleyball and tennis are in full swing and just in time, Scooter has discovered a novel game that combines the skill-set of all three. Hit Mit is a hands-on volley game perfect for summer amusement in the outdoors.

The sporty game takes at least two players who use durable, lightweight EVA foam mitts to ping-pong a special ball back and forth. Each glove is designed for utmost control and power. Creator Fredi Brodmann said he “invented [the Hit Mit] while playing Velcro ball with [his] sons on the beach.” Each Hit Mit kit comes with two gloves and three soft foam balls, held in a simple mesh sack. Perfect for the beach, a family picnic, on the playground or at home in the backyard, Hit Mit will keep those energetic tykes busy for hours. The paddle sport, which was released this month, is sold online, at select J.Crew boutiques and other specialty stores.

The Intrepid for Fleet Week

Our military’s finest (or rowdiest) invade New York’s shores for Fleet Week (May 23-28). It’s not just about bars and people watching, there is fun for the family too! Climb aboard Intrepid’s Pier 86 for special performances, tall ship tours, movies and even the infamous military Tug of War. Expect added merriment this year since it’s the Intrepid’s 30th Anniversary.

Governor’s Island Park

Escape the crowds in The Hamptons with an easy day trip to Governor’s Island Park, which opens for the summer this Memorial Weekend. To kick off the season the park will feature sing-along performances, food and a special Family Fun Festival. Explore the storied, quaint plot of land that has gone from Lenape, Cacapeteyno and Pewihas Tribes to the Dutch to the Brits to the U.S. Army and now, during the warm months, New Yorkers! Take the ferry from Brooklyn Heights or Battery Park from 10AM – 7 PM to check out various arts, cultural and recreational programs, biking, a picnic or long walk. Governors Island is closed on Fridays however.

Prospect Park

Why not settle in lush Prospect Park for Memorial Day? Their antique carousel (now 100 years old) is finally open and ready for thrills at only $2 a ride. For Monday, May 28 the Audubon Center will be free for admission. Ride your bike to the main green for a family feast or if your kid has a focused historical attention span, meander the 19^th century Lefferts Historic House on a tour. We’ll be in Fort Greene Park or at Prospect Park’s Tennis Center warming up for Roland Garros!

Cecelia Babini with her Solving Kids’ Cancer butterfly (the organization's symbol).

Meet Celia Babini, Bonnie Young’s 11 year old daughter, a Scooter star in her own right, who single handedly raised over $11,000 for Solving Kids’ Cancer. The organization works to find, fund and manage clinical trials and scientific programs to rapidly develop the most effective treatments and cures for childhood cancers.

Ms. Babini graced the stage of this year’s SKC gala to address the crowd about her amazing efforts with fundraising. She joined other speakers including: emcee Sandra Bernhard, Nigel Barker, Jude Law, Gretchen Mol and Donna Karan. Scooter spoke with Ms. Babini briefly at the end of the soirée at Gotham Hall:

You’re eleven? I don’t believe it! What grade are you in?

Fifth Grade.

You spoke very eloquently tonight. Can you just repeat for me why this organization, Solving Kids’ Cancer is so important to you?

Well I always wanted to do something good. I’ve always wanted to get involved with a charity and I was looking for a charity when my mom told me about Solving Kids’ Cancer. It was the first year that they were actually doing the event. They were telling me that she was going to co-host it. I thought that this was a perfect charity for me to raise money for and I did. That’s how I really got involved with the whole charity.

How did you get out and gather all of these fantastic contributions-- some $11,000?

It’s staying up until four in morning every night, doing your homework and then having to run around. I sold almost half of my toys trying to make this money and then I had to call people for contributions. I remember me and my mom were staying up until 5a.m. and then I had to go to school

You’re so dedicated.

It’s really for a good thing. I really enjoy doing it. It’s really fun. Sometimes people are like, ‘it’s really just so stressful.’ But the stress, after all of it, is worth it to be here tonight. To know that there are actually kids being cured from my contributions is great. The money that everyone else here contributed is amazing.

What was your favorite part of the night?

Probably making the speech, even though I was very nervous.

You didn’t seem it!

At first I was nervous, then I got up there and thought--''Well, if everything I’m saying up here is true--'' then I was fine and calm about it.

Were you excited to see anyone here tonight? Jude Law? Donna Kara?

