The Little Apple – Midtown West
Ripley's Believe it or Not! Times Square, 234 West 42nd Street between Seventh and Eighth Avenues
New permanent installation
Free with admission: $29.95 for adults, $22.95 for children ages 4-12 but save 20% by buying advance tickets online
No, Ripley's Times Square isn't just for tourists. My NYC nine-year old son had been begging to visit for years! We finally went this past spring and his favorite attraction was The Little Apple, a new interactive NYC-themed gallery. Kids can pretend to perch atop the Empire State Building King Kong-style, take a virtual walk high above Manhattan's skyline on the Wallenda Wire, manipulate the colors of old-school street lights, and make some noise with the sounds of taxis and garbage cans. While the exhibit is small, we had a great time virtually exploring our hometown and we enjoyed checking out the rest of Ripley's 20 galleries stuffed with kooky curios like shrunken heads, medieval torture devices, live cockroaches, collections of beer steins and cigarette lighters, seats from Yankee Stadium, and even a two-headed calf. My son particularly liked the spinning vortex tunnel and the tongue curling fake out (I don't want to spoil the surprise, just go try it).

Design Lab – Corona
New York Hall of Science, 47 111th Street between 47th and 48th Avenues
New permanent installation
Free with admission: $11 for adults, $8 for children ages 2-17
Get ready to be creative at the New York Hall of Science newest hands-on attraction: a permanent STEM-themed Design Lab. The interactive installation, which incorporates the museum's Maker Space, features five unique pods where kids can try activities that hone their design and engineering skills. Drop in to build giant structures, learn about circuitry, create model cities, and study concepts like gravity and motion. Check out our full Design Lab review.

Icons of Animation – Upper East Side
Museum of American Illustration at the Society of Illustrators, 128 East 63rd Street between Park and Lexington Avenues
Through Saturday, August 16
Free with admission: $10 for adults, free for children under age 13
Fans of animation and comics can check out rare original art this exhibit, which celebrates the work of four award-winning illustrators: Brooklyn's own Peter de Sève (who worked on Mulan and Finding Nemo); William Joyce (of Rise of the Guardians and Epic fame), graphic artist Carlos Nine and the one-of-a-kind Bill Plympton, a hero of the underground animated scene.

Focus: Artist as Observer – Hudson Square
Children’s Museum of the Arts, 103 Charlton Street between Hudson and Greenwich Streets
Tuesday, June 10-Sunday, September 7
Free with admission: $11
Head to CMA to check out contemporary works that focus on the issues of identity, both personal and collective. See how the artists examine and celebrate different elements of culture, heritage, neighborhood and individuality. As always, the hands-on museum will offer themed art workshops in conjunction with the exhibit so be sure to check the calendar to see what's on offer.

Marvel’s Avengers S.T.A.T.I.O.N. The Exhibition – Midtown West
Times Square Discovery Exhibition, 226 West 44th Street between Seventh and Eighth Avenues
Wednesday, June 11-Sunday, January 4, 2015
$27 for adults, $19.50 for children ages 3-11
Although this exhibit got off to a bumpy start (it was supposed to debut in late May but due to technical issues, its opening date was delayed for weeks), we have high hopes that it will deliver once everything is up and running. One of our bloggers attended a preview of the installation, which celebrates Marvel's Avengers universe, and even though most of the interactive stations weren't working, she and her comic book-loving family were impressed with what they saw. Get S.H.I.E.L.D. (Strategic Homeland Intervention, Enforcement and Logistics Division) access to the official S.T.A.T.I.O.N. (Scientific Training and Tactical Intelligence Operative Network) headquarters to check out a variety of intelligence files, classified studies and experiments that touch on the history and scientific origins of superhero team The Avengers. You can also find Asgard in the stars, operate Iron Man’s suit, take the Captain America challenge, and peruse "artifacts" like the Tesseract Portal Device, Loki’s Scepter and a hermetically sealed Chitauri. While at Discovery Times Square, make sure you also check out the amazing Lego installation The Art of the Brick, which has been extended through Sunday, September 7 (additional fee applies).

