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.

[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. :-)

[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.

[fmanalyst.livejournal.com]

How about Sarah Rees Brennan's Team Human?

[badnoodles.livejournal.com]

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

[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.

[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.

[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.