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While we're talking of books - what books are you buying as gifts this year?


Hannah
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Mo Willems's Cat the Cat books for one nephew.

 

Dragonbreath and Frindle (ds picked them) for the other nephew.

 

A book about stop motion animation for ds.

 

The Elements for fil.

 

Fresh Every Day by Sara Foster for my dad and his wife (it's a cookbook).

 

And shockingly that's it. Now that we read on devices, it's harder to gift as many books.

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Nothing specific. Just e-books for dd6s Nabi tablet.

 

I just bought dd15 a few books last month that she was wanting, so that will keep her for a while. I have made the mistake before of buying books for her based on current interest and they sat unread when her interest changed. I try to not buy ahead for her anymore.

 

Ds18 doesn't really read for pleasure anymore. He pretty much only reads the Bible (30+ minutes each day) or books for college. We have at least 100 books within arms reach for him that he hasn't read, so I don't buy for him any more either.

 

DD6 doesn't like paper books. That is why we are doing e-reader books instead to see if she will 'click' with those instead.

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None!!! I did a purge over the summer and books were a huge part of it. Sorry! I just couldn't handle the number of books in my house! We all have ereaders and love them. So, I uploaded our favorites onto them and got rid of the paper copy. We kept one bookshelf for the entire family. Each child has his/her own shelf with books too. That's IT!!!

 

I'm not adding any more!!!

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The Norumbegan Quartet by MT Anderson for ds12

Among the Hidden by Margaret Haddix for ds10

The Call of the Cthulhu and Other Weird Stories by HP Lovecraft for ds14

Chickens to the Rescue by John Himmelman and Beginning Birdwatcher's Book (with stickers) for ds8

 

DH gets Norwood by Charles Portis. We enjoyed True Grit this year together.

 

Nephew (12) gets Tape It & Make It: 101 Duct Tape Activities and an ebook on duct tape weapons.

 

 

 

Can I ask, what stop motion book did you get?

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For Great Girl:

Postman, Amusing Ourselves to Death

Burgess, A Clockwork Orange

Tolstoy, Anna Karenina

Grimm, Selected Folktales/AusgewĂƒÂ¤hlte MĂƒÂ¤rchen

 

For Middle Girl:

Picard, German Hero-Sagas and Folk Tales

Parker, The Human Body Book

 

For Wee Girl:

Anno, Anno's Flea Market

Anno, In Shadowland

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For one of my boys (mostly requested by them):

Genesis for Normal People

Republic of Fear

Human, All Too Human

Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus

I Will Bear Witness: A Diary of the Nazi Years, 1933-1941

Veeck -- As In Wreck

The Bill James Handbook 2013

Baseball Prospectus 2013 (pre-order)

Hubble: Imaging Space and Time

Infidel (Ali)

When Marina Abramovic Dies: A Biography

Rick Steve's Germany 2013

Rick Steve's Europe Through the Back Door 2013

Misquoting Jesus: The Story Behind Who Changed the Bible and Why

 

For DH:

Supervolcano: All Fall Down (Turtledove)

A Sea of Troubles (Donachie)

 

For DD:

Rosie's Bakery Chocolate-Packed Jam-Filled Butter-Rich No Holds Barred Cookie Book

 

For Me:

Alton Brown's Gear for Your Kitchen

Making Artisan Pasta

Control Unleashed

101 Dog Tricks

The Complete Photo Guide to Framing and Displaying Artwork

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For DS 1:

Mythology (Ology books)

Greek Alphabet Code Cracker

The Jungle Book

and a bunch of Beverly Cleary books

 

For DS 2 some books I picked up at Goodwill:

The Mitten Book

Harold and the Purple Crayon

Fish is Fish

The Important Book

Once a Mouse...

 

 

 

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For DD and my niece:

 

The Christmas Miracle of Jonathon Toomey

James Herriots' Treasury for Children

Green

Eyewitness Classics:A Christmas Carol

Farmer Boy

The Nutcracker with beautiful illustrations by Susan Jeffers

Extra Yarn

Willow

 

For my nephew:

 

A stack of those My Big Board Books - trucks, trains, animals, and maybe something else?

