Mumsnet Talk

Dd1 likes books, writing and her DS. She has loads of games , we are getting over run with books and there is a limit to how many pens and papers we can have.

I have bought her craft sets which sit on the shelves for months and we have quite a few board games.

Absolutely no idea what to get her!and she also has a birthday in December!

What type of books does she like?

As a bookworm myself I belive you can never have TOO MANY books,though I do recycle them to charity shops except bookcase loaded with favourites.

ipod with i-tunes credit

digital camera

box of craft things - special pens, origami paper and how-to book, notebooks, paints, brushes, gluesticks, card-making bits and bobs, etc

knitting needles and wool

birdfeeder, birdseed, birdbook and binoculars

Tickets to something special - lion king theatre show, cirque de soleil, etc

roller blades, helmet, kneepads and wrist guards

I beleived that until now but we are actually running out of space. dd1,dd2 and I can all read a normal paperback in under 2 hours so we go through quite a lot.

She is into horrible histories (also has maths,science etc), jaqueline wilson( has all the ones we will let her!) famous five, secret 7 , lately she is reading Nancy Drew which I'm getting off ebay. We have all the Michael Morpungo, Harry Potter, Roman Mysteries,Narnia, Doctor Who , Artemis Fowl,Phillip Pullman. She has read some Terry Pratchett and we have loads between us.
Loads of the books are signed and/or firsts.

So I think books have to take a back seat although there will be some in her stocking!

I debated the itunes thing , not sure how much she'd use it. She has a camera, something else she doesnt use.

I know her Dad is getting her tickets for a show so cant pinch that as he does it every year.My Mum is taking her on a shopping trip for her birthday so I cant even do the new boots/dress etc!

Knitting is a good idea, she is doing it at school and we lost the old ones in the house move.

I cant decide if she has too much or wants too little!

dd2 wants everything but again when it comes down to it all she wants to do is play with her books (bloody fairy things)

Radio for her room?

Redecorate her room with new paint, curtains, duvet, sheets, etc.

Has she read any Rosemary Sutcliffe books?I loved these age 10 (Actually,I still do!Historical fiction for children.I was a bit geeky as a child, but she is a fabulous writer)Maybe a good stocking filler,anyhow.

What about an E-book???

Already done that this year! Just moved house & had a clear out (hence me realising how much crapunwanted presents we have had over the years)

Sorry dont mean to be blunt , I decorated her room at the old house and got loads of fancy stuff for the room then so it is something she would like, just not at the moment.

Does anyone else feel that buying at Christmas gets a bit pointless?

Sounds like a little girl after my own heart - I was exactly the same when I was younger.

This is beautiful - my mum bought it for my niece recently and there is lots to do in it , especially for a girl who loves to read and write.

This to record all the books she reads

I know these are books but they are activity kind of books.

A new bookcase/bookshelf!

A really nice pen/italic pen set and a diary

Oh absolutely N. My boys have never had really specific, keen, desperate requests for Christmas. for the past few years ds1 (12) has struggled to write a list at all, so he's ended up with cash from relatives, and he hasn't spent it!

Mine are getting tickets to RnJ in Stratford as one of their presents!

I haven't bought ds2 anything at all yet and we're racking our brains as to what to get!

My dds have virtually nothing on their lists this year and dd2 is also refusing to read at the moment: clearly no child of mine!

Things they have had in the past and loved include -

- those tiny clip on book lights
- really lovely journals and notebooks
- have you got Pass The Bomb? It is mad but v good for word-lovers.
- origami paper - dd2 had a massive binge on this, especially if you get an ideas book too. Muji sell the paper.
- those doodle books you can get where they complete the pictures
- really good quality felt tips and water colour pencils etc

Ooh some ideas here . Not sure there will be a main present but that's ok isn't it!

I'm going to stick with books.

Joan Aiken (particularly the stories, Necklace of Raindrops etc but also Black Hearts in Battersea)
Molesworth
Susanna of the Mounties, Susanna of the Yukon and Susanna at School
Anne of Green Gables
The School at the Chalet
101 Dalmations and The Twilight Barking

Take her to the theatre for her birthday?

sorry hadn't read that the theatre's covered.

puffin post subscription?

red house have £5 off code

Sounds like she likes fantasy books e.g. Pratchett, Rowling, Pullman etc. As an avid bookworm myself I would suggest trying her on William Nicholson (he wrote Gladiators but also has written two trilogies for children), Garth Nix (several amazing series of books) and Rick Riordan. Also the Angie Sage serie about Septimus Heap are fab.

You can also get 100 classic novels for the DS so she could combine her love of reading with her ds.

Oh I we have all the chalet books choosy and I got dd st clares and mallory towers too.

Think the fantasy thing is my influence I tend towards fantasy when I look at kids books , strange cos the adult stuff doesn't interest me!

get her a WHSmiths voucher

It was the only thing ever guaranteed to please me

choosy, thanks to you I've just learned that there are four Susannah books - glad that I've not lost my copy of the first as even that is really hard to buy secondhand though. I don't really want to pay huge sums for replacement copies of my children's books, there are too many I need to have that have gone missing.

I also love Joan Aiken and have just bought the last two books about Simon and Dido that she wrote before she died, the collected stories about the Armitage family new, and 3 of her later short story collections secondhand. Oops.

I get very easily side tracked on ebay & Abe buyinglooking at books!

Subscription to a magazine she likes? Or something like sponsorship of an animal, which includes regular updates? they always seem to like getting their own stuff through the post at that sort of age, and it means the present lasts a bit longer. My DS loved having "his" snake to visit at the zoo, but there are also organisations that let you sponsor a dolphin/penguin/dog or whatever.

Or amazon vouchers.

William N wrote the Windsinger series I think, which is fantastic.

Ooh yes - we did owl sponsorship at around that age too.

Ally's world books by Karen McCombie my daughter is a real bookworm and loved them at that age.

www5.scholastic.co.uk/zone/book_allys-world.htm