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HOLIDAY GIFT GUIDE 2020: Gifts for Kids
By
Published: Dec 01, 2020
Category:
Holiday
No child I know needs to spend another minute looking at a screen. Every child I know would welcome more than a minute with an adult who cares.
My friend Randie Denker is remarkably accomplished, curious, compassionate and involved. Why? In part because her mother read to her. Then she read to her daughter. And now her daughter…
I read to my daughter from the first day she came home from the hospital. In fact, we read to each other for years… really, until she went off to college. The best part of each day was when we would snuggle up together and read. When she was little, she would request that I read the same books over and over and over ad nauseam, until I wanted to gouge out my eyeballs with a melon scoop and run screaming from the room. To this day, I can still recite “Dr. Seuss’s ABC Book” from memory.
Something magical happened from all that repetition and pointing to the letters and how they sounded. Gaea figured out how to read all by herself when she was only 2. She was reading on a middle school level by the time she was 4. She also began keeping her first diary at 4.
At first, we read picture books and then eased our way into chapter books. We read all the classics together: “Little Women,” “Charlotte’s Web,” “Heidi,” “Trumpet of the Swan,” “Black Beauty,” “Jane Ayre,” and all of the Roald Dahl books. By far, our favorite was the Frank Baum “Wizard of Oz” series, which if memory serves me, contained 12 or 13 books.
Now, history repeats itself. She is reading the entire series to her four-year-old son, who is also an early reader. When you give your kid the gift of reading, it is a gift that will outlast any plastic crap from China. My happiest memories of my own mother are infused with books. My mother was incapable of going anywhere without a book. I remember her reading in the bathtub, reading on the toilet, reading in the car while she waited for us to come out of school, reading under an umbrella at the beach. She was curious about everything and books were her passport to the world of ideas. I learned that lesson just by watching the importance she placed on it.
This is a list of books and a few short movies. Imagination jump-starters for kids. And for you.
The Polar Express
On Christmas Eve, a father tells his son that there’s no Santa Claus. Later that night, a train packed with children stops in front of a boy’s house. He hops on and travels to the North Pole, where Santa offers him the first toy of Christmas. The boy chooses a reindeer’s bell. On the way home, he loses it. How he finds it and what that means — that’s where you reach for the Kleenex.
A Christmas Carol
Charles Dickens and Jesse Kornbluth: How is that for a byline? How did it happen? Because the Dickens masterpiece is 28,000 words. Good luck reading them all to a kid. So I edited it to 13,000 words — just as Dickens did when he read it in performance. With Paige Peterson’s spooky illustrations.
The Snowman
A boy in rural England builds a snowman. At midnight, as the boy looks out his window, the snowman lights up. The boy runs outside. He invites the snowman to tour his home. Then the snowman takes his hand. And off they fly, over England, over water, to the North Pole. And then… Fantastic story. Amazing animation. The most beautiful song. This 22-minute film is the very definition of perfection. For kids 3 and up. [I’m reminded that the book is just as exceptional, and ideal for kids 4 to 8.]
Antoine de Saint-Exupéry: The Little Prince
“The Little Prince” is 160 pages, 15,000 words. It’s the most popular French book of the last century. Translated into 250 languages. Yearly sales: 2 million copies. The story is mythic: The narrator’s plane crashes in the desert. In this desperate situation, a small person-like being appears. He’s from a distant planet — a strange planet, it’s just him and a rose. Unhappy there, he found a flock of birds to bring him here. And the aviator and the “little prince” begin an adventure…
The Red Balloon
Pascal — an only child — is lonely. A red balloon follows him around and becomes his best friend. The balloon gets him in trouble at school. Boys gang up on Pascal and burst his balloon. Then a flock of balloons shows up and takes Pascal flying over Paris. For adults, that signifies the liberation of art and imagination. For kids, “The Red Balloon” is a film set in reality. And that is the magic of the movie — it hits kids at their level. A level where anything is possible. Where magic is afoot every day. For kids ages 3 to adult.
Charlotte’s Web
Wilbur, the pig, is in line to be butchered when he meets Charlotte, the spider. When he discovers the reality of death — and the likelihood that his will come in the fall — Charlotte spins words into her web that turn Wilbur into a celebrity, worth much more alive than dead. There’s an audiobook read by Meryl Streep.
The Book with No Pictures
A book for 5-to-8-year-old children. A book for 5-to-8-year-old children with no pictures. The author read it to kids in school: “They had to calm the kids down after I read the line ‘Boo Boo Butt.’”
Roald Dahl
“Charlie and the Chocolate Factory” was an instant hit when it was published in America in 1964; its first printing sold out in a month. In the early l970s, Dahl produced a sequel, “Charlie and the Great Glass Elevator.” Later, a movie with Gene Wilder — a very different movie from Tim Burton’s — turned Charlie into a kids’ classic. Starting around age 8 or 9, all the smart kids I’ve known have loved Dahl’s books and the drawings by Quentin Blake. “Matilda.” “James and the Giant Peach.” “The Fantastic Mr. Fox.” “The BFG.” They’re all here.
Eloise
Eloise lives at New York’s Plaza Hotel with her nanny, her pet dog and turtle and her dolls. She’s a brat — she misbehaves and is never punished — but it’s not really her fault. Her glamorous mother is always in Europe or jetting off somewhere. If Eloise didn’t kick up her heels and poke her nose into everyone’s business, we’d know her for what she really is: a sad and lonely little girl.
William Steig
“CDB!” has given generations of pre-schoolers a book they can “read” — like this:
R U C-P?
S, I M.
I M 2.
Robert Sabuda
The gold standard in pop-up books. Who needs a computer game — these are interactive magic. (age 4 up)
Don’t Let the Pigeon Drive the Bus!
So there’s this bus driver. With a small problem. "Hi!," he says. "I’m the bus driver. Listen, I’ve got to leave for a little while, so can you watch things for me until I get back? Thanks. Oh, and remember: Don’t Let the Pigeon Drive the Bus!" This is one persistent pigeon. He has lots of reasons why you should let him drive the bus. They are very funny — especially if you are a parent who has ever said no to a kid, and the kid has tried to get you to change your mind. For ages 3 to 5.
Shooting Stars
NBA superstar Lebron James tells the story of how he made it — not as a basketball player, but as a black kid trying to make it alive to his high school graduation. The answer: family and a crew of terrific friends who honestly loved and cared for one another. For kids 12 and up.