 

 

For BFF:

 

Fifty Shades of Earl Grey: A Parody

 

For my sisters:

 

A Catholic Woman's Book of Days

Bossypants (Tina Fey)

 

For my aunt:

 

Percy Jackson books

 

For DH:

 

A Feast of Fire and Ice: The official Game of Thrones Companion Cookbook

 

 

I love giving (and getting!) books for presents.

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DS is getting "Found" in his stocking and a Big Book of Cartooning along w/drawing pencils and a sketchpad as a gift. DD is getting Secret Letters from 0 to 10 in her stocking and EcoBeauty along with ingredients/jars/etc as a gift. DH gets the Farmer's Almanac in his stocking every year :)

 

For one of my nieces, duct tape and the Tape It and Make It book.

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The New Way Things Work by David Mcauley, DK's The Way Science Works, and The Number Devil for my eldest son.

 

Will, God's Mighty Warrior (and 2 other books from that series), 2 early reader books (one about sharks, one about armadillos), and Otis the Tractor for my youngest son.

 

Usborne's Starting Gardening for my niece.

 

I usually give books to everyone I buy for, but my other niece really needs clothes, and my nephew asked for WWII models to build, so I did those this year. If my 2 other nephews read, then I would buy them books, but they just want gift cards, so I give them something I know they will use. I've always given books in the past (aside from last year) and they never read them. I can't afford that - thankfully, they are beginning to pass them back to us for my eldest!

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I haven't finished shopping yet for 4 children ages 3-7

 

So far about 16 of Magic Treehouse Series

5 of My First Little House picture books

The Christmas Cookie Sprinkle Snitcher

Mr. Pine's Purple House

Minerva Louise on Christmas Eve

If you take a Mouse to the Movies

 

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The new Lemony Snicket

I Could Pee on This and Other Poems by Cats

four Discworld books

The Self Illusion

Big Questions From Little People

The Where the Why and the How: 75 Artists Illustrate the Wondrous Mysteries of Science

Some nice hardcover Oz books

 

 

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I find it hard to buy books for people I don't know very, very well, so it's just the immediate family this year. The kids each get one hardcover classic, plus a few extra books. DH is impossible to shop for.

DD:

Little Women

Jake and Lily, by Jerry Spinelli

The Mighty Miss Malone, by Christopher Paul Curtis

The Candy Shop War, by Brandon Mull

Messenger and Son, by Lois Lowry

 

DS:

Les Miserables

The Black Count, by Tom Reiss

New Boy, by Julian Houston

The Kill Order, by James Dashner

Don't Put Me In, Coach, by Mark Titus

The Forbidden Experiment, by Roger Shattuck

Savage Girls and Wild Boys, by Michael Newton

 

DNephew 18:

The Picture of Dorian Gray

The Other Normals, by Ned Vizzini

Dodger, by Terry Pratchett

Every Day, by David Levithan

 

DNephew 20:

The Godfather (we can count that as a classic, right?)

Roll Me Up and Smoke Me When I Die: Musings from the Road, by Willie Nelson (a future classic, I'm sure)

Guinness World Records 2013

 

DH:

Who I Am: A Memoir, by Pete Townshend

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Dd (14) is getting (either from us or relatives):

Daughter of Xanadu by Dori Jones Yang

Cleopatra's Moon by Vicky Alvear Shecter

Inuit Dolls by Eva Strickler

The Igloo by Charlotte Yue

Ultimate Horse Barns by Randy Leffingwell

Steampunk Gazette by Thomas Willeford

Trapped (Iron Druid Chronicles Book 5) by Kevin Hearne

Celtic Thunder by Angelli Perrow

The Stone Guide to Dog Grooming by Ben Stone

Gracelingand Fire, both by Kristin Cashore

 

Ds (11) is getting (either from us or relatives):