If You Build It – Harlem
155th Street and St. Nicholas Avenue
On view Thursday, June 26-Sunday, August 10
FREE
We're big fans of No Longer Empty (NLE), a nonprofit that mounts engaging, site-specific, temporary art exhibitions in vacant NYC spaces. Its new exhibit is located in the heart of Harlem and features installations, photos and performances that touch on issues like urban decay and regeneration, immigration and displacement, economic inequality and building community. Although not aimed at kids, NLE's exhibits are always thought provoking and inspire lots of interesting family conversations. For a more interactive experience, visit on Saturday, June 28 for the No Longer Bored Family Day featuring art workshops and other hands-on activities.

Jeff Koons: A Retrospective – Upper East Side
Whitney Museum of American Art, 945 Madison Avenue at 75th Street
On view Friday, June 27-Sunday, October 19
Free with admission: $20 for adults, free for children under 19
Whether you consider the controversial Koons a groundbreaking genius or a talentless hack, it really doesn't matter. The fact is, kids love his whimsical works. And why not? His larger-than-life pop culture-infused sculptures like "Balloon Dog (Yellow)", which graced the roof of the Metropolitan Museum in 2008, or his "Balloon Rabbit (Red)", currently ensconced in the lobby of a shiny new Astor Place office building, feature an irrepressible exuberance and have helped him become one of the most successful and prolific contemporary artists in the U.S. This career-spanning exhibition marks two important milestones for the Whitney: It's the first time a single artist's work has taken over the entire museum (save for its permanent galleries), and it's the final show at the museum's Upper East Side building before it relocates to the Meatpacking District. Although this exhibit isn't aimed at kids (and may feature some of Koons' racier works, so be warned), it's still a good bet for children, who'll be ticked by his take on everyday objects like inflatable toys, vacuum cleaners and deep fryers, and his iconic sculptures "Michael Jackson and Bubbles" and, of course, "Balloon Dog."

Spiders Alive! – Upper West Side
American Museum of Natural History, 79th Street at Central Park West
Friday, July 4-Sunday, November 2
Free with Museum Plus One Admission: $27 for adults, $16 for children ages 2-12
The spiders are invading! Yes, the amazing arachnids are back for the summer at AMNH. In addition to face time with 20 different species, including the deadly black widow and the enormous Goliath bird eater, kids can learn about their anatomy, venom and silk spinning skills through videos, large-scale models and fossils. While at AMNH, be sure to check out two other awesome installations: Pterosaurs: Flight in the Age of Dinosaurs and The Power of Poison.

Madeline in New York: The Art of Ludwig Bemelmans – Upper West Side
New-York Historical Society, 170 Central Park West at 77th Street
Friday, July 4-Monday, October 13
Free with admission: $19 for adults, $12 for students, $6 for children ages 5-13
Celebrate the 75th anniversary of Ludwig Bemelmans' Madeline picture book series at this exhibit devoted to the precocious Parisian school girl and her creator. While the tomes are well known for their beautiful illustrations of the City of Light, they were actually written here in NYC. More than 100 artifacts will be on display including original Madeline watercolors, crayon drawings and manuscripts, Bemelmans' paint box and Madeline-themed lamps from Bemelmans Bar at the Carlyle Hotel. While the show is family-friendly and features a reading area, it's not interactive. For younger kids, consider visiting on the opening day Family Day (when children will be admitted for FREE) or splurging on one of the extravagant Madeline's Tea Parties ($40 for children, $50 for adults).

Italian Futurism, 1909–1944: Reconstructing the Universe – Upper East Side
Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, 1071 Fifth Avenue at 89th Street
On view through Monday, September 1
Free with admission: $22 for adults, free for children under age 12
Check out 300 works from the short-lived but extremely influential Futurism movement from early 20th-century Italy. Paintings, poems, writings, photographs, films and architecture from this forward-thinking social/art/political movement are all on display. Its mission was to abolish the past and change the future, so the works are often themed around speed, machines, industry and cities. You can still see its legacy today in high art and pop culture.

Want more? Most of the spring exhibits we highlighted are still on view, including the Brooklyn Block Laboratory at the Brooklyn Children's Museum, the Metropolitan Museum of Art's roof garden installation and Jazzed the Changing Beat of 125th Street at the Children's Museum of Manhattan. Plus there are some cool FREE public art exhibits on view, too.

Find out about other great exhibits for kids in our Museum Guide.