Gifts for girls

Girls can be hard to buy for. They're picky! We're picky - us girls. Here are some things to think about when you're buying for girls.




Is she an animal lover?
Korgi by Christian Slade. For anyone age maybe 5 or 6 and up, up, up. Wordless, but not toothless. Unbelievably adorable little corgi dog and his girl (who has wings but I wouldn't call her a fairy) get into trouble with monsters and squidlike aliens and scrap their way out. Black and white, but that doesn't seem to be a problem with this title. And Korgi Book 2 is even better than the first.




Does she like action?
Rapunzel's Revenge by three Hales. Mmm, call this 10 and up. There are bullets and a hint of romance. Also wit. And BEAUTIFUL, detailed color art. I think this is one of the best graphic novels of the year.

The Lost Island of Tamarindby Nadia Aguilar. Age 10 and up. Reviewed earlier.




Any interest in cooking?
The Spatulatta Cookbook. Age 7 and up, but you might be able to push it younger if there is an interested grownup in the house. This is last year's excellent cookbook for kids, but nothing this year tops it. It's two sisters doing the cooking, and they're in most of the pictures, fooling around, demonstrating, having a good time. It's spiral bound, which is so great for cookbooks. And the pictures make the food look appetizing, not weird. The best kid cookbook I've seen this year is Southern Living Kids Cookbook, which kind of surprised me.




Into mysteries?
Ottoline and the Yellow Cat by Chris Riddell. Age 7 and up. Heavily illustrated, this is kind of a bridge book between First Chapter type books and regular chapter books. A lot of the clues are in the crinkly, detailed pictures, which is super fun.

The Far-Flung Adventures series by Paul Stewart and Chris Riddell. Age 9 and up. Not as heavily illustrated, super sense of humor. I know an entire class of seven year olds who pushed their reading ability so that they could read one of these books together, and they all loved it.

The 39 Clues. Age 9 and up. Ok ok it's gimmicky as all get-out, with the cards, and the online thing, and the actual prizes, but kids are lapping it up and the authors that are participating are first-rate. Plus the characters are interesting and strongly-written, and the plot is respectably labyrinthine.




Is she curious about the world?
What the World Eats. From the team that brought us Material World: A Global Family Portrait back in 1995 - you know, the book that showed families all over the world in their houses, and with all their stuff brought outside for a picture? Holy crap, we should do that with our house, and see what we can leave out on the curb. But anyway. The new book has the same lush, colorful, giant pictures, the same potent juxtapositions, and results in the same sense of insight about wealth, and health, and opportunity.




And once those insights have been attained, there's Give a Goat, a picture book for kids maybe first grade and up that's all about Heifer International. The kid in the book organizes his class to raise money so that they can purchase a goat via Heifer. Touches on teamwork, responsibility, compassion, arithmetic, and economics. A terrific accompanying gift if you yourself give flocks of chicks for the holidays.

Oh, you've got a teen girl to buy for?
Sorry, you're screwed. Can't make a teen happy. Amazon gift card, baby. That way, if she spends it on The Twilight Saga: Slipcased, you don't have to know about it.

Ahem. Did you really think I was going to leave you in the lurch like that? Naw... here are just a couple ideas for teenage girls.

Crafty crafter?


Get her to make me one of those mohawk hats, will ya?


Not so adeptly crafty, and not as much of an anarchist?


Cute but not kawaii.


Writer?


Ignore the stupid title, this one is an excellent how-to for self-expression, covering technical aspects as well as inspiration.


Artist?


Buy her art supplies, but throw in this one for inspiration.


I'd be tempted to buy actress/mathematician Danica McKellar's new book, Kiss My Math: Showing Pre-Algebra Who's Boss, for a middle school or teen girl, but I'd be afraid it'd look like I was being all preachy. If you can get away with it, you should. The book is legitimately funny and helpful and hard to put down! Who'd'a guessed?

And if she sometimes feels the pressure:


It's wonderful. It's a year in the life of several high school students in Chicago - it's like a reality show with a writer.

Stay tuned for the boy books.
Your pal,
your neighborhood librarian

Wonder Bear by Tao Nyeu - review

Wonder Bear by Tao Nyeu
I'm not usually sucked in by the wordless beautiful magical dream journey type of picture book. I'm one of the few people I know who wasn't entranced by The House in the Night. Imagine a Night leaves me worse than cold. And I seem to remember some kind of flying magic bed book that made me actually groan.

But man, I love Wonder Bear. I love the wordless narrative - so simple that even a five-year-old can follow and predict, yet so subtle that his older brother will find repetitions and clues to the dream logic at work.



I love the technique - Tao Nyeu does some neat things with layering colors in her silk screen prints; I love the colors, and I love the style. The bulbous shapes, repeating patterns, and swirly clouds make me think of Central Asian and Siberian embroidery: simple shapes that gain strength through repetition. I'm totally going to steal some of her tree shapes for my niece's baby blanket.