Cake Wrecks and Wreck the Halls, both by Jen Yates

The Mark of Athena by Rick Riordan

Mysterious Benedict Society set by Trenton Lee Stewart

The Floating Islands by Rachel Neumeier

How to Tell if your Cat is Plotting to Kill You by Matthew Inman

A Mutiny in Time and Divide and Conquer, both by James Dashner

 

Dh: one by Lee Child (can't remember what the title is right now)

 

Fil: The Cat's Table by Michael Ondaatje

 

Sister: The Wisdom of Psychopaths: What Saints, Spies, and Serial Killers Can Teach Us about Success by Kevin Dutton (she requested this one)

Let's Pretend This Never Happened by Jenny Lawson

 

Niece: The Girl Who Circumnavigated Fairyland in a Ship of her own Making by Catherynne Valente

 

Nephew: Mini Weapons of Mass Destruction 2: Build a Secret Agent Arsenal by John Austin

 

Dad: Grant and Sherman: The Friendship that Won the Civil War by Charles Bracelen Flood

 

Mom: Word Freak: Heartbreak, Triumph, Genius, and Obsession in the World of Competitive Scrabble Players by Stefan Fastis

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Dd 12 (by request):

Wolves of Mercy Falls trilogy by Maggie Stiefvater

Wreck this journal by Keri Smith

 

Dd 8:

Books from the 'Roman Mysteries' series by Caroline Lawrence.

and "Magic Unicorns" twaddle.

 

Dh is into WW II at the moment (he goes through historic phases), so I bought him some off his book list.

He's also getting a subscription to the BBC History Magazine.

 

MIL likes Joanne Trollope, so she's getting "The Other Family". She also wanted "Water for Elephants".

 

My parents are across the country and siblings live overseas, so we have a "only in the flesh" gift giving policy. We're not seeing them this year.

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I bought lots this year! We agreed to exchange books for gifts among our friends.

 

Uglies by Westebrook for a 13 yo

Danny Champion of the World by Dahl for an advanced 7yo and a 10 yo

How I Became a Pirate by Shannon for a 2 yo

The Paper Bag Princess by Munsch for a 3yo girl and 6 yo girl

 

The Wild Wood and The Downs by Julie Anne Nelson (my friend from high school, available at Amazon-shameless plug for a self-published author!) for my friend (the books are YA though)

 

My boys:

Sequel to the Maze Runner

The latest Diary of a Wimpy Kid

and a couple more that I'm forgetting because I already wrapped them!

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Dd 1- In the Garden of Beasts by Larson

The Blue Castle by L.M. Montgomery

Dd 2- The two most recent books in the "Lost" series by Haddix

Ds 1- Thunderstruck by Larson

The Martian Chronicles by Bradbury

Ds 2- The Hunger Games trilogy

Ds 3- The Mysterious Benedict Society

Book 3 of The Name of This Book is Secret series by Pseudonymous Bosch

Ds4 - A book about light sabers in Star Wars

A book about Houdini

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Ds is getting (if i can find them!) some Diary of a Zombie kid books. Very heavy reading you know.

 

Dd- i dont know. Maybe some guardians of ga'hool.

 

Any recommendations? Ds is not really reading, so I'm trying to spark some interest (I'm getting close to considering those inappropriate parodies like go the f to sleep. I'm getting desperate here!). Dd loves to read. I know she liked the first guardians book, and i just hope the rest are the same.

 

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Middle son is in Battle of the Books this year. I have bought most of the rest of his books and will let him unwrap them Sunday for his birthday, but honestly, they aren't really gifts, they are part of his curriculum. He also wanted the Heroes of Olympus set and I got 2 of them so far to wrap.

 

Books are kind of like clothing......we dont' give them often as gifts because we need them and just buy throughout the year.

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nephew (9)

Redwall

Mysterious Benedict Society

The Dragon of Lonely Island

David and the Phoenix

 

nephew (7)

Warriors

The Bookstore Mouse

If You Take a Mouse to the Movies with music CD

 

My dd wants the picture book I Don't Want to be a Pea. I'm hoping my parents picked it up for her.

