1.) Can’t say, any woudl work fine, but the best way is to draw a lot just yourself and random objects…

2.) For character drawing…”How to Draw Manga” books are awesome. I love them to death; they give such great ideas and such.

3.) Maybe in animation, they have a section for coloring in the drawings?

I hope this helped

Manga for Dummies is exactly what you’re looking for. It is a primer into character design, figure drawing (of course very vague, but still good for beginners), line drawing (cartooning), and other stuff. It is really easy to follow and almost everything mentioned in the text is illustrated.

There are many different how to draw books for children. Its nice to see that you are into helping kids do what they love to do. Any book store you go to will have several types of books on drawing. Even your local library would have some.
As for the talent, you can maybe get into something like making posters or banners, or even window drawings that you see on the windows of certain shops and stores. I hope this helps.