I like books. No surprise, right? I like to buy books and I like to receive books as gifts and I really like to give books as well. Because I’m in the book reviewing biz, I can readily think of books for adults of all interests and children of all ages. But I know for some of you, it’s a little tougher. You might be a grandparent who knows what books your tween grandchild has enjoyed, but you don’t know where to go from there. You might be a parent with a child who has moved into a new age group, just as you were getting comfortable finding books that suited him or her at this age.
One of my favorite things about giving books is that they are so readily available. I can’t tell you how much of my Christmas business amazon gets — not just books, but toys and gadgets too. There’s nothing simpler. However, if you don’t want to mess with shipping, and like supporting local businesses, there are bookstores everywhere, and rarely is there a run on a favorite book, as so often happens with toys, leaving them unavailable.
Here are a few places you can go to find some recommendations, and I’d love to hear from you in the comments as well!
- We just ended our gift guide, where we were able to share some of the new products that we enjoyed previewing for you. We really do stand behind all of those products. The giveaways are all closed, but we still encourage you to check them out.
- I have found some gems among the Cybils-nominees that I am judging. Dawn has found some in her category too. We’ve been trying to post reviews here, but the Cybils site is a treasure-trove of information. It’s an open nomination process, so just because a book is on the list, doesn’t mean that it’s a great book, but if you look at all of the nominees by category (accessed by clicking through on the middle sidebar – 2010 nominees by genre). Any review that a panelist has posted for a particular title is available on that list, so you can get an idea of his or her thoughts on it.
- A group of Connecticut librarians puts together a gift list, to which I linked in my article about giving books for the holidays over at Monroe Patch. I also talked with a librarian who shares some of her own reasons that buying books is a wonderful thing.
- Dawn has a brand -new giveaway over at 5 Minutes for Mom today for the Classic Treasure of Childhood Wonders, and it sounds like an excellent gift idea.
- Pam at MotherReader has a treasure trove of posts labeled 105 Ways to Give a Book with all sorts of suggestions and ideas.
- The comment section — we want YOU to share some of your favorite ideas for books to give as gifts. They can be new books from this year, or old favorites.
Two words- Mo Willems. Seriously, you just can’t go wrong with a Mo book. Young children adore him (and lots of parents, too!).
Happy holiday book giving! 🙂
Yep–THREE Elephant and Piggie books are on that CT librarians lists, and I seconded that.
For the 4 and under crowd, I plan to give Corduroy and Chicka Chicka Boom Boom with ABC fabric letters. I hope.
The Unfinished Gift by Dan Walsh would be a great one for grown ups.
Chicka Chicka Boom Boom is a great book. Sounds like a great gift set.
I have lists at MotherReader.com for 105 Ways to Give a Book plus another 45 Ways to Give a Picture Book and Ways to Wrap a Book. All of these are ways to pair books – MotherReader approved selections – with something else to give for the holidays. I’d love it if you could share it with your readers.
I also have a great giveaway of 25 picture books, and not so very many entries if readers would like to enter to win one of two sets of books
Awesome Pam!! I’ve added it in to the list above.