Party Time

We seem to get invited to a lot of children's birthday parties. Since we don't really watch any commercial television, it can be hard to know what is the "in" thing for children's gifts, and even if I know what the child's interests are, I worry that they will already have what I get for them. So I decided a few years ago that we would give books as gifts, pretty much all the time. I have a chest in my closet where I put great books I find in their school book order forms, at my library book store and half price books. When a party comes up- sometimes without much notice- I choose by age, interest, etc. I still have to shop sometimes but many times I am all set.
This weekend we went to a party for a neighbor girl who turned 9. That's third grade- so she got Muggie Maggie by Beverly Cleary, Judy Moody (1) by Meagan McDonald, an Arthur chapter book, and a Cam Jansen Chapter book. I also picked up something a little different at my half price books- The King of Things and the Cranberry Clown. It was an empowerment story and had beautiful water color full color illustrations by some well know cartoonist. I try not to get Princess/Barbie/Movie related etc stuff, only literature I would actually recommend to people.
Problem- this neighbor isn't that into reading- Answer- fine then she probably doesn't have these books! What if they have these already books? Well I figure they are easy to pass on to someone else. If it is above her reading level- she can have a read aloud with her Mom.
I don't think kids would be happy only receiving books and not getting Pokemon cards or stuffed toys, but I love that at the end of the day, they will have something in their pile that they can read. My husband says people will stop inviting us to parties if we keep giving books- that's OK too, a couple fewer parties might be nice.