GIFT GUIDE 2008
High School Gifts
From toys that stand the test of time to board games that are anything but boring, we found the best high school products that will build your teen's brain, as well as being chock full of fun. Our list of loot is kid-tested, teacher approved, and full of options for any family, so get wrappin'!
When We Left Earth
A collaboration between the Discovery Channel and NASA, to celebrate 50 years of space exploration, this 4-DVD collection contains 12 hours of footage, much of it never before seen. This is much more than a cursory look at the history of the space program and a must for space lovers!
How to Be an Explorer of the World: Portable Life Museum
Think of this less as a book and more as a guide to individuality, creativity, self-expression, and positive thinking. This tome teaches that everything around us--from coffee cup rings on notebooks to a crumpled up leaf--is the stuff of great art, and merits closer observation and analysis.
Hike the Continental Divide
What do Montana, Wyoming, Colorado, and New Mexico have in common? They're all part of the Great Continental Divide. Give your teen the chance to experience its beauty with a multi-day volunteer trip.
Lightsnake Podcasting Kit
Podcasting is a great way for a teen to get her voice out to a limitless audience on the Web, in a creative and safe venue. This program comes with a microphone, editing software, plus a one-year subscription to Acidplanet Prozone, an online host for her podcast. Terry Gross, watch out!
iPod Touch with Nike Plus iPod Sport Kit
What if your iPod could talk to your running shoes? Well sometimes truth is stranger than fiction, because guess what? It can. Thanks to a collaboration between Apple and Nike, all new iPod Touch and Nanos now come ready to step in as Personal Trainer.
Paradice
At first glance, this colorful wooden set looks more like a coffee table conversation piece than a board game. But despite its eye-catching aesthetic, Paradice is a complex and multifaceted strategy game that demands focus and creative visuo-spatial reasoning.
The Other Side of the Island
Honor and her family live on Island 365, where the sky is covered by a rigid enclosure that regulates the weather, and the population is governed by a mysterious ruler and her Corporation. Like 1984 for the modern teenage set, this chilling look at a possible future reads like a rocket.
Olympus Stylus SW 850 Digital Camera
If you've ever wished parenting a teenager would be shock-proof, you're in for a disappointment. But, lucky for you, there's the next best thing: a digital camera that can not only survive a drop of five feet, it's also waterproof, dust-proof and freeze-proof.
BBC Knowledge Magazine
With this science-forward magazine, teens can learn how cheetahs take care of their cubs, what scientists know about the nature of consciousness, or how online worlds will be used in the 21st century as virtual science labs. This is one glossy you'll be glad to catch your child reading.
Crestone Backpack
Your high school kid may not be the hike-and-bike type, but all teens have this in common: they're about the pick up, move on, and seek adventure, whether it means going to college, traveling abroad, or just taking an extended weekend away.
Pocket Posh Puzzle Books
Now that your teen is in high school, toting a word search puzzle in her back pocket may be less than cool. That's why these puzzles are disguised as funky and fashionable notebooks that go with anything. The hipsters version of sudoku, word search, word roundup, and crossword puzzle books.
Cranium WOW
Cranium WOW is an updated version of the wildly popular board game, and it takes the cake for retaining the successful format, while adding new details that make the game more fun than ever. There's a challenge for everyone, whether you're a sketch artist, intellectual, thespian, or vocab pro.
Spore
This much-anticipated computer game will give your teen exactly what he's been hankering for--the chance to control his own universe! With a few clicks, your child is on his way to creating a civilization, starting from a single-celled organism and moving all the way up to a galactic super power.
Leatherman Juice CS4 Pocket Multi-Tool
Your teen may be able to talk his way out of any situation, but talking won't open cans, saw branches, or furnish four different screwdrivers to get the job done. That's where the Leatherman multi-tool comes in.
Tamar
Layered, exciting, and packed with secrets that unravel one by one, this award-winning book is the tale of two Allied spies who parachute into Nazi-occupied Holland during the winter of 1944, to help organize the Dutch Resistance movement.
Lightroom 2
This software makes plucking your best digital photographs a breeze, with cool features that let you sort your shoots, view the contenders side-by-side, and then slide your favorites into buckets, much like one might cluster favorite songs into playlists.
