Gifts that inspire

This year, as every year, friends are asking me for advice on gifts for kids. In the past I’ve recommended many board games, books, crafting tools and computers, and those recommendations are worth a look.

As always, I’m only recommending what I’ve personally tried with kids — either my daughters, my students, or family and neighborhood friends.

I recommend asking for these at your local bookstores, comics stores, art stores, and gaming stores. I’ve included Amazon links (with referral codes, thanks!) for convenience.

For young kids, age 3–7

Uncommon art supplies

A timeless and always effective gift with kids is to give them art supplies, then spend time with them making art. The spending time is crucial: I’ve found that when kids see me having a good time creating art with a tool, they’ll catch on and start imagining what they might do with it.

• Brush markers ($16 on Amazon, but cheaper in an art supply store) are markers that have a paintbrush-style tip. They’re a way to quickly make art that has the sort of delightful surprises that art part of what make paintbrushes such a compelling tool.
• Googly eyes ($6 on Amazon), and
• Plastic gemstones ($7 on Amazon) let kids add decorations with character to any illustration or object. They’re great with…
• Glue sticks ($6 on Amazon)

Tiny Polka Dot (around $15 on Amazon)

Tiny Polka Dot is a set of cards that represent numbers in various ways — numerals, scattered circles, circles arranged in a grid. It’s not a single game, but rather a deck of playing cards that can be used for a dozen games (instructions included). The cards are well-made and attractive, and the small box and variety make it perfect for travel.

I admit that I didn’t have high hopes for when I introduced several 8 year olds to Tiny Polka Dot, but it was a surprise hit. They loved trying out so many different games and declaring their favorites. I thought the colorful and simple design would strike them as childish, but instead they were drawn to it.

The various games are not particularly original, but it’s been a genuinely fun and easy way to explore numbers and build their numeracy. Most importantly, kids have asked to play it unprompted — the highest form of praise for a kids’ game.

Many: The Diversity of Life on Earth ($14 on Amazon)

Author Nicola Davies, a zoologist, and illustrator Emily Sutton are both veteran children’s book creators, and in Many: The Diversity of Life on Earth, they masterfully take a complicated topic — how zoologists analyze and catalogue the planet’s biodiversity — and make it simple, intriguing, and beautiful. Their work is gorgeous on the surface level, with lush and expressive watercolors, but also expertly crafted as an explanatory work, making complex ideas feel natural and inviting.

Strong Is the New Pretty: A Celebration of Girls Being Themselves ($15 on Amazon)

A coffee table book of portraits of girls, from about ages 4–18, doing all sorts of things: favorite things and challenging things (sports are a major theme), but also everyday things, or nothing. Each portrait is accompanied by a quote.

Showing this to my daughters was a powerful reminder of how important images are. I like to think that they are growing up with the sense that they can do anything, but I don’t think it ever occurred to them that they could play football, or run a triathlon, or be proud to be a cheerleader, or volunteer in the Junior ROTC, until they saw portraits of girls doing those things in this book. It’s a wonderful book to have around, not just for girls but very much for boys as well, to broaden their assumptions of what girls are good at and who girls are.

And while the general tone is gently inspiring and not overtly political, the way these portraits are done is significant. Even though this book is visual and the girls are shot beautifully, it’s consistently clear that they are not posing or pouting for the viewer’s gaze, but instead caught in the middle of their own personal and social expression.

Moreover, you can find every type of girl in this book, including lots of girls of color, girls with disabilities, little people, and girls in hijabs.

One more

I also should mention a game I keep hearing ecstatic testimonials about: Rhino Hero: A Heroic Stacking Card Game. I haven’t played it, but it sounds like a slam dunk.

For middle kids, 7–11

Sculpting clay

Sculpey makes plastic sculpting clay that can be made permanently hard by baking in the oven. This makes for an artistic medium of endless creativity, no matter what a kid is into. My kids and their friends seem in particular to love making miniature versions of everyday things, especially food; others make characters or machines, and you can obviously make abstract sculpture too.

Note that there are several varieties of Sculpey. The type used most by kids is “Sculpey III”; I suggest getting a variety pack with many colors ($22 on Amazon).

Sculpey III is relatively easy to manipulate at room temperature, but it still takes much more effort than, say, Play-Doh. I suggest getting sculpting tools ($8 or so on Amazon), because they’ll be genuinely useful, they provide an opportunity to give kids experience using sharp tools responsibly, and they’re just cool.

Cardline: Animals ($15 on Amazon)

The Cardline series of games has a simple premise: you line up animal cards in order of their size, and take turns trying to add new cards at the right place in the order. “Hmm”, you might think, “I know a giant panda is heavier than a leopard. But is it heavier or lighter than a walrus? What about a moose?”

The “Animals” edition will appeal to just about any child; there’s also a “Dinosaurs” edition, which gets into obscure dinosaurs and is probably best for kids with a bit of a dinosaur obsession.

Cardline games are easy to level the playing field for: just start older players with more cards.

There are a few caveats: the units on the cards aren’t especially consistent, and the cards are small. But those shouldn’t dissuade you from this quick and compelling game that coaxes kids to imagine about nature and build numeracy.

Timeline: Diversity ($15 on Amazon)

Timeline is by the creators of Cardline, and works the same way: players take turns adding cards to a lineup, trying to put them in the right order. But where Cardline uses animals, Timeline uses historical events.

