Christmas Gifts Part 2!

Miki's mother gave me a Christmas present today - a huge box of yummy-looking truffles! I wasn't expecting anything, so it was a pleasant surprise.

It took me about two hours of wandering through Barnes & Noble, but I've successfully found Christmas presents for all my kids. The reason it took me so much time was the frustrating task I was faced with: finding books that would be interesting and enjoyable at their age and yet significantly below their age's typical reading level.

For Yosuke, I had to find something a sixteen-year-old boy would enjoy that was at a fourth-grade reading level. For Miki, I had to find something a thirteen-year-old girl would enjoy that was short, had very simple English in it, and had pictures. I also wanted to stick with books I have read myself so that I could buy something I knew was good. Finally, I wanted to get them something fun to read. I spent some time browsing the test-prep section and the section with learn-to-read materials for little kids before deciding that these are Christmas gifts, so they should be fun!

Here's what I ended up with after two frustrating hours:

Miki: The Giving Tree by Shel Silverstein
Yuki: The Velveteen Rabbit by Margery Williams
Yosuke: Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone by J.K. Rowling and Hatchet by Gary Paulson (He got two because Miki and Yuki's books were hardcover, and his were both paperbacks.)

While I didn't purchase them tonight, I plan to buy coffee table books of North Carolina scenery for the parents. My mother got one of these as a present for my host mother when I was an exchange student, and it was a huge success.