24 book gift ideas for kids, and for adults who could use diversions and discoveries

Giving a child a book opens the world to them — no wonder they’re so popular as gifts.

With so many to choose from, our regular kids’ book experts, Deirdre Baker and Rabia Khokhar, have picked options for three different age groups to help you make the exact right choice. We’ve also got a few more picks for adults with Diversions and Discoveries. Be sure to refer back to Part 1 of our Gift Guide, too, which provided ideas for culture vultures, lives lived, box sets, indie must-reads and stocking stuffers.

Picture books for younger readers

On This Airplane, by Lourdes Heuer, illustrated by Sara Palacios (Tundra, $23.99): A gentle book that follows a family’s journey to their new home. Along the way, they meet many different people, each with their own stories and experiences. In their shared experience, they form a sense of connection and community.

Rosie and the Pre-Loved Dress, by Leanne Hatch (Penguin Young Readers, $23.99): Rosie loves going to the thrift store and finding all kinds of special preloved items. One day, she finds a beautiful yellow dress and imagines everyone who may have worn it. Rosie wears the dress every day until she outgrows it and decides it’s someone else’s turn to love it.

The Tray of Togetherness, by Flo Leung (Owlkids Books, $19.95): A family gets ready for a Lunar New Year’s party, going to the market for the ingredients to fill the eight sections of the Tray of Togetherness. It is filled with lucky, tasty and special treats to share with family, friends and neighbours.

Namaste Is a Greeting, by Suma Subramaniam, illustrated by Sandhya Prabhat (Candlewick Press, $23.99): A sweet lyrical book that reminds readers about the dynamism of the word namaste. It follows a small child, going about their day in a busy city and finding the different ways namaste is used to symbolize friendship, community, celebration and unity.

Beautiful You, Beautiful Me, by Tasha Spillett-Sumner, illustrated by Salini Perera (Owlkids Books, $19.95): A lovely book that celebrates differences between family members. Izzy starts to notice that her hair and skin colour do not match her mother’s, but her mother reminds her, “You’re part of me and I am part of you. I am beautiful like me and you’re beautiful like you.”

Powerful reads for middle grade readers

Shuna’s Journey, written and illustrated by Hayao Miyazaki, translated from Japanese by Alex Dudok De Wit (First Second, $36.99): This famed filmmaker’s only graphic novel has elements that make his films brilliant: haunting, dramatic landscapes; child heroes of courage and integrity; and a thoughtful, political edge. When a young prince rides west to the “God-Folk” to acquire seed grain for his people, the quest leaves him weak with trauma until a girl he has freed from slavery chooses to care for him. A thought-provoking, engaging adventure story.

Apartment 713, written and illustrated by Kevin Sylvester (HarperCollins, $21.99): The apartment building Jake just moved into is full of architectural mysteries, eccentric inhabitants and decay. When it transports Jake into the past, he finds friendship, wildly talented people, and purpose in his quest to save the decrepit building. One feels Sylvester’s own affection and enjoyment in Jake’s friendships, 1920s slang and the greats he meets: Georgia O’Keeffe, Louis Armstrong, Babe Ruth among them.

One More Mountain, by Deborah Ellis (Groundwood, $18.99): Valour, resilience and courage are constants in “The Breadwinner Series”; even more so in this fifth book, when Parvana and Shauzia, now adults, contend with the Taliban’s resurgent control in Afghanistan. The two have nurtured women and girls in their shelter Green Valley; now, they and their charges are on the run, escaping the Taliban’s violence and repression. Ellis emphasizes the enduring value of hope and kindness; this series, with its accessible storytelling and extraordinary setting, has heart-wrenching poignancy today.

The Door of No Return, by Kwame Alexander (Little, Brown, $22.99): Alexander presents a novel-in-verse set in Ghana, 1860, as the beginning of a story of African-Americans for which slave-trafficking is the “middle.” Kofi is growing up amongst his beloved community when a sudden death occurs, catapulting him into a terrifying journey and separation from all that’s familiar. Alexander’s lucid, unpretentious poetic style and narrative pacing give this effective momentum.

Aggie Morton, Mystery Queen: The Seaside Corpse, by Marthe Jocelyn, illustrated by Isabelle Follath (Tundra, $22.99): The fourth and alas, final adventure of this Agatha Christie-inspired sleuth is as witty and diverting as its three predecessors (kids can binge-read the whole series now). Aggie and Hector are helping out at a paleontologists’ camp in Lyme Regis, excavating a rare fossil, when they find a corpse on the beach. Which of the competing fossil-buyers is responsible?

Appealing reads for young adults

The Spirit of Denendeh: A Blanket of Butterflies, by Richard Van Camp, illustrated by Scott B. Henderson, coloured by Donovan Yaciuk (Highwater, $21.95): Sonny, a Tlicho Dene boy in Fort Smith, NWT, helps Shinobu retrieve his grandfather’s samurai sword from the town museum. Regaining it without undue violence, however, takes the skills of Sonny’s grandmother, whose Dene wisdom transforms the story’s outcome. Playing out the values of Dene law, Van Camp gently, cleverly subverts conflict’s conventional excitement and drama.

