Got bookworms? Try giving these gift ideas that aren’t books!
We have a LOT of books in our house as you might suspect from our numerous kids’ book lists!
One of the things I did well as a parent was to raise readers — I always found a way to tie books with a favorite project, vacation or any interest our kids have had over the years.
But when you have book lovers, you have to make a decision when it comes to gift buying — either move into a library (we haven’t found one for sale yet 🙂
OR find some book-related gifts they’ll love since your bookshelves are already chocked full.
10 Unique Gift Ideas for Book Lovers
Although we have quite a few gift guides for kids (my personal favorite is the Gifts that Feed Your Child’s Passions), we have yet to share gift ideas for readers (well, other than the books from our 70+ book lists which always make wonderful gifts).
So today’s gift guide is all things bookworms and book lovers will swoon over — items that are perfect to put under the tree at Christmas or give as birthday surprises!
We’re including items we LOVE and including links to some of our affiliate partners where you can find more details for various book-related gifts. And we have choices for preschoolers, big kids, tweens & teens — along with a few special offers for you!
Books & More by Mail
If you have a book lover in the house, I’m going out on a limb and saying they probably also love mail!
I’m talking about snail mail — checking the mail box to see what letters or packages may have been delivered.
We searched and scrutinized and found three OUTSTANDING book-related boxes that will make anyone smile when they check their mailbox!
In order to make our list, it was important that the subscription box met a few criteria:
- It was worth the $$ spent!
- It included something more than just a book.
- It would be equally appreciated by the giver and the recipient.
OwlCrate & OwlCrate Jr. – For Book Geeks
This is a subscription box is specifically for tweens (click on the OwlCrate Jr link in the menu bar on their site) & for teens (the original OwlCrate for YA lit fans)!
Each month, one book/author is featured along with a slew of other amazing book-related items! Gorgeous prints that can be framed for their room, notebooks, jewelry, bookmarks, coloring items — so much teen fun that they will actually hug you when the box comes 🙂
As you can see in the photo above, we’ve laid out the contents of one of the boxes.
AND OwlCrate now has a box for kids ages 7 – 12 years old too! Click on the OwlCrate Jr. box link in the menu to see what’s coming this month — it’s perfect for chapter book lovers and read aloud families. Boxes have a themed each month and inlclude a newly released middle grade novel along with awesomely fun items (bookmarks, pins, notebooks, coloring supplies, etc)
What we LOVE about OwlCrate:
- The crazy amount of QUALITY STUFF they include in each box! Seriously, it’s so worth the money for this box as the recipient will clearly receive a number of items that are valued at more than the subscription price.
- That all the items AREN’T related to the book — because sometimes the book might be a huge hit and other times, your reader will be more attracted to all the other items.
- You can pause your subscription at any time! Always a great plus with older readers because life can get busy and you might just want the boxes to show up during school holidays & breaks.
- There’s always something super unique – OwlCrate does a great job of finding artists and non-mainstream items to include in their packages.
- It’s really geared for older kids! Honestly, it’s hard to find subscription boxes in this age range — you don’t want them reading adult books yet (there’s just too much amazing YA lit out there to move them to adult titles!!) and they are too old for the chapter book boxes. OwlCrate is perfect for 12 – 18 year old book lovers!
- The kitschy, classic and vintage feel of the items that appeal to this group of readers — if you raise tween & teen readers, than you know that paper/pencil still rules and they appreciate different fonts, typeset and graphics — and the folks at OwlCrate know this too.
The Adventurous Mailbox — For Kids who want to Travel
The Adventurous Mailbox is a gorgeous set of 8 books that explore the culture, myths & legends from Finland, Taiwan, Brazil, Thailand, Greece, Tanzania and Peru (two books for this country). Every story has hand-drawn illustrations too. They are perfect for kids who enjoy traveling, wanderlust and mythology!
The books can be ordered as a boxed set (which are shipped from abroad with international packaging & postal stamp!) or as a set of e-books for online readers!
And as a special offer, you can receive 20% off the book packages using the code: HH2017 NOW!