I was most excited to see my friends here. I mean it’s great to see celebrities here, but I think that the most exciting people are the ones I know closely getting excited about this.

If you missed it -- and in certain places you couldn't -- yesterday marked “Take Your Son/Daughter (or loved one) to Work Day!” Scooter dropped by Town Residential’s Flatiron, where the firm hosted a morning of fun and entertainment for staff and their families. (Another event at Town’s Upper East Side office took place later Thursday afternoon.) Town had curated a variety of special activities to help kids of all ages learn more about what their  parents or guardians do, along with the opportunity to explore their workplace.

After a gourmet breakfast spread of lox and bagels, everyone enjoyed games like Town Real Estate Bingo. There were craft stations, and building blocks for the little ones. Kim Santoriello of the accounting department commented “This gives us time to spend with our kids and have them learn about what we do for a living… they’re all having such a great time!” By way of confirmation, her six-year-old daughter danced with glee around the bingo table and nearby candy jars.

Pictured from Left to Right: Rosana Vidal, Itzy Garay, Wendy Maitland, Emma Maitland, Anna Reinberg, Julie Reinberg, Angela Luttrell, Jimmy Brett, Lisa Heiberger, Andrew Heiberger, Melissa Van Damm, Matthew Van Damm, Elaine Schweninger, Lee Schweninger, Alana Stotts, Debra Stotts, Suki Sy, Aminata Sy, Luis Salazar (not pictured Karan Salazar, Robert Dvorin, Young Lee, Marcia Giordano, Frank Giordano)

“My daughter was very excited to get out of school today! She’s having a blast… I never really knew who had kids and who didn’t have kids… it’s great team building for everybody to hang out in a different atmosphere,” said Jacqueline Pestana.

An adorable three-year old, Tallulah, sat intently at the arts table, decorating building blocks with colorful bugs and crayons. Other kids chose from a diverse assortment of craft materials to make collages and picture boards depicting their “dream home listing” or how they imagine what their parents do for work.

“This is so much better than school!’ exclaimed one young lad. A highlight was when Town SVP and associate broker Jimmy Brett, who doubles as a magician, delighted the kids with a charming spectacle of wizardry. After the show, Town treated the crowd to a lunch buffet of BBQ, grilled grub and pizza, before sending kids home with goodie bags featuring jigsaw puzzles (showing Town’s six offices), coloring books, beach balls and lunch bags.

Fabulous moms (and a few nannies and guardians) celebrated the new tome, in a Madison Avenue boutique, alongside Elizabeth Street Moms co-hosts Coralie Charriol and Rosie Pope. Adorable kids took pleasure in special book readings, making balloon animals and having their faces decorated—all while cranking up their energy levels with sandwiches, doughnuts and macaroons. Scooter was on the scene to take in all the action!

“Traces,” now playing in Union Square, is a unique blend of circus, street art, and dance, creating an emotional portrait of young people leaving their mark on the world. The show has been hailed by Time Out New York and Time Magazine as one of the top ten theater pieces of 2011.

But one audience segment was already familiar with “Traces”: kids who saw it years ago at The New Victory Theater, the first theater in New York City dedicated to youth and families.

The New Victory got its start as one of seven theaters revived by New 42^nd St., the nonprofit created to revitalize Times Square in the mid-1990s. The organization took a dilapidated, shuttered theater with a risqué past (it was once a burlesque club) and renovated it to create something that New York didn’t have: a children’s theater presenting works from around the globe.

There were no children’s theaters in New York then. Though children enjoy it, parents tolerate it, and producers occasionally make money off of it, children’s theater is often dismissed as cutesy, condescending, and shallow. While there’s more respect for the loftier, artistic side of children’s theater in Europe and Australia, professionals everywhere struggle to prove its legitimacy.

But in recent years, noteworthy professionals from the adult theater world have crossed over into children’s theater, while exciting genres like new circus and physical theater are spreading and becoming popular. Such works, increasingly offered at spaces like BAM and Lincoln Center, aren’t designed for children or adults in particular; they appeal to any age group. But the New Victory was one of the first theaters to bring these genres to New York.

Everything that the New Victory stages originates with the programming department, a team of four who scour the world for the highest-quality children’s theater. Mary Rose Lloyd, the programming director, annually confronts the challenge of creating a season of shows that appeal to audiences ranging from preschoolers to teens. Some New Victory shows are age-specific, but most have universal elements that appeal to adults too.

