Please help me choose a birthday present for an 8 year old boy!

[mummmmmy]

This may be the wrong area to start this thread (I've never started one before).

My nephew is visiting from the US and will be 8 next week. I'd like to get him a nice present but don't know what 8 year old boys generally like. The present will also have to be reasonably small as will have to be taken as luggage back to the states.

I don't get to see him very often so not exactly sure what he is into although I know he does like his nintendo DS (and any computer game I think) plus lego.

I'm seeing him tomorrow so any ideas today would be great!

Thankyou!

I have a nearly 8 year old DS :)

He likes Lego, non fiction books (likes a Deadly 60 one a lot), soft animals, pencils and paper, cars and his scooter and bike.

Thanks ThunderboltKid! I've been watching Deadly 60 on TV (am on mat leave with my 6 month old) and I forgot it was for children - will definitely look out for that book. I'd never thought of pencils and paper but that would be good for the plane journey also I guess.

Lego always a good one - maybe you could get him somehting british so he maynot have it???

Thinking about plane journey then probably not actual pieces of paper but some sort of book (could just be plain paper but held together IYSWIM). And maybe pencils like these although you can get ones that aren't crayola. There are many of them all over our house or so it feels .

The book that DS loves is this one - I now know a lot more about Deadly animals than I ever thought I would

Ah, thankyou! Will also have a look for some British lego.

Thanks again. Just back from the shops and got him some Lego that has an English bi-plane in it plus the deadly 60 book. The guy behind the counter in waterstones told me that his 8 year old son is also mad about the program and the book so I'm hoping, given the positive reviews, my nephew will like it!

Sounds great - I'm sure he will love both :)