READY FOR AWESOME, YOU GUYS?!

[telophase]

Right! So once again my workplace is doing the Secret Santa thing for the Alliance for Kids, which is where they deliver a bunch of cards to us, each one with a kid's name, age, clothing size, and gift wishes, and we pick one or two and buy a few gifts and hand them over. The parents/guardians wrap them and give them to the kids. (These are kids who are in the system somehow, often because they're escaping from abusive situations.)

Anyway, nobody wanted video games this year, but these are the two I picked. I'll need suggestions from you guys! (They're not related this time. I think I picked sisters last time.)

Note, these are not their real names. The AFC people assign them these names for anonymity.

MADISON. Madison is 9 years old, and her wish list is, and I quote: "Science, Legos, arts & crafts, books." SCIENCE! AWESOME! I'll have to shop around and see what I can get her that involves science. Possibly some good science-related books? Parents of science-interested 9-year-olds: what books and other toys do your kids like?

MARIA. Maria is 13, and wants "Anything Twilight" and books. Yes, yes, I know, Twilight. I will probably purchase her something Twilight-related that is small and is not the books, as I assume she's already read them. What I would like to do also is get her BOOKS BOOKS BOOKS that are BETTER THAN TWILIGHT. What would YOU recommend for a 13-year-old Twihard that doesn't have the skeevy relationship dynamics, but still might speak to her id in the same sort of way that Twilight does? Vampires & werewolves a bonus, as I have no idea if she's Team Edward or Team Jacob (or, perhaps (if only), Team Bella).

Comments

[yhlee]

For Madison: I am not sure if the reading level matches up exactly, but my sister got the lizard The First Human Body Encyclopedia last year and she adores it and rereads it to this day. If you can find them, the Zoobooks series is also awesome for animal-lovers; I got the lizard something like 30 of the things used and she read them to pieces.

[telophase]

Cool, thanks! Looking on Amazon, it seems I might be able to get a bunch of used Zoobooks cheaply, and so give her a set. Assuming the sellers don't sell used library books without marking them as such (my bane in Amazon resellers!).

tangent

[yhlee]

Funny story: Joe got jealous that the lizard was all into this life sciences thing, so I did buy the lizard a children's book on engineering and how things work and stuff, and she just never had any interest in reading it. There must be some life science gene from my side of the family (doctors/dentists/surgeons plus a high school bio teacher), even if it skipped me!

Re: tangent

[telophase]

Hee!

I was interested in astronomy from waaaay back, until I collided with middle-school math and it fell away, but I also remember reading a nonfiction book from the library over and over again that was about science museums. Can't remember the title other than it had a rhyme with "bones," possible "dinosaur bones" in it. (Maybe "stones".) At any rate, a quick trawl through Amazon is not pulling it up. Several other rhyming titles in the same vein, but none from the 1970s, which is when this book would have been published.

[yhlee]

Wait! I do have a possible rec for Maria, although full disclosure, the author is a friend of mine. Fang Girl by Helen Keeble. It pokes affectionate fun at some of the vampire tropes (and I do mean affectionate--Helen is a Twilight fan herself) while being a great romp in its own right. Vampires with romance elements, I don't recall any werewolves. It's a very fast read if you want to check it over yourself first. I really loved it. :-)

[telophase]

She's on my f-list and it's something I've thought about trying, but had (temporarily!) forgotten about. Sounds like a good plan, thanks! :D

(I like the idea that it's affectionate fun, so it wouldn't be like I was denigrating Maria's fandom!)

[yhlee]

For something from the opposite direction, I think L.J. Smith's Vampire Diaries books (the first four; I hear the follow-ups are dire but haven't read them myself) are back in print since they made a (still-running) TV show of it. So the Vampire Diaries books play the vampire stuff much more straight-on, but what is interesting is that the heroine is very unusual: she's extremely proud, prickly, goes after what she wants--she's definitely the dominating figure of the books and she is not in the least someone who waits around to be rescued. The books were written (I think) in the 1980s or something, but still, they're pretty cracky in a fun way. I think this review is pretty fair as an assessment, although I kind of liked Elena for her strength of will and the reviewer didn't like her because she wasn't "nice" enough. At the least, it would offer your giftee some variety in her vampire story heroines.

[telophase]

Thanks! :D

[helen_keeble]

Hee, I was about to blow my own horn, but Yoon has already done it. *grin* Yeah, the protagonist of FANG GIRL is a cool, sensible, sarcastic Twihard - part of my purpose in writing the book was to gently poke fun at some vampire cliches without mocking people who like them (like myself!). I've had some nice comments back from 13-year-old readers, too!

Other recommendations: TEAM HUMAN by Sarah Rees Brennan (another humorous look at the vampire genre), THE DEMON'S LEXICON also by Brennan, MARKED by P.C. Cast (vampire boarding school), I'D TELL YOU I LOVE YOU BUT THEN I'D HAVE TO KILL YOU by Ally Carter (not paranormal, but great all-girl spy-school hijinks),... er, I was about to recommend Cassandra Claire's CITY OF BONES, but it's big enough that she's probably already read it (particularly with the movie coming out next year).

