Christmas List for the Literary Teen by Ty Fischer

If your have a teen who loves reading here are some fun gift ideas for Christmas:

If they like Narnia, try this book: Planet Narnia by Michael Ward. This book relates Ward’s incredible discovery as he was doing doctoral work on Lewis. The Narnia Chronicles are described as being tied to one of the seven planets in the Medieval view of the Universe. It explains things like why Santa Claus shows up in The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe. Any teen that loves Narnia will be blown away by this book.

For those of you with children addicted to Lord of the Rings, you might want to try:

Matthew Dickerson’s incredible book A Hobbit's Journey. This book explores how Tolkien’s view on war, politics, wisdom, and the environment come out in his writings. Students that love LoTR will love this book.

Another good choice is Christopher Tolkien’s (this is JRR’s son) completion of one of his father’s unfinished works called The Children of Hurin. This book is a prequel to the LoTR trilogy. Be forewarned, if you are looking for a happy ending this might not be the book for you or your child!

Or how about a cool t-shirt like this: Mordor University. Mordor is the home of the great villain in LoTR. The shirt, however, is not a celebration of Sauron's evil, but instead savvy fun-poking at the one-eyed tyrant!

If board games and building civilization is what your child likes, a great place to start is Settlers of Catan. This board game is loads of fun for children 7th grade and up. It involves managing resources, building cities, and making deals on a game board that is a puzzle, so it is different each game. It also comes in Seafarers and Star Trek versions.

Finally, if you are looking for great Christmas gifts for the literary teen, try this (He or she will love them!):

Ambleside Poetry list (you have to page down a little before you see the links to the poets listed in each year)