<p>WashDad, I love the real tool idea. H has an old BMW engine in the toolshed, & claims he wants to use it to teach S about internal combustion engines & car repair. S is 11, and getting him a toolbox & starting him off with some of his own wrenches or ratchets (or whatever you handymen use) is a terrific idea.</p>
<p>The Guiness books, Dangerous Book for Boys, and The Way Things Work are three of son’s favorites. Last year I nixed the drum set idea, but did buy him a drum pad & sticks. He has fun & they take up virtually no room, and aren’t nearly as lound as the real thing.</p>
<p>Redwall books are great for the younger end of your age group. My kids were addicts to them before they discovered The Lord of the Rings. My now 15 year old likes getting things for his electric violin.</p>
<p>If any of them plays rock music, a music DVD can be good. My son plays the bass, and I got him a couple of Victor Wooten DVD’s that he has watched many, many times. You could also look for DVD’s of live concerts of groups they like.</p>
<p>If any of them like fantasy/science fiction, here are some book ideas: Ender’s Game (Orson Scott Card), Great Tree of Avalon (T.A. Barron), Bartimaeus Trilogy (Jonathan Stroud), Children of the Lamp (Philip Kerr), Dark Lord of Derkholm and sequels (Diana Wynne Jones), His Dark Materials trilogy (Philip Pullman), anything by Terry Pratchett, especially The Amazing Maurice and His Educated Rodents, Hat Full of Sky, or Bromeliad Trilogy for younger readers or the Discworld books for older readers, The Thief and its sequels (Megan Whalen Turner), Artemis Fowl (Eoin Colfer). Classics from further back: Earthsea trilogy (Ursula Le Guin), Dark is Rising series (Susan Cooper), anything by Robin McKinley, anything by Peter Dickinson. My son didn’t enjoy any of these older works, unfortunately, but I still love them.</p>
<p>I am going to order Quiddler, which I’d never heard of before, but which sounds great. I am also ordering an engraved (initials) keyring with embedded compass from Dalvey for the 15-year-old (found this suggestion on a previous thread on graduation gifts). Many of the suggested gifts are already in our house (Legos, other building sets, tools, some of the recommended books). </p>
<p>A friend suggested another great gift, which I will post here in case anyone is interested. Amazon has a Flip Video Camcorder for $100, which will record for 60 minutes and connects easily to a computer. Lots of enthusiastic reviews:</p>
<p>Another idea - DVD’s of Futurama, four seasons worth. It’s animated sci-fi by cartoonist Matt Groening. These have been a big hit for my son and all his friends, and also my daughter (now 18) and her friends. The humor is clever but occasionally (well, often) crude. The first time I sat down to watch some episodes, my son wasn’t sure the the material was appropriate for me :-). They are funny, though.</p>
<p>Keeping with the tool theme of this thread,
Gary Paulson’s ‘Hatchet’ was a favorite book when my son was 9 (I liked it too). There is a sequel but the name escapes me now.</p>
<p>“Headlights”, these are headsets with an adjustable light that sits in the midd of your forehead - we got these for hurricanse and pwer outages, but they work great to read in bed or while camping, because your hands are free while the light is directed at what you are doing. Also they look incredibly ggeky, which is good sometimes.</p>
<p>I think the sequel to Hatchet is “The Return.” My youngest read and enjoyed all the Paulsen books. And the “headlights” were big hits as well - they loved to turn the lights out upstairs and play all sorts of games.</p>
<p>My brother also really liked K’Nex, and Meccano. They were a good gift because people could buy him additional sets and ad-ons in subsequent years. He also benefited because people would buy them every year for my cousin too and he thought they were the most boring and useless thing in the world and so would give them all to my brother. So it probably depends on the interests of the boys you are buying for.</p>
<p>It took me so long to answer this because I was looking for the book I used to get all my sons and nephews when they turned 10. I finally found that my 24 yr old took it with him when he moved out. He likes it that much.</p>
<p>It is called “Best Book of Sports Stories” and includes short stories by authors such as Jack London.</p>
<p>There are baseball caps that have LED lights hidden in the brim. Very,very cool for late night walks and anything else. The switch is hidden in the back. Hidden geek factor :)</p>
<p>Love this thread, since I have one of those hard-to-buy-for 15 year olds and he has been hard to buy for since he was about 9 ;).</p>
<p>For his book box gift, I bought mine a few of the SE Hinton books…and since he is a percussionist (I’ve learned not to say drummer, makes his private instructor mad), I was thinking like binx, but bought a doumbek instead of djembe. They are a little flashier looking, not quite as expensive - you can buy a musician quality drum without breaking the bank.</p>
<p>I love the real tool suggestion. My father owned a hardware store and my two younger brothers always received real tools for presents and loved them. You will not go wrong with this idea.</p>
<p>And along the lines of ‘real stuff’ and ‘drum stuff’…you could always buy a set of drumsticks (go with promark) and a practice pad. One thing we have discovered is EVERYONE loves to ‘drum’ whether they are trained or not. My son has every stick and mallet known to man, but I found the cutest pocket pad…</p>
<p>Thanks so much to everyone for all the suggestions. After a flurry of online shopping over the past few days, a number of things are on the way, including binoculars, compass keychain from Dalvey, various books, CDs, and DVDs, FLIP camcorder, Quiddler. I also thought of the page-per-day calendars, and have ordered a humorous one. So we will only have to pick up a few things at actual stores.</p>
<p>Now for my husband? Will have to start a new thread.</p>