Our 2016 Christmas Gift Guide: What to buy for hard-to-buy-for children

Over the next few weeks, we’ll be compiling a host of gift guides to help you with your Christmas shopping. Here is a list of suggestions for the tricky young people in your life..


THEY DON’T LIKE READING


Is there anything more delightful than presenting a vehement non-reader with a bookish present? It can be done without tears, and here’s how.


Kids who won’t read

Teens who won’t read (for ages 12+)

  • Dan and Phil Go Outside – You probably don’t even need to know who these first-name-only internet-famous dudes are but we suspect your teenager does.
  • Gemina – This best-selling Australian sci-fi action thriller is composed of texts, IMs, logs, vlog transcriptions, illustrations and ground-breaking design. It’s guaranteed to keep the most attention-challenged teen occupied.
  • Life on Instagram – A visually splendid annual that features eye-opening Instragram images from all over the world, and will appeal to social-media-obsessed youngsters and photography buffs.
  • My Best Friend is a Goddess – This YA novel about two friends and an awkward crush situation has the rare combo of smarts and heart.
  • Drawing Funny – Arty types, gangsters and budding cartoonists will enjoy this tongue-in-cheek guide to drawing funny cartoons, even if they never pick up a black texta.
  • The Chaser’s Australia: The Chaser Quarterly Issue 4 – This bumper issue of The Chaser Quarterly will hit the spot if comedy, politics, pop culture and current affairs are of interest.

THEY’VE READ EVERYTHING


It should be a pleasure buying books for kids who adore reading, but what if they’re voracious speed-readers and have already read it all? We’ve risen to the challenge with lesser-known but great quality reading and fancypants editions.


Kids who’ve read everything

Teens who’ve read everything (for ages 12+)

  • Sarah J Maas has been consistently popular for the last few years, with her YA fantasy Throne of Glass and Court of Thorns and Roses series. Fans will gush over the beautiful new edition of Throne of Glass, or really any of her other new-look hardcover releases.
  • The Sun is Also a Star – Nicola Yoon’s Everything, Everything was a standout debut novel from last year, that possibly didn’t receive the full attention it deserved in Australia. While some eagle-eyed YA book nerds may have heard about the talented Yoon, chances are they haven’t picked up her latest yet.
  • Beck – The late Mal Peet is a bookseller’s favourite, a roguish author who wrote complex and ambitious books in approachable language, and who had the utmost respect for the depth and capability of young readers. Peet died before he finished this story, and so the novel is extra special. It’s been completed by fellow British author, Meg Rosoff.
  • The Graces – Recently published to some well-deserved hype, this is the coolest teen-witch read you could place in the hands of the coolest teen reader you know.
  • The Book that Made Me – Keen teen readers will love to hear from well-known authors about the role reading and books have played in their lives, and make new additions to their to-be-read piles.
  • Here I Stand – Politically conscious and socially aware readers will leap on this Amnesty International anthology featuring heavy-hitters like Neil Gaiman, Frances Hardinge, Sarah Crossan and Tony Birch.

THEY ARE OBSESSED WITH SPORT


If you manage to catch them, tackle them, take that racket/bat/ball out of their hands and sit them down in a comfy armchair, this is what you should give them.


Sporty kids

Sporty teens

  • The Crossover (Basketball) and Booked (Soccer) by Kwame Alexander – For ages 10+.
  • The Keeper by Mal Peet (Soccer) – For ages 13+.
  • Footy Dreaming by Michael Hyde (AFL) – For ages 12+.
  • Slam by Nick Hornby (Skateboarding) – For ages 12+.
  • Head of the River by Pip Harry (Rowing) – For ages 13+.
  • Ride by Lisa Glass (Surfing) – For ages 13+.

THEY WILL ONLY TOLERATE FACTS


Stories are boring? Hit them with facts! And infographics. And cross-sections, maps, statistics, lists, and so on, and so forth.


Fact-loving kids

Fact-loving teens (for ages 12+)


THEY ARE A CHILD GENIUS


It’s amazing that there are so many advanced, gifted children out there who read well above their age, and that they just so happen to all be members of your family… We’ve got plenty of sophisticated, challenging, thought-provoking, mind-expanding suggestions below.


Child genius

  • Rosie Revere, Engineer – For pre-school prodigies who are already demonstrating excellent spatial reasoning and a grasp of basic physics. For ages 3+.
  • Wormwood Mire: A Stella Montgomery Intrigue – For keen readers with sleuthing capabilities or interests. For ages 8+.
  • Adam Spencer’s Time Machine – This will appeal to those with a burgeoning passion for science and maths. For ages 8+.
  • When the Lyrebird Calls – An enchanting time-slip adventure for confident readers that explores Australian history, politics and suffragism. For ages 10+.
  • Dragonfly Song – A Bronze Age adventure for confident readers featuring an outcast girl who participates in a dangerous competition. For ages 9+.

Teen genius

  • The Bone Sparrow – An emotionally challenging and political read. For ages 13+.
  • My Sister Rosa – A sophisticated examination of psychopaths and sibling relationships. For ages 13+.
  • Symphony for the City of the Dead – It takes a special sort of teenager to read about the Siege of Leningrad and Shostakovich, but the right reader will be thrilled by this award-winning, impeccably-researched book. For ages 14+.
  • TED books – These nifty, pocket-sized books based on popular TED Talks cover every single known topic known to mankind. For ages 14+.
  • Queen of Katwe – The inspiring story of Ugandan woman, Phiona Mutesi, one of the world’s best young chess players. For ages 13+.
  • Selection Day – A 14-year-old player from Mumbai struggles to make it in the cutthroat world of Indian cricket in this satirical novel from the author of The White Tiger. For ages 15+.

THEY’RE JUST LEARNING TO READ


How wonderful – your little loved ones have made the leap into Big Books, but it’s still an effort to get through a story. These simple chapter books have a manageable amount of words on the page, and illustrations to keep things interesting.



THEY’RE TWEENS


They’re in anything from Grade 4 to Year 7, and inhabiting that murky zone of pre- and early- adolescence. Here are some books for the land between childhood and teenhood.



WHO ARE THEY, ANYWAY?


They are your boss’s kid, a next door neighbour, your distant relative twice removed, a Kris Kringle, a much-younger half-sibling or your secretive progeny – in short, they are a Mystery. Their tastes can only be guessed at, and their interests inaccurately divined….


Mysterious kids

Mysterious teens


Still stumped? We also offer a range of options for gift vouchers for use in-store and online.

Cover image for Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them: The Original Screenplay

Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them: The Original Screenplay

J. K. Rowling

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