This book has been given the high-class treatment by Dial. Lush, toothy paper, large size, and a dust jacket that is not merely a repeat of the book's cover. You can tell that someone on Hudson Street thinks this book is something special. For once, I really have to agree.

Plus: MONKEYS!

South by Patrick McDonnell - review

South by Patrick McDonnell
The first two-page spread of this gorgeous little picture book made me catch my breath. On the left we see the top half of a tree, bare of leaves and full of little yellow birds, all looking in the same direction and each with a pair of eighth-notes hanging in the air overhead. On the right, it's the same view of the same tree, and all the birds are on the wing and flying out of sight. So minimal, but you can feel the chill in the air, hear their wings, see them fly.

The rest of the book is just as expressive, just as minimal, and displays, in a way that is probably difficult to discern in a tiny newspaper strip, just how good Patrick McDonnell, the creator of Mutts, is with a brush. Big hearts come in small packages sometimes.

Would make a lovely thank-you gift for a friend who has helped when you were in a jam, a talented teacher, or someone who has just pointed you on your way. I'll have to remember this one at the end of the school year.

It's been a very good year - gifts for teachers

Now, I'm not saying there's anything wrong with the Target gift card. God knows she can use it. A Staples gift card works too, or one from Amazon (heh heh). But in our family, we always give a book. Each of the books on this list works well as a tribute to the man or woman who has sacrificed economic prosperity (and probably his or her immune system) so that your child's mind may have been properly cared for and nurtured this year.



Ms. MacDonald Has a Class by Jan Ormerod
Just what it sounds like, a reworking of "Old MacDonald" set in the classroom, with happy children dancing and creating and taking a field trip to a farm. Anyone who likes kids (as teachers, we hope, do) will enjoy Jan Ormerod's beautiful, spunky, active drawings of the multicultural kindergarten kids.




How the Tiny People Grew Tall by Nancy Wood
I came across this "original creation tale" in Daedalus Books - I don't think it's in our library. The title makes it an obvious choice as a gift for those brave individuals whose job it is to foster the intellectual development of our children, so I was kind of expecting a tiresome hammer-and-nails fable. But when I opened it up, I was pleasantly surprised to find an entertaining, thought-provoking, good-looking story about how new experiences and generous guides create brave, thoughtful, resourceful, smart people. A sparkling, clever, good-hearted gift - not too much text for kindergartners, enough to think about for maybe up to 4th or 5th grade.




I Will Make Miracles by Susie Morgenstern, illustrated by Jiang Hong Chen
Reviewed by me earlier, this book is a sumptuous gift. Not that expensive, but large and wide, it's a slab of toothy board saturated with deep inky color. A pleasure to hold. And as a gift, it's not just about the miracles the child might accomplish, but it's also a tribute to the incremental miracles that the teacher performs with every kid, every year. I'm hoping to get a tear out of the first grade teacher with this one.




To Be Like the Sun by Susan Marie Swanson and Margaret Chodos-Irvine
Reviewed earlier by me. The seed-flower metaphor is used (a lot) in the educational context, and I might hesitate to drag it out one more time, if it weren't for To be like the Sun. There is the potential encapsulated in the tiny seed, then there is the nurturing sun and rain and human helper, yeah yeah, but in To be like the Sun, we see the plant grow and produce its own seeds, which the little girl saves over the winter to plant in the spring.



Magic Beach by Crockett Johnson
An uncompleted manuscript by author of Harold and the Purple Crayon, Magic Beach has been published with all the pencil lines and erasures intact. It's a lovely story. Two bored little kids wander along the beach wishing they had a snack. They soon discover that they can conjure up whatever they want by writing its name in the sand - when the waves wash away the words, the words are replaced by the real thing.

This is strong stuff about possibility and dreams and actuation and the power of words. Suitable for teachers of upper grades, for graduates, as a wedding gift, and it's even a great book to read to kids.

The Amazing Spider-Man Pop-Up - review

Spider-Man pop-up, originally uploaded by your neighborhood librarian.

I got two words for you, and for my little boys, and for every little boy everywhere: "The Amazing Spider-Man Pop-Up: Marvel True Believers Retro Collection". Well, obviously, that's about 40 words - trust Marvel to never call something "Spider-Man Pop-Up" when it could be called The Amazing Spider-Man Pop-Up: Marvel True Believers Retro Collection. Sheesh. There's never been a comic book reader born that has not cursed Marvel at one time or another.

The book is not that fantastic, as pop-ups go, but it is packed with (recycled) content and mini stories. Plus, the subject matter alone has made it an object of worship in my house.

And it's not my sloppy camera work - the thing really is a trapezoid and not a rectangle.