urgent-gift ideas for 3 11 year olds???

my nephew and 2 nieces turn 11 this weekend and we are already late with the present buying/posting to UK.


i want to make things easy and send something via amazon BUT have ZERO clues about what a 11 year old likes these days!!


please help, thanks!!

Every kid I know is thrilled to have cash.

The Dangerous Book for Boys http://www.cnn.com/2007/SHOWBIZ/books/04/25/dangerous

On Amazon: for a boy, look at reviews for "My Side of the Mountain," which is a fictional autobiographical account by a boy who lives in the wilderness for some time, setting up his own shelter, finding his own food, etc and eventually "making it" after some hardships. For boys or girls look at "The Giver," which is a sci-fi about a utopian colony in which a boy is given special insight and knowledge that leads him on an unusual path. Also, for both boys or girls look at Madeleine L' Engle books. The L'Engle series of about five books starting with "Swiftly Tilting Planet" is a tiny bit sci-fi but follows a family through many adventures in space and time (different family members are variously featured in several different books). The L'Engle book "Ring of Endless Light" is more of a girl's style book exploring teen relationships, the meaning of life etc. (IMO it would be hard to go wrong with anything by L'Engle.) In the nonfiction category, my girls liked, "33 Things Every Girl Should Know," which I think got passed around among all their friends as well. There's "Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants" of course, which was a best seller a few years ago but now has a few sequels. I recently got the book "Ties that Bind, Ties that Break" which is about age 11 appropriate, it's a 1910-ish historical fiction about a girl in Xi'an who breaks social convention by refusing to have her feet bound, facing rejection by her relatives especially after her protective father dies. I purchased that book in a GZ book shop and your niece might find it interesting with the "China" slant. In terms of classics, I think age 11 was when I read the real Jungle Book (which set me up for huge disappointment at the Disney caricature film). And as Ruth said, Amazon has gift certificates.

thanks for all the ideas, especially the book ones! i always like giving books as gifts so will check out amazon for the recommended titles!

gift certificate from HMV.


if he is into clothes, a gift certificate from Quicksilver.

I teach English - and this is my hit list


for boys - Books

Agree with Meiquoren about My Side of the Mountain

The Giver by Lois Lowry

The Outsiders by S.E. Hinton

Hoot By Carl Hiassen (some girls might like his books as well)

Flush - by Carl Hiassen

Indian in the Cupboard - great series, really well liked by boys with any imagination

Anything by Louis Sachar - especially of note, Holes. (try not to get his lower level reader - those are good, but for 8 or 9 year olds)


Girls -


Anything by Sharon Creech - Grandma Torelli makes soup is actually lovely and charming, even for adults - Bloomability is really great too - and Walk Two Moons won awards

The Giver is also good for girls

If she is a good reader - Anne of Green Gables -the series is just fantastic for girls - I still imagine myself as Anne. The vocab and language is a bit hard and can be off putting unless she's a good reader


This is just off the top of my head - if I come upon more I'll let you know

hey all,


thanks for the great recommendations. i checked out amazon and the reviews for the above were all good. i picked my side of the mountain for my nephew, the giver for his twin sis and walk 2 moons for my other niece.


i love giving books as i find them most meaningful and enriching,let's just hope the kids are not disappointed they didn't receive the latest gizmos instead!

Hi Wheelymate, just one thing, my kids enjoyed The Giver. It's also good for both boys and girls, but it has an ending that can be a bit depressing. I don't really want to give away the plot, but if the reader is an optimimst the ending can be taken cheerfully, but there's another way to imagine the story that is very sad. In contrast, the L'Engle books all end on a cheerful "it all works out in the end" kind of note. Well -- one exception -- in L'Engle's Ring of Endless Light it's sad that the grandfather has terminal illness and the family has to cope with his death. But even that works out okay in the end with peace and closure, too, since the grandfather shares his own closure with his sad granddaughter -- she learns his view of life that he has lived his life well, and she takes a lot of comfort in her grandfather's peacefulness. The granddaughter also has some challenges in sorting out which of two boys is the better choice among two she is romantically inclined about, but she ends up recognizing the superior character of one of the two boys and choosing accordingly. (In my view, Ring of Endless Light is one of the better teen novels I've read, in terms of addressing adult-ish issues on a level that even youngish teens can relate to.)

And my daughters both disliked Anne Of Green Gables.

Humph!