There are a dozen versions of Timeline, focusing on sports, culture, inventions, etc. The “Diversity” edition mixes the best of these into a single set of cards with a super confusing name. (I wish they’d instead called it just “Timeline”.)

Timeline can be challenging: was the hand-cranked drill invented before or after the Egyptian pyramids were created? But if you approach it as low-stakes fun and not a cutthroat competition, it is a ton of fun, and it naturally sparks conversations about technology: “Wait, wouldn’t they have needed hand cranked drills to even build the pyramids?” Here I think it’s important to model enjoying being surprised, even if that means you were wrong.

As I mentioned with Cardline, it’s easy to level the playing field for older and more experienced players by just dealing them more cards. Also, don’t be surprised when you see how tiny the cards are.

Hive: Pocket ($25 on Amazon)

Hive is a wonderful game — that isn’t for everybody. It’s sort of a cousin of chess: each piece has its own distinct abilities, and you are trying to use your pieces to capture the opponent’s queen bee. But compared to chess, I find Hive more accessible and much less heavy. The insect theme is delightful, the pieces have a satisfying feel, and no two games are the same.

That said, in my experience not every child takes to Hive. It doesn’t require anywhere near as much concentration as chess, but it certainly takes some. If they like puzzles, and if you play up the silliness of the theme, I think they’ll love Hive!

I recommend the travel edition, called Hive Pocket; its pieces are small enough to fit in a small pouch, but big enough to feel like a real game and not a travel game.

The Prince and the Dressmaker ($12 on Amazon, but buy it at your local comics shop!)

A simple and beautiful graphic novel for kids that touches lightly on fashion, trans identity, the closet, class and power, with virtuosic cartoon art and inspired fashion illustration.

The two characters at the center of the book are both complex and believable, width their own combinations of courage and fear, pizzazz and humility, glamour and shame.

It’s a total work of fantasy, not just in its imaginary version of the world that is more accepting, but also in the way the character’s creative work is always perfect and always lands; she’s a bit of a “Mary Sue”, a magical genius whose hard preparatory work mostly happens off-camera. But while there is a deeper level of storytelling that author/illustrator Jen Wang isn’t ready to reach here, it’s still a fabulous and delightful and moving book.

This book thinks you’re a math genius ($13 on Amazon)

A book of math puzzlements, codes, and activities that is done better than most books like it. The tone is light, loose and clear throughout, while providing plenty of challenge and depth.

A book like this, in my experience, is not always a welcome gift, or an effective one. It seems so much like homework! What I recommend is to wait for it to be politely placed in a pile by the recipient, and then to pick it up and start doing some activities yourself. Don’t push too hard — maybe the kid will see what you’re doing and want to join in, maybe they won’t — but just enjoy yourself and let yourself be genuinely engaged. (The secret code section might be a good place to start.)

It’s not a guaranteed hit, but it’s about as good as it gets: the explanations are superb, the layouts and visual explanations are clear and not busy, and it’s been carefully and thoughtfully curated.

Words with wings ($14 on Amazon)

A book of poetry by Nikki Grimes (writer of the Dyamonde Daniel series). It’s not just a collection of independent poems; the poems are all in the voice of one character, and steadily build a portrait of a girl’s inner and outer life, both by relating events in her story and by providing impressionist glimpses into her mind.

It wasn’t the easiest thing to get my daughter to sit down and listen to, but she did listen for a while and liked it! That’s a big win, as far as I’m concerned.

If you’ve already spent some time with Where the Sidewalk Ends, this is a wonderful step towards more poetic depth.

Older kids: 11–16

Premo sculpting clay ($24 on Amazon)

(See my comments on Sculpey above.)

The other commonly used clay version produced by Sculpey is called “Premo”; it’s the same as the “FIMO” clay used to make jewelry beads, and it dries harder and lasts longer than Sculpey III, though it’s harder to manipulate at room temperature. I’d get this if the kids seem up for the challenge; look up some videos of how to make intricate bead patterns, and pick up some razor blades to make crisp, clean cuts.)

Essential Songwriter’s Rhyming Dictionary ($7 on Amazon)

A good rhyming dictionary, in the hands of someone who likes writing poems or songs, is the sort of book that can become a finger-worn talisman imbued with sacred powers. There’s no guarantee this will happen with any given kid; but if you have a hungry writer on your hands, try delivering one of these with a bit of an air of mystery and timeless secret wisdom. It might help to mention that (some) libraries refuse to provide these because they immediately get stolen.

March: Book One ($8 on Amazon)

An extraordinary adaptation of John Lewis’s life story to the comics format, with the help of collaborators Andrew Aydin and Nate Powell. Lewis was at the center of the Civil Rights movement, not so much making speeches as organizing at the ground level, enduring violence and strategizing moment to moment about when and where to push forward, and when to compromise or retreat.

The layouts and art direction in book one are cinematic and kinetic, bringing sit-ins to dramatic, harrowing life. Each page is a beauty, and Lewis’s clear, memorable voice comes through unmistakably.

Be forewarned (and, hopefully, excited): this book is remarkable for its focus on the day to day grind of activism and the arguments about tactics; it’s not glossy, sepia-toned or wistful in the slightest. The violence and white supremacist hate are shown just a little at a time by Lewis and co., but they’re there, and you should consider the age and maturity of any kids you give it to.

Ben Wheeler is a software developer and teacher in Cambridge, MA. He’s taught hundreds of people to program, helped foment a real-life revolution, and makes a mean gumbo. You can see the recipe for all these things at his site, techno-social.com.