Man Made Monsters, by Andrea L. Rogers, illustrated by Jeff Edwards (Levine Querido, $28.99): Cherokee imagery, language and symbols are at the heart of Rogers’ horror stories, following one extended Cherokee family over two centuries: from 1839 to 2039. Vampires and werewolves make way for monsters of Cherokee culture, as well as Rogers’ own inventions; societal (and historical) monstrosities of genocide, dispossession, sexual assault and ecological disaster have their own horrific role to play.

Seasparrow, by Kristin Cashore (Dutton, $29.99): For fans of Cashore’s “Graceling Realm” and those seeking a fantasy series a cut above, “Seasparrow” takes us onto the Winter Sea across northern wilderness and into the heart of the Graceling spy Hava, whose gift is to make herself seem like part of the furniture. Although this doesn’t have quite the cohesiveness of earlier “Winterkeep,” Cashore’s intelligent, multi-layered exploration of the psyche and politics is satisfying.

Mary John, by Ana Pessoa, illustrated by Bernardo P. Carvalho, translated from Portuguese by Rahul Bery and Daniel Hahn (Arquipélago Press, $24): In a letter to her childhood friend Julio, Mary John reflects on their friendship in the light of the painful transition through puberty, when she feels dismissed and mocked for her innocence, and through to moving away and forming new friendships. With candid warmth and a confiding tone, she writes the ups and downs, anger, humour, frustration and pleasures of adolescent girlhood.

Braiding Sweetgrass for Young Adults: Indigenous Wisdom, Scientific Knowledge and the Teachings of Plants, by Robin Wall Kimmerer, adapted by Monique Gray Smith and illustrated by Nicole Neidhardt (Zest, $19.99): Smith elegantly adapts Indigenous botanist Kimmerer’s luminous essays on what “earth’s oldest teachers,” the plants of this land, give us. A top choice this season.

Diversions

The Signs That Define Toronto, edited by Matthew Blackett (Spacing, $35): This is a lovely book, with gorgeous photos from across the years that evoke memories of the city that was and is. There are essays, too, that explore how signs tell about changing culture, the history of neon and the growth of advertising.

Wabanaki Modern, by Emma Hassencahl-Perley and John Leroux (Goose Lane Editions/Beaverbrook Art Gallery, $45): A fascinating, trilingual — printed in English, French, and Mi’kmaw — oral history of the “Micmac Indian Craftsmen,” an Indigenous art co-operative that skyrocketed to national prominence in the early 1960s; this is the first time their story has been told in full.

Generations, by Sarah Milroy (Goose Lane Editions/McMichael Canadian Art Collection, $55): Three generations of the Sobey family have been involved as collectors and patrons of the arts; this book tracks their influence, and features stunning art and interesting conversations, including with the visionary Kent Monkman.

Light Revealed: Scratchboard Engravings, by Scott McKowen (Firefly, $49.95): There’s something visceral about scratchboard art: carving a white line into a black surface with a sharp blade. Here, Toronto artist McKowen’s theatre and musical performance posters, book covers and illustrations (including for Neil Gaiman!), demonstrate the power and unique feel of the medium.

Discoveries

A Waiter in Paris: Adventures in the Dark Heart of the City, by Edward Chisholm (House of Anansi, $24.99): For armchair travellers to rediscover Paris in a way they’ve never seen it before — from a waiter’s point of view. In his memoir of the years he spent in the City of Light, Chisholm makes you laugh and cringe, and wish you were there.

A Place for Everything, by Judith Flanders (Hachette, $22.99): This is the first history of alphabetization, something that has had profound social and cultural impact: triumphing, for example, over medieval clergy who felt that its use would upend the divine order of creation, and elite institutions like Harvard and Yale that ranked students by the social status of their parents.

Weather Permitting: Twenty-Five Years of Ice Storms, Hurricanes, Wildfires, and Extreme Climate Change in Canada, by Chris St. Clair (Simon & Schuster, $24.99): Here’s a way to stave off awkward holiday conversations: give the gift of the subject every Canadian likes to talk about. From the flooding of the Red River in Winnipeg to the Montreal ice storm, you can share war stories and memories.

Weather: A Force of Nature (Firefly, $35): From the U.K.’s Royal Meteorological Society comes this hardcover, coffee-table book featuring photos from the winning entries of their annual Weather Photographer of the Year competition. Powerful photos, with an explanation of where and when, and the technical details of camera, lens, speed give context to these pictures taken around the world.

Mushrooming: The Joy of the Quiet Hunt— An Illustrated Guide to the Fascinating, the Delicious, the Deadly and the Strange, by Diane Borsato (Douglas & McIntyre, $38.95): Even if we can’t take forest walks in the winter, Borsato’s detailed book on fungi we might run across in the wild or the market is filled with lovely illustrations and in-depth information — as well as warnings to consume mushrooms at your own risk.

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