Santa's recommendations for holiday season gift-giving

Young children

For the beginner, we want quality art and simple text. Storybooks should have short chapters that keep the interest (both for listener and reader, since you'll be reading them time after time!)

• "Diary of a Spider," by Doreen Cronin and Harry Bliss. Don't worry, he's more scared of you and your stomping foot. A great read-aloud. One of my nominations for the Caldecott Award for 2005. (Ages 2-6)

• "Zen Shorts," by Jon J. Muth. The meditations — which are short and in story format — hone our ability to act with intuition. The text is inspirational and the illustrations luminous. (Ages 5 and up)

• "Once Upon a Time, the End (Asleep in 60 Seconds)," by Geoffrey Klaske and Barry Blitt. A father reads to his child who won't go to sleep. He skips pages, phrases and sentences to get to the end of the book. But to no avail. The child knows how the stories go and how they're being fractured. This is a delightful picture book for the whole family.

• "Poetry Speaks to Children," edited by Elise Paschen. This is a collection of 95 poems from classic to contemporary. All ages for this anthology.

• "The Little Engine That Could," by Watty Piper. New illustrations by Loren Long. A timeless story in a new big format that can be enjoyed time and again.

For older readers

Older readers want adventure and more adventure! We are in a deluge of fantasy/science fiction books, many in series format. Nonfiction is also popular and science-oriented topics are reading-pleasers. Biographies have to be "honest" stories with heroes that are exemplary. Of course, Harry Potter is the most popular title for this age. (It must be for all ages, since it was named outstanding book of the year for the Quill Literacy Award.)

I met a group of young readers in the bookstore this week, and they raved about "Eragon" and the sequel, "Eldest," by Christopher Paolini. An older boy was buying "Inkspell" because he enjoyed "Inkheart," by Cornelia Funke, so much. We both agreed that her "Dragon Rider' was going to become a classic.

When they asked me what I liked to read I told them I enjoyed "The Extraordinary Adventures of Alfred Kropp" by Rick Yancey because it's a fast-paced mystery. They reminded their father about their "want" list, which he laughingly admitted gets longer and longer.