Newly released books or board games for 8-year-olds?

[ciw]

I usually have some idea up my sleeve (if I don't already have a gift in the closet) for children's birthday gifts. But my niece's birthday is fast approaching and I've got....nada.
She doesn't like any of the trappings of most girls her age -- hates dolls, Barbie and stuffed animals and wants nothing to do with American Girl, anything Disney, Hannah Montana or High School Musical. She could care less about sports.
Hits in the past have been science kits, National Geographic toys, a butterfly farm, an ant farm, games and science books. But since her interests are so limited, I think she's probably received every game, science kit and Nat'l Geo. toy already. Any ideas for unusual games/books that she may not have or anything that's been newly released in just the past year?

[SnuggleBuggles]

Check out Borders or Barnes and Noble for some of the Think Fun brain teasers. They had a big assortment of $7 ones last time I was there and they all looked like fun!

Is she willing to play with Legos? How about Bakugan? They were a hit with boys and girls last year.

How about some movies? Princess Bride or Spy Kids?

Beth

[egoldber]

Has she read The Diary of a Wimpy Kid books? Those are great.

Books that are classics are always good too, like Little House on the Prairie.

And I agree that the ThinkFun games are great.

How about unuusal card games? Things like Blink, Zigity, Set, etc.

[vonfirmath]

If you can't come up with anything, I'd give her a gift card to a book store to pick out her own gift.

[ciw]

Thanks, the brain teasers and card games sound perfect!! (Actually, I must have actually said "perfect" when I read your posts b/c now my 18 month old is wandering around the house saying, "per-fic, per-fic, per-fic" :ROTFLMAO: ) I'm pretty sure she has some of the brain teasers already but I'll have to check which ones.

[ett]

Check out Barnes and Noble for their expanded toys and games section. I was there a while ago and saw they were carrying games by Foxmind.

http://www.foxmind.com/en/

They look pretty cool and I have never seen them in any other stores before, so she probably won't have any of those.

I'm thinking of picking up one of their games for DS1 for Christmas.

[Momof3Labs]

Blokus is an awesome game for that age.

DS1 has a blast with the Pictionary card game (around $6 at Target). Uno is a great classic. A chess set?