Bouncing Baby Animals Bring Spring to Kohl's to Benefit Children; Retailer will offer exclusive playful plush, as well as hardcover books by renowned author and illustrator Eric Carle, to benefit children's health and education.

MENOMONEE FALLS, Wis. -- Beginning January 20, Kohl's Department Stores is offering custom editions of books by renowned children's author and illustrator Eric Carle, Does a Kangaroo Have a Mother Too?, The Lamb and the Butterfly, The Secret Birthday Message, and From Head to Toe. Kohl's is also offering exclusive corresponding plush including a kangaroo with joey, sheep and lamb, golden retriever and puppy and gorilla and baby.

As part of its Kohl's Cares for Kids(R) program, Kohl's stores across the country will feature the exclusive items for $5 each with 100 percent of the net profits benefiting children's health and educational opportunities in Kohl's communities nationwide. The items will also be available online at www.kohls.com.

"We are so proud to offer these playful plush parent-and-baby animal pairs to our customers along with a wonderful selection of vibrant books by author and illustrator Eric Carle," said Julie Gardner, senior vice president of marketing for Kohl's. "By sharing these fun books with their children, shoppers will help raise millions of dollars to benefit children nationwide."

Featuring brilliant illustrations in Carle's trademarked artistic style, these books share classic messages about family and friends while also encouraging the development of cognitive and physical skills like word recognition, shape recognition and simple body movements.

--Does a Kangaroo Have a Mother Too? Reinforcing the mother-child relationship, this book highlights the fact that all different kinds of animals have mothers. In addition, this reassuring story incorporates colorful illustrations of mom and baby animal pairs including a kangaroo and joey.

--The Lamb and the Butterfly, This Blue Ribbon award-winning book, authored by Arnold Sundgaard and illustrated by Eric Carle, promotes tolerance and diversity by telling the story of an unlikely friendship between a lamb and a fluttering butterfly.

--In The Secret Birthday Message, a coded message of playful geometric shapes leads a little boy to a birthday surprise at the end of the book. Die-cut pages offer an interactive opportunity to explore descriptive words including up, below and through.

--From Head to Toe gets kids clapping, stomping, kicking and wiggling to imitate their favorite animals. The book's recurring theme "I can do it!" helps children build self-confidence, while simple activities introduce concepts such as following directions, listening, and recognition of basic body parts.

Children will enjoy learning through play with these hardcover books that encourage physical and cognitive development. Coordinating plush parent-and-baby animal pairs provide quality companions to each of these exciting books.

In addition to supporting children's health and educational opportunities, the Kohl's Cares for Kids program features a gift card fundraising opportunity for local schools and non-profit youth groups, the Kohl's Kids Who Care(R) program, which recognizes kids who contribute through volunteerism to their local communities, and the associate volunteer program, which encourages volunteerism to benefit local youth-focused nonprofit organizations. For more information on these programs, visit www.kohlscorporation.com.

Based in Menomonee Falls, Wis., Kohl's is a family-focused, value-oriented specialty department store offering moderately priced national and exclusive brand apparel, shoes, accessories, home and beauty products in an exciting shopping environment. Kohl's operates 732 stores in 41 states. For a list of store locations and information, or for the added convenience of shopping online, visit Kohl's Web site at www.kohls.com.