Holiday Gift Guide: Books for Kids

I recently took my two sons to Barnes & Noble to browse for books that they wanted as holiday gifts. I had already picked my top 15 overall gift book picks for young kids (newborns to tweens), but I wanted to see what all of the kids in the store were gravitating towards also. The bookstore was packed and I must say that the books that I had picked were very popular.

Books are wonderful gift options for kids. Every few months, the kids and I go through their clothes, toys and books to see what to keep, throw away or give to charity. The things that they have held on to the most adamantly tend to be their books, because they get emotional attachments to the books that they constantly read…or that were constantly read to them. In any event, I always say that the best way to raise a kid who loves to read is to surround them with books that they actually want to read or to have read to them. Below are my top picks for 2012:

Ages 1+

1. Love You Forever by Robert Munsch (Author) and Sheila McGraw (Illustrator)

Ages 3+

2. Anna Dewdney’s Llama Llama books

3. Ian Falconer’s Olivia books

Ages 4+

4. H.A. Rey’s The Complete Adventures of Curious George: 70th Anniversary Edition

5. Fancy Nancy books by Jane O’Connor (Author) and Robin Preiss Glasser (Illustrator)

6. Maurice Sendak’s Where the Wild Things Are

Ages 5+

7. Victoria Kahn’s Pinkalicious picture book series

Ages 6+

8. Ivy & Bean series by Annie Barrows and Sophie Blackall


Ages 7+

9. Donald J. Sobol’s Encyclopedia Brown series

10. Judy Blume’s Fudge Box Set

Ages 8+

11. Jeff Kinney’s Diary of a Wimpy Kid series (Kids are especially excited about The Third Wheel (Diary of a Wimpy Kid, Book 7) that is scheduled to be released on November 13th.)

12. Magic Tree House series by Mary Pope Osborne and Sal Murdocca

Age 9+

13. Louise Fitzhugh’s Harriet the Spy books

14. J.K. Rowling’s Harry Potter series

Age 10+

15. Rick Riordan’s Percy Jackson and the Olympians, The Kane Chronicles and Heroes of Olympus

*Rick Riordan is my personal pick for “Children’s Author of the Year” (at the Coleman home)! Although my oldest son is only eight, he loves the Percy Jackson and the Olympians series of books and has asked for the boxed set for Christmas. (He has already read three of the books, but he has “decided” that he will donate the ones that he has already read.) Every year, there is an author that captures the imagination of my son in an amazing way. For my family, it was Jeff Kinney’s Diary of a Wimpy Kid series last year and J.K. Rowling’s Harry Potter series the year prior to that. I enjoy hearing all about each year’s pick. I especially like that my 8 year old knows (and has taught his 5 year old brother) more Greek mythology than I ever knew based on the Percy Jackson movie and book series. They even made a cute little “guess who” game based on the books. I couldn’t help but smile when I overheard them: “Is it a man or a woman?” “Is it a god, a demi-god or a mortal?”…

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