Today’s Top Ten Tuesday is Most Recent Additions to My Bookshelf. I’m broadening that to 2023 Christmas Gifts, to include books I received and books I gave.
Books I Gave
One of my good friends has an ~18 month old. I have been gifting them books for his birthday and Christmas. As this is baby’s second Christmas, I’ve developed something of a template. I like to choose a Christmas book, a winter book, an Indigenous book, a stereotype challenging book, and just an all around good book. I gifted them the following (all board books apart from We All Play):
- Carl’s Christmas by Alexandra Day (I still have the copy I received when I was a baby)
- No Two Alike by Keith Baker
- We All Play by Julie Flett (perhaps a bit old for him but certainly fine for reading with a grown up)
- Clive and His Babies by Jessica Spanyol (this title becomes extra fitting as next year he will become older brother to twins)
- Chugga Chugga Choo Choo by Emma Garcia
This year, I also helped my aunt purchase books for a family that she was sponsoring. Everyone in the family included books on their wislist. So, I spent a couple hours on Barnes & Noble’s website on Cyber Monday, narrowing choices by choosing sales items so we could maximize the number of books purchased. Something I wanted to ensure was that each of the younger kids got a silly book and each of the school age kids got a graphic novel. We ended up getting the following:
- For a 4-year-old boy:
- The Monster at the End of This Book by Jon Stone and Michael Smollin
- No Pants! by Jacob Grant
- For a 5-year-old boy:
- Thank You, Omu by Oge Mora
- Animals Brag About Their Bottoms by Maki Sato and Brian Bergstrom
- For an 8-year-old boy:
- A Wolf Called Wander by Rosanne Parry, Monica Armino
- Twenty Thousand Fleas Under the Sea by Dav Pilkey
- For a 10-year-old boy:
- The Unteachables by Gordon Korman
- This was Our Pact by Ryan Andrews
- For a 13-year-old girl:
- Cece Rios and the Desert of Souls by Kaela Rivera
- Frizzy by Claribel A. Ortega and Rose Bousamra
Books I Received
I received all four books on my wishlist! Any guesses as to what those were? 😜 I also received a gift card to the local bookstore, so I will have to carefully deliberate what I will purchase…
- The Letters of J.R.R. Tolkien: Revised and Expanded Edition edited by Humphrey Carpenter
- Pictures by J.R.R. Tolkien edited by Christopher Tolkien
- Nettle & Bone by T. Kingfisher
- Mislaid in Parts Half-Known (Wayward Children #9) by Seanan McGuire (preorder)
Did you gift or receive any bookish items this holiday season?
Link your TTT posts in the comments!
I love your book choices for the kids, that seems like such a fun project😁
Thanks Tammy! Since I don’t work in libraries anymore, I’m happy I have these opportunities to still connect kids connect with good books.
Both Nettle and Bone, and Mislaid in Parts Half-Known were great reads!
Nettle and Bone was definitely one of my favourite reads of 2023! I’m crossing my fingers my preorder for Mislaid comes in early, haha.
Aww, adorable! I hope that little one loves their books.
Here is my Top Ten Tuesday post.
Thanks Lydia! 🙂 Happy holidays~
I love that you’ve developed such a varied and diverse template for book gifting! That’s genius and very thoughtful! You received some great books too. I hope you enjoy them!
Haze @ The Book Haze
https://thebookhaze.com/
Thanks for stopping by, Haze! Happy holidays 🙂
Love the idea of a template for book giving! These look like excellent gifts!
Thanks Sam! It helps me narrow my choices down while making sure I cover the important bases 😄
This post warms my heart. I love that you’re so thoughtful on the books you give. I hope your friend’s son loves his books and the family your sister is sponsoring does as well!
Thank-you so much 😊
You’re like the book Santa Claus! So awesome. I love it.
Happy TTT!
Susan
http://www.blogginboutbooks.com
Thanks Susan! 🙂
I love that you shared books you were gifted. I gave 10 middle grade books to my nephews this year.
That’s awesome! I will be stoked when the little ones in my life are old enough to read middle grade 😄
Thank you for the post, Jenna! I also got lots of books for my family members. I should probably make my own post about it! I just usually do a book and a toy for kids, and usually just a book for older people on the list. Here are some: Princess and the Grilled Cheese Sandwich for my 14yo; Finding My Elf, a gay Christmas romance for my son’s Christmas-loving boyfriend; Is There Anybody Out There? : The Search for Extraterrestrial Life for my 13 yo nephew; Weird But True World 2024 for the 11 yo nephew, Jasmine Toguchi, Brave Explorer and Jasmine Toguchi, Peace-Maker for the 9 yo niece (books 5 and 6 of a series I’d already given her the previous books in); The Daughters of Izdihar for my 24-yo goddaughter; To Shape a Dragon’s Breath: the First Book of Nampeshiweisit for my 19-yo goddaughter. Also Kissing Kosher by Jean Meltzer for a Jewish friend who has trouble finding time to read, but will read romance if she has a good one. 🙂
Also, I would like to know what books you got!
I got four books 😄 Two Tolkien related (THE LETTERS OF JRR TOLKIEN: REVISED AND EXPANDED EDITION and PICTURES BY JRR TOLKIEN), plus NETTLE & BONE and a preorder for MISLAID IN PARTS HALF-KNOWN.
Finding My Elf! Great title, haha. I like that you’ve included some NF – I will have to keep that in mind as the kiddos in my life grow older. And that’s so nice that you found a good read for your friend! ❤
We took my kiddo to our favourite used bookstore on Boxing Day, they have a special promotion where you can use more of your trade-in credit, so we let him pick out a whole bunch of books, he was a very happy camper. 🙂
Oh, that is so fun! What a great treat for your kid 🙂