Christmas Gift Ideas

Well, it's that season again. Whatever holiday you celebrate, chances are you're trolling the malls thinking of what to buy for the multitudes of people on your list. Year after year, my Christmas shopping trips have always included trips to the bookstore chains and independent booksellers in my area to purchase gifts for my family and friends. Most of the people in our family adore books, so they're always appreciated at Christmas, even by my not-always-nuts-about-books teenage nephews. A lot of parents I find would love to buy books for their kids but have no clue where to start and what to buy that they'll actually read. Well, hopefully these lists will be a starting point. I'll even throw in a few that have crossed age limits and wowed the adults as well as kids. These lists are by no means comprehensive, but they'll give you some good ideas.




Kids Under 9
The Magic Treehouse series - Mary Pope Osbourne
Nim's Island - Wendy Orr
Geronimo Stilton series - Geronimo Stilton
Rainbow Magic Fairies series - Daisy Meadows
Junie B. Jones series - Barbara Park




Kids 9 to 12
The Diary of a Wimpy Kid series - Jeff Kinney
Percy Jackson and the Olympians series - Rick Riordan
Septimus Heap series - Angie Sage
The City of Ember - Jeanne DuPrau
Inkheart - Cornelia Funke
The Thief Lord - Cornelia Funke
The Black Book of Secrets - F.E. Higgins
The Island Trilogy - Gordon Korman
Elijah of Buxton - Christopher Paul Curtis
The 39 Clues series - various authors
Bone graphic novel series - Jeff Smith
anything by Debora Ellis
anything by Eric Walters




Teens
The Hunger Games - Suzanne Collins
The Mortal Instruments series - Cassandra Clare
The Secrets of the Immortal Nicholas Flamel series - Michael Scott
The Book Thief - Markus Zusak
Uglies - Scott Westerfeld
How I Live Now - Meg Rosoff
Thirteen Reasons Why - Jay Asher
Speak - Laurie Halse Anderson




For Adults and Kids:
The Dangerous Book for Boys - Conn & Hal Iggulden
The Daring Book for Girls - Andrea J. Buchanan & Miriam Peskowitz