Much of the planning, says Lloyd, is a happy accident: “It’s amazing to me… there’s some sort of thread from each show to the next, but it’s not something that’s prescribed. It’s about works that we love and we know children and adults are going to love.”

With its global range, The New Victory acts as a bridge between children’s theater in the US and the rest of the world, particularly Europe, whose children’s theater is quite different from ours.

“Children’s theater in the US is creating seasons of work that don’t tour,” she explains. “So we’re always looking for ways to help regional theaters think that they can tour. Being in New York is a national platform for them.” A number of regional theaters have presented work at the New Victory, and four have won regional Tonys, including The Children’s Theatre Company in Minneapolis, the first children’s theater ever to do so.

But in European children’s theater, “there is an understood touring element. Most don’t necessarily have their own theater to present work. They just create it and use a touring network. They have it down!” Lloyd laughs. This creates smaller, more intimate shows that are easy to move without sacrificing production values. The New Victory encourages these companies to look for ways to scale up and create bigger, national work to fit the New Victory’s stage. The New Victory has hosted Scottish and Danish festivals featuring multiple works from each country.

With Lloyd frequently on the road, the rest of the staff reviews tape submissions. The team avoids saccharine fare. “Work for young audiences doesn’t have to be fuzzy bunny suits and simple language,” explains Lloyd. “There are opportunities for artists to create work that speaks to different ages in different ways. You can have an adult and a child in the same show and both have something interesting to talk about.”

“Traces,” for example, was produced by 7 Fingers (Les 7 Doigts de la Main in their native Montreal) with no particular age group in mind. Lloyd already knew them, having tried unsuccessfully to bring one of their earlier productions to the New Victory. The company pitched “Traces” as a younger-feeling show, perfect for The New Victory’s young but discerning audience. It ran in the spring of 2008, thrilling children with its circus-like acrobatics and moving adults with its powerful underpinning of young people trying to make a mark on their surroundings.

New Victory’s penchant for the cutting edge gives their shows interesting points of overlap with the adult theater world. For example, the popular immersive theater experience “Sleep No More” takes theatergoers into a haunted-house-like theater as Macbeth is performed. No one had seen anything like it – except the kids who saw the New Victory’s 2009 production of “Hansel and Gretel,” in which the audience trailed the main characters through the theater, past a memorable tableau featuring a forest of doll heads, en route to the witch’s house.

The New Victory’s Carrie Dubois marvels that “White,” a much-lauded New Victory show “won all sort of awards, yet it was specifically created for three-year-olds.”

With no doubt, audiences and professionals alike now look at children’s theater as a respectable artistic endeavor, making the New Victory programmers’ job a little easier. This season’s shows feature work from writers and producers with significant credentials. In March, “Lucky Duck,” described as a “fun, Glee-sque” musical from the Broadway-experienced team of Henry Krieger (“Dreamgirls,” “Side Show”), Bill Russell (“Side Show”) and Jeffrey Hatcher (“Tuesdays with Morrie”) played to a target audience of four-to-eight-year-olds.

For ages 10 and up, there’s “The Book of Everything,” about an imaginative boy growing up in Australia. It’s directed by Neil Armfield, known for his work with Geoffrey Rush on “Exit the King” and “Diary of a Madman.” Rounded out by “Ahhh HA!,” a show combining acrobatics, comedy and live Afro-Hebrew music, this spring brings a New Victory mini-season with all sorts of crossovers into the adult theater world.

In fact, defining the precise target age for any given show can be a tricky matter. Laura Kaplow-Goldman, New Victory’s public relations director, observes that art is subjective and children mature differently. “What one five-year-old loves, another might be afraid of.”

Lloyd agrees, and isn’t too concerned about the occasional Facebook or Twitter complaint from someone who’s been offended. “As long as it makes them feel passionately one way or the other, that for me is what art is all about,” she adds. “The work is of a certain quality. It’s saying something interesting, and whether you disagree with what it’s saying or how it’s being said, that’s completely subjective.”

“Kids are such an avant-garde audience because their imaginations are limitless,” Lloyd says. “You don’t have to dumb it down for them.”

“The Book of Everything” will run April 20 through 29. Purchase tickets at newvictory.org