The sands of time are quickly dropping out of the holiday shopping hourglass and this is a harried time as we try to get everyone crossed off of that gift list. Being a teacher and a librarian-in-training I think the gift of books is THE BEST gift to give. It is a way to share an experience. For instance, buy a book you enjoyed reading during your childhood to give to a young reader in your life. Even though you are not reading the book together there is still the opportunity to talk about the story and its characters.

But sometimes giving just a book does not seem like enough and book companies realize this too. For the Holiday Season, book companies have cleverly packaged books with additional items that relate to the story. The most common being the stuffed animal version of the characters like Pat the Bunny and Snowmen at Night.

But the other day I ran across the blog Mother Reader's: 105 Ways to Give a Book that had suggestions going beyond the packaged gift set, including giving a book with a movie theater gift card to see the upcoming film version of the book. This way the recipient can read the book before the movie (since we all know the book is usually so much better!)

Then there were the ideas that made me throw my hands up and say, “Why didn’t I think of that!” Things like matching poetry books with poetry beads or magnetic poetry or super hero books like graphic novels or SuperHero ABC paired with a superhero cape. My favorite suggestion was to give a kazoo along with the sing-a-long book Take Me Out of the Bathtub and Other Silly Dilly Songs!

So this holiday I have a couple a little relatives that love fairies. I plan to get them fairy books like Who's Behind the Fairy Doors? by Ann Arbor's own Jonathan B. Wright, or The Rainbow Fairies Book Series. And to help them be fairy facilitators in their own homes, I will include a fairy door from Red Shoes!

I love how these ideas extend the story, especially when you never want to have a good book end. The items included with the books encourage the stories to be experiences beyond the page. Well, I know the Ann Arbor community is very creative. Here is your chance to help ease the stress of holiday shopping for all of us. Please share with us some creative things you think, or that you may have included, with the gift of a book.

photo: Google Images