What is a good birthday present for a girl who just turned 9?

My daughter is 9. She’s been reading Dork Diaries for the past year. She has a few friends who also read the series and they do a lot of swapping with each other. They run about $10 each at Walmart.

A pony, I always wanted a pony when I was that age.

One of my favorite books at that age was Scott O’Dell’s “Island of the Blue Dolphins”.

Alternately, perhaps a beginner’s acrylic painting kit and a value pack of canvases. That’s about $30 before the craft store coupon.

A pony ride for an hour. Or $30 worth of Harry Potter books, The first book hard cover could be $30 or you can get the first three books soft cover and send her another three next year and the last two the year after that.

Is build a bear still around? I got my sister a monkey from there when she was like nine or ten and she flipped, she absolutely loved it. He stayed her favorite stuffed animal for like a year or so, but he was eventually replaced by a succession of newer stuffed animals, until the last one a giraffe like two years ago.

My daughter has given a couple of friends bags – purses, backpacks, messenger bags that they color in. They have been a huge hit! Some brands are Cra-Z-Art, Just My Style, My Look… I’ve seen them at Michael’s, Target, AC Moore, Wal-Mart and on Amazon.

What about a 1Direction cd? Most girls that age looooove those UK boys! Just please, for the love of God, don’t get her any Justin Bieber junk! :D

Are her ears pierced yet? Most girls love earrings.

Three gifts that have gone over well with the nine-year-old in my life. She’s my best friends’ youngest. I try not to spend more than $20.

1)
A star wheel chart (this works best if you can deliver it on a clear night. Bring a flash light)
Link

2)
Ice cream maker
Link

3)
An inexpensive digital watch
Link pink watch
Link, black watch

You need to find out her interests first. Art materials, music, jewelry, makeup ( fun stuff, not little miss hooker fare.) Movie passes for her and a friend with accompanying fountain allowance for popcorn, candy a drinks would probably be a big hit.
Gift cards too…let her find her own gift.

+1 for Coloma

You need to find out her interests first

On CD’s: My 10-year-old niece would look at a CD the way I’d look at a record if I received one as a gift. Uh, thanks, but an iTunes gift card would’ve been great. The only place CD’s are any good anymore is the car (where you can also hook up your iPod), on a computer (where you can access your iTunes library), or in a CD player (which hardly anyone under 20 has anymore). Otherwise, they just take up space.

If she doesn’t have one yet, get her an iPod. A 1G shuffle is about $30. As I’ve mentioned, the kids get a lot of use out of them. Embrace technology.

On Harry Potter: The HP fan base is a bit older than 9.

Cash is always good… You can buy a five dollar card with $25 inside.

An instrument lesson. Something to tryout and see…

I emailed the mom and she told me the girl likes “The Warriors” series of books, which I see from Amazon is like a sci-fi thing where the characters are cats. There are a bunch of them and the mom told me which ones the girl already read. They look like good books and maybe my daughter will be reading them when she is old enough.

She said the girl also likes crafts and stuffed animals. I decided to get 3 paperbacks plus one of the boxed sets of six, which totals around $40. I could do the 3 paperbacks plus some crafts, as another option. Will order from Amazon today and get it by Wednesday.

Thanks for letting us know! I’ll have to see if my daughter is familiar with those books. It looks like something she would really love.