Thinking a little broader, what about Terry Pratchett? THE WEE FREE MEN is a good YA intro to Discworld.

[telophase]

Awesome, it sounds perfect! :) Thanks for recs, too!

[green_knight]

I don't suppose there's a lego science set? Or something along those lines where you get to set up your own experiments/circuits?

For Maria, Maggie Stiefvater's Scorpio Races. It has reminders that monstrous beings are dangerous, and the relationship is a whole lot healthier.

[telophase]

I got a suggestion on LJ for Klutz Press, which I found has a Lego Crazy Action Contraptions set. A bit more engineering than science, but still looks like it might suit.

Thanks!

[skalja]

I was actually coming here to see if someone had recommended Klutz press yet, because they have a lot of crafting AND science books. Sadly, looks like they've discontinued the Exploratorium book of my childhood which had all kinds of easy to do science experiments.

[fmanalyst.livejournal.com]

How about Sarah Rees Brennan's Team Human?

[telophase.livejournal.com]

Oooh, nice one! Thanks!

[badnoodles.livejournal.com]

I don't have any any particular suggestions, but Madison sounds eerily similar to myself at that age.

[telophase.livejournal.com]

If you replace "science" with, specifically, "astronomy," then she sounds like me! Well, I think I'd started losing my interest in Legos at that point, but hey.

[lady-ganesh.livejournal.com]

The new girly Legos have come under some criticism for being, well, deliberately girly, but they're actually pretty fun. There's still a lot of building involved--my kid spent about three days, some with friends, putting the big Lego house together my mom got her for her birthday.

[cschells.livejournal.com]

I haven't ordered from there before, but my kids are going crazy over the Mindware catalog (mindware.com, apparently). Lots of cool science kits, etc. For books, Kelley Armstrong's teen/young adult series? Also, our daughter likes the Maximum Ride and Alex Rider series right now.

[telophase.livejournal.com]

Cool, thanks!

[rachelmanija.livejournal.com]

I think Maria would enjoy LJ Smith. Vampire Diaries is obvious, but I bet she'd also love The Secret Circle or one of the Night World volumes. The latter are loosely connected but can be read independently; I'd start her with volume 1, though. They are similar in subject and style to Twilight, but with way scrappier female characters.

For Madison, try When You Reach Me, by Rebecca Stead. It's a middle-grade time-travel story that handles the paradoxes very cleverly; I think it would appeal to logically-minded kids. It's also really funny and well-written.

[telophase.livejournal.com]

Noted, thanks! :D

from /friendsfriends

[boosette.livejournal.com]

For Madison, http://www.sciplus.com/ American Science Surplus is a beauty and joy forever. -- check out the Adult & Kids Toys, Arts & Crafts, and Kits & Models sections. When I was 9, magnets were my kryptonite. As was basically anything from Klutz Press (http://www.klutz.com/). K'Nex or Erector set will probably entertain her longer than LEGO, and Hexbugs could be good if she's got an interest in robotics.

For Maria, I would turn to Monstrous Regiment for starter Pratchett, and I think that Meredith Anne Pierce's Darkangel Trilogy will both feed her id now and grows with her going forward. Likewise the Abhorsen trilogy: Sabriel might hit the romance buttons, Lirael and Abhorsen the I-am-so-alone-no-one-loves-me-despite-evidence-to-the-contrary-I-will-never-fit-in and found family buttons. She might also like Anne McCaffrey, although a lot of her stuff has some of the same wacky gender roles you find in Twilight, except more up-front and center. Of the Den of Shadows series by Amelia Atwater-Rhodes, I've only read the first book, but its heroine is a world more empowered and self-sufficient than Bella is.

Also, I can't speak for the content, but Stephenie Meyer's Host is actually supposed to be a world better than the Twilight series and might be worth investigating.

Re: from /friendsfriends

[telophase.livejournal.com]

Awesome, thank you! (I see Klutz Press has a Lego Crazy Action Contraptions that might fit the bill!)

Re: from /friendsfriends

[lady-ganesh.livejournal.com]

Yeah, my kid loved magnets at 9. She was always extra-fond of anything she could make - if she had something at the end of it, crystals or whatever, it was even better.

[riofriotex.livejournal.com]

Second the recommendation on When You Reach Me. It won the Newbery a few years ago, and has references throughout to another Newbery winner, A Wrinkle in Time.

[boosette.livejournal.com]

I CAN reply to the correct place in a thread! I CAN!

[meganbmoore.livejournal.com]

Another for Team Human (I enjoyed it but thought that it started out deconstructing and criticizing certain aspects of the genre, but then ending up feeling more like it was criticizing people who criticized, but that may just be me and I doubt a 13 year old will care) and LJ Smith. I'd start her with Secret Circle and Nightworld too. I'm VERY partial to The Forbidden Game, too.

Cassandra Clare's The Mortal Instruments books, while having their fair share of problems, will probably appeal to her in a similar fashion as Twilight, and are generally less iffy. The heroine gets to take a more active role in the superheroing early on, her mother ends up central to the plot, and it has some female friendships, though they (sadly) take a while to get going. They're adapting the series for movies now, so it's possible its already starting to cross her path anyway.