Book gift ideas needed for: 13yo girl; two 8yo boys; 15yo boy

[franch]

No idea of the interests of 13yo niece so will have to play ultra-safe ...

8yo boys: one into gymnastics, very bright; the other into singing and superheroes ... (Bought The Dangerous Book for Boys for the former's birthday which was a big hit)

15yo boy: seriously into cars and football (Arsenal)

13yo girls I can't do. Nor 15yo boys.

8yo boys: does the one who liked Dangerous Book for Boys have Pick Me Up? It's similarly crammed with info but also does rather special & original things from the presentation/design/graphics angle. (Ds (who is 8.5) dreamt a computer game version of it last night.) Fiction: Mark Haddon's Agent Z books; Philip Reeve's Larklight and its new sequel; for not quite so advanced readers Varjak Paw and Josh Doder's Grk books.

My ds has recently discovered Jennings and (ecstatically) Molesworth - but those need a taste for old-fashionedness & might not appeal to a superhero fan. For Christmas I think I will give him A Wrinkle in Time - I think he should be having a bit of classic sci-fi now.

Or there is the old standby of the Guinness Book of Records.

You could play it safe with book vouchers.

I agree with Cristina.

My boys are keen readers and would be delighted with book tokens. Unless you knew them and their reading habits extremely well, they would probably be disappointed with a book you chose for them.

But I would also check that book tokens would be appreciated, as they won't be by all teenagers.

Many thanks Bink - good ideas. Vouchers not appreciated by the 8yo's; if I can't think of anything for the 15yo boy I'll get DH to choose him something football-related; I can always find non-book things for girls, but had just decided to get books for everyone this year!

I found something called Urgum the Axe Man in the library the other day, which ds is enjoying.

Could be a good present for the superhero-y 8yo, as it seems quite rollicking & not especially profound. Poskitt has also written something which claims to be a History of Pants, plus he's the author of the really very good (and actually very profound, under a flippant surface) series of Murderous Maths books (part of the Horrible History etc. franchise).

Excellent - sounds perfect bink - thanks

Try 'MacB' by Neil Arksey. It's a take on Macbeth, but about a football team. Should be the right age for a 15 year-old.

Sounds great MissM!