Day 11: The Kids are Alright!

We don't want to leave younger readers out of the 24 Days of Books experience, so today, Day 11, we'll talk about some treats for the younger set, starting with a book that just tickles me: Flip-O-Saurus, by Sara Ball. This oversize, cut-page board book invites young readers to mix and match the heads, bodies, and tails of ten dinosaurs to create their own imaginary creatures, such as the Tryannononytops or the Trisaurex. Loads of fun.

We've talked about several wonderful picture books recently; they would all make great gifts. Check those blog posts out here and here. Another favorite with younger readers is the Five Little Monkeys series, by Eileen Christelow. Now we have a set of five little monkey finger puppets to go along with any of those books!

Little girls (say, 5 to 8), seem to go crazy over pink, and especially over the Pinkalicious books by Victoria Kann. How about a boxed "Perfectly Pink Collection," with three books, dozens of stickers, a color-it-yourself poster, and three double-sided crayons for one of the youngsters in your world?

In the middle reader age group (roughly 8 to 12), it's an embarrassment of riches! The latest installment of the wildly popular Wimpy Kid series is out (Diary of a Wimpy Kid: The Ugly Truth), and Rick Riordan just seems to keep putting out wonderfully entertaining mythology-based series, with the Percy Jackson and the Olympians series, the newly launched second Camp Half Blood series, The Heroes of Olympus, and the Egyptian-mythology-based series The Kane Chronicles. I also think his 39 Clues series is just terrific. (Personally, I ignore all the cards and on-line stuff; the books hold together just fine by themselves.)

We've got all sorts of books to recommend for this age group, for girls or boys, eager readers or less passionate ones -- just ask us!


Something new this year I'm pretty excited about is Potato Chip Science, by A. Kurzweil & Son, which comes packaged in, you might have guessed, what looks to be a bag of potato chips! The package includes a 96-page book that instructs the reader on 29 incredible experiments (exploring physics, biology, chemistry, and earth science) as well as a variety of accompanying supplies, such as a potato propulsion pipe, a spud-powered clock, and googly eyes -- gotta have googly eyes to do science!

We've got board books and picture books and chapter books, short books and long books -- and even a few tall books! We have dictionaries and atlases designed for kids, books about horses and space and sports and dinosaurs and animals, and, well, the world! We even have a kid's version of Bill Bryson's terrific book A Short History of Nearly Everything. Oh, and did I mention all things Star Wars??

We've got pop-up books to amuse and amaze all ages -- Peter Pan, Harry Potter, The Little Prince, The Wizard of Oz, The Little Prince, and The Very Hungry Caterpillar, about shoes and dinosaurs and superheroes and animals and planets and the alphabet and more!

We've got the classics and our favorites -- from this year and past years. We'd love to be your personal shoppers as you search for just the right gifts for the kids in your life. We're here for you!