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Ds is getting (if i can find them!) some Diary of a Zombie kid books. Very heavy reading you know.

 

Dd- i dont know. Maybe some guardians of ga'hool.

 

Any recommendations? Ds is not really reading, so I'm trying to spark some interest (I'm getting close to considering those inappropriate parodies like go the f to sleep. I'm getting desperate here!). Dd loves to read. I know she liked the first guardians book, and i just hope the rest are the same.

 

Dd8 took a while to 'get going' with reading. We did many audiobooks to wet her appetite for stories. A while back we got the first of the "Roman Mysteries' stories. I think we listened to two and then audible did not have the next audiobooks available to our country. We got the regular books and dd and I started buddy reading them - I did a couple of pages and then she did a few. I tried to stop at the cliffhanger parts so that left it up to her to continue reading to find out what happens.

It worked and she's a chapter book reader now!

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I ordered a whole pile of them for my 5&6yos.

 

Diary of a Wimpy Kid Do-It-Yourself Book - this was a special request; no idea why it seems so appealing!

Some math adventure storybooks

Completed the series that included my dd's "Purple Princess Saves the Day" (green princess, orange princess, etc.)

Some other series of first-grade girlie chapter books - Daisy or something

Some kiddy books on yoga, tai chi, and eastern wisdom

Space Case

A piano theory book

Probably some more I'm not remembering!

 

I also asked my sister to get my kid Harry Potter (book 1).

 

I don't really buy books for other people any more. It's too hard to know what they will like, that they don't already have.

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The new Lemony Snicket

I Could Pee on This and Other Poems by Cats

four Discworld books

The Self Illusion

Big Questions From Little People

The Where the Why and the How: 75 Artists Illustrate the Wondrous Mysteries of Science

Some nice hardcover Oz books

 

 

And I just found this for DD the Elder... it's right up her alley.

 

Medusa's Gaze and Vampire's Bite: The Science of Monsters

 

The author occasionally seems a bit too credulous (I wasn't impressed by his bit about Wade Davis and zombies during his Science Friday appearance; I'm hoping he's a bit more even handed in the book), but overall it sounds like a fun read.

 

I'm probably getting Barbara Comyn's Who was Changed and Who was Dead.

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Boo is getting Pippi Longstocking on Board and Ellen Tibbets.

 

She would have gotten Lisa and Lottie, but apparently it's out of print. :thumbdown: Also, it's too late now, but I just remembered this week that DH was talking to her about Choose Your Adventure books, too. So those will probably be for her birthday.

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DH is getting The Lord of the Rings (centenary edition)

 

DS is getting:

Seed by Seed: The life and legacy of John "Applessed" Chapman

The Long, Long Letter by Elizabeth Spurr

 

DD is getting:

At the Beach by Elizabeth Spurr (when it comes out in April)

Who's at Home: A lift-the-flap book

ABC Bible Verse book

 

Next door neighbor girl is getting: Brave, the book and audio CD

 

Niece is getting: Compact NASB bible

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There is a new LS? My 2 youngest are so over that story, but I love that that the author continues!

 

I wish I had a little ! I loved their delight!

 

(And well, I should include my two oldest who grew up waiting for each Harry Potter book! That was a joy!)

 

 

He's starting up a new series--Who Could It Be at this Hour? is the first of 4 All the Wrong Questions books. I heard an interview on NPR and want the book for myself.

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http://www.amazon.com/Smart-Alecks-Guide-American-History/dp/0385736509 (Smart Aleck's Guide to American History... I don't know how to link properly, lol.) and A Briefer History of Time (thanks to the forums) for ds.

 

A cake decorating book for one sister and app/drinks book for my other sister.

 

Santa is bringing dh and me a Dave Ramsey bundle, lol.

 

And I gave dh a list of books I'd like.

 

I tried to keep books to a minimum b/c we are way beyond capacity.

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