What we LOVE about The Adventurous Mailbox:
- The AMAZING details included for each of the countries — the Appendix in each book is outstanding! And these are ‘not your ordinary’ details either — it’s more like hanging out with a friend from that country and they were telling you all the legends and lesser known tidbits about the people and culture.
- The folklore and myths that are woven into each book in the series! If you have kids who love mythology from around the globe, this is for them!
- The fact that these are ‘grown up’ reads — filled with intrigue, expanded vocabulary and adventure!
- The stories are great for all types of readers — kids ages 8 to 12 will love the illustrations and storyline while enjoying that these are shorter books with a more narrative, diary-style format (so fun to read instead of overwhemling).
- The extensive resources online — Kids will have access to games & activities at Crameye’s World while educators and homeschool families can utlize the Teacher’s Lounge where you’ll find lesson plans, printables and Common Core standards.
Be sure to order EARLY & use the discount code: HH2017! Packages include shipping & handling but since they are from abroad, you’ll want to allow a few weeks for them to get here in time.
Mysteries in Time: For Kids who Love History
This is a new subscription box that we hope will be around for a LONG time because history is such a cool thing! (see our post on 9 Totally NOT Boring History Movies if you don’t believe me!)
Myteries in Time is a monthly history experience in a box that takes your kids back in time in such a cool way!
In each “Time Machine” (I love that they call it that!), you’ll find an illustrated book that follows Max & Kate as they adventure through different periods of history, hands-on crafts for that time period, stickers, coloring pages & pencils, word puzzles, timeline stickers & more!
The first box (Ancient Egypt) includes a map and timeline that can be used with each box you receive. They also have a smaller subscription (the Classic Pack) that comes without the crafts & history artifact if you’d just like the learning part of the box).
See all the details about the topics & themes for the Mysteries in Time boxes!
What we LOVE about Mysteries in Time:
- An affordable way to share & learn history! With two types of boxes and SO many items included, this is another subscription that’s TOTALLY worth the money.
- Each box includes a different time in history: Ancient Egypt, Wartime Britian, Ancient Greece, The Wild West, Elizabethian History, The Aztecs and more to come.
- It can easily be used with more than one child — so if you have more than one history nut in the house, there’s enough to share & do together.
- Each box is personalize & addressed to your child!
- Subscriptions can be for 1, 3 or 6 months – very flexible! And you can cancel at any time.
- Perfect for this age group! The boxes are geared for ages 7 – 11 years of age which is the time when kids really begin to get interested in history and ancient societies.
Book-Related Gift Ideas
One of the items that was use EVERY DAY in our house was a reading chair. One of those kid-sized, soft chairs that our kids could move around to any room they wanted to in order to get comfy.
I ADORE the reading chairs from Land of Nod (psstt.. they’re all on sale right now too!)
Or if you have tweens and teens, the Big Joe Dorm Chair is the perfect chair for them — it’s a cross between a bean bag and reading chair!
Some of our favorites (pictured above) are the 3 Sprouts Storage items with their animal themes!
This was crucial to building readers in our house — it would inspire reading time anywhere! We could bring our bin to the car, put it in the living room for reading session, bring it outside during the summer and enjoy storytime on a beach blanket. Such a great way to have regular time with books!
More Unique Ideas
Book ‘gear’ — yes, they have book gear just like sports gear 😉 My husband laughs at that but it’s true!
A Library system that kids can use at home! Isn’t this the coolest!
The Knock Knock Personal Library Kit
Reading lights and head lamps, book display, reading pillows (which are super for car trips and help kids to read with good posture).
Fans of Hogwarts will adore this Harry Potter lined journal where they can record their reading lists & book reviews!
And don’t forget things like a Kindle/ereader — the Fire Tablet with Special Offers ais great for tween & teens and the Fire Kids Edition Tablet with Kid-Proof Case
Readers are crucial if you want to bring books with you these days and you can Join Amazon Kindle Unlimited 30-Day Free Trial
Happy Reading!