Top 10 Gifts for Children Ages 8 and Up 

Best Grandparent/Grandchild Toy/Activity:

Jet Hawk 1 Air Powered Glider (Uncle Milton) Ages 10 and up, $49.99 -- This glider, launched from a pistol-grip handle, is tailor-made for grandparent-grandchild quality time, especially if either grandparent or grandchild has a love of airplanes. Although the craft is marked for ages 10 and up, we strongly agree with the recommendation for adult supervision and would not advise giving it to pre-teens for their own entertainment. It takes a sizable amount of arm strength to pump the air-powered launcher, and hand strength to pull the launching trigger -- quickly exhausting our almost-11-year-old tester. We found a better arrangement was to have an adult do the launching instead, letting the kids race after the glider to retrieve it for another flight. The glider is engineered to launch only when pointed up at a steep angle; this ensures that the craft flies in a high arc, adding a measure of safety while conveniently shortening the horizontal flight distance. As long as an adult's handling the launcher, the flight (and retrieval duty) could easily entertain much younger children who like to run, making this an ideal excuse for an outing to the nearest large field.

Best Building Toy

Big Air Ball Tower (K'nex) Ages 10 and up, $99.99 --  Our 10-year-old expert builder managed to assemble this enormous contraption in just two days, even though, at 5 feet, it's taller than he is. A vacuum device at the bottom of the tower shoots plastic balls up through a tube to the top. From there, the balls may go randomly down any of three paths that involve tubes, tunnels, ramps, a trampoline, a loop-de-loop, a spinning wheel, and a pivot, ultimately dropping back into the vacuum device for another round. The structure takes a lot of adjustment to keep the balls on track, so this is best for a creative builder who likes to tinker, and who may enjoy coming up with alternate paths and solutions for difficult bits. Says our tester, "It's really cool. I'd suggest it to anyone who likes creations that go a lot of different ways and who doesn't mind taking a little while to build." The instructions let you choose either a small or large version; although our tester plunged right in with the big one, he suggests that trying the smaller version first could help builders gain experience. Requires four D batteries.

Best Doll

Nellie (American Girl) Ages 8 and up, $90.00 
Want to introduce your granddaughter to dolls with history?  Check out American Girl dolls.  Our 9-year-old tester, loved her American Girl doll Nellie who arrived dressed in a white dress with white tights, Mary Jane shoes, and cotton underwear. She is 18 inches tall and has a soft, huggable body with arms and legs you can pose. Brush her shiny hair and tie it up with her big blue hair ribbon.  Nellie is an orphan in 1906 who lives with Samantha (the other new American Girl doll this holiday season.)  The story is about friendship, trust and fulfilling the promise she made to her dying mother - keeping the family together.  Special Note:  Samantha: An American Girl Holiday airs on November 23rd on the WB.

Best Craft Kit

Beauteous Beads (The Bead Shop) Ages 8+, Our reviewer raved about this kit which was tested by her 8-year-old and this is what she had to say, "this kit is great! My 8-year-old jumped right in following both pictures and instructions with ease. The bracelets came out great - I took one for myself - they were easy to make and you were rewarded quickly with the results."

Best Boy Toy

Alien Racers (MGA Entertainment) Ages 6 and up, $49.99 According to the mother of our tester, "this toy has provided hours of entertainment and delight for my 8-year-old son and his friends. The ghoulish skeleton rider races around in his ghost car at high speed and in any direction at the whim of the remote control operator. The car wins highs praises from the boys for it's amazing maneuverability when put through obstacle courses in the driveway -- including dashing over a skateboard jump. They also loved the detail on the car, including a hood that raises and lowers remotely and a ghostly appearance. One objection from the boys was that the skeleton figure did not attach tightly enough to the car, given its proclivity for high speed adventure, thus causing the figure to bounce out of the car and lose it's way in the shrubbery. Even without it's skeleton driver, however, the Alien Racer continues to delight and entertain."  Note:  This system requires a 9 volt battery and charger that retails for $19.95 and is sold separately. 

Best Girl Toy

Disney Princess Jewelry Box/CD Player (Disney)
$39.99 SRP -  According to our 8-year-old reviewer "this is just the best."  She loves that she can store her jewelry and "treasures" in the jewelry box and play music in her own room!  The jewelry box has small storage compartments in the side where she can hide little things, there's a mirror on the top.  The best part though is the sound.  Her mom says that she has it on her night stand and she listens to stories on CD at bedtime.  She is also enjoying playing CD's in her room when her friends come over.  The Disney Princess CD Player/Jewelry Box features 24-track programmable CD memory, CD/CD-R/CD-RW playback, built-in stereo speakers; bass boost system and AC operation.

Best Electronic Gadgets

Intellivision 25  (Intellivision) $19.99 Now you can play your favorite Retro 80's style games without a console or computer! Just plug Intellivision 10 or Intellivision 25 into your TV set, or car DVD system and away you go! According to the mother of our eight year old tester who plays video games both on the TV and on the computer she found this system easy to navigate and extremely captivating! "We plugged it into our car's DVD player during one of our long drives and it kept her going for 2 hours of the trip!! She's never played the old style games of the 80's but there were NO complaints about the graphics or level of difficulty! This system is great for many reasons. It's plug and play and doesn't take up a lot of space. You don't have to download anything or install anything. The clean-up is simple...just unplug the system and put it away. There are NO tapes, CDs or cartridges to fiddle with, AND...it's FUN!!"  Each unit is a complete video game system - with games - built into a hand controller. An 8 foot cable from the controller plugs into the video and audio jacks found on the front of most modern TV sets. A menu displayed on your TV screen lets you choose from any of the games in the unit.

Spiderman  (Jakks Pacific) $24.99 What kid doesn't want to be spiderman?  In this game your child can assume the role of everyone's favorite neighborhood crime fighter and go up against enemies like the Green Goblin, Electro and more. There are five different games to choose from and each one is fun - they include:  Streets of the City, Vulture's Venture, Spider Training, Venom's Vindication, Escape from the Sewers.  Plug this into your car's DVD or VCR player and you've got a great toy for the road!

Best Travel Toys

Video Now (Hasbro) Ages 6 and up, $74.99 According to our 9-year-old tester, this is the "coolest."  Our reviewer had a black and white Video Now that she got for her birthday last year and she was hoping that one day it would come in color, and was thrilled that the day had arrived.  She loves the fact that you can actually see the pictures in the car in the dark.  She loved the selection of movies that include Trading Spaces, Sponge Bob, The Fairly Odd Parents and more. According to the mother of our reviewer, this is also a great gadget when you are waiting for your table at restaurants, and waiting to be seen by the doctor or dentist.

iQuest (LeapFrog) According to our tester, "the IQuest is great!"  Her mother loved that when her daughter is finished with her homework she wants to "play " with the iQuest. She also said that it is very easy for her daughter to navigate. She felt that the Math section is a great reinforcement for the skills that she needs help with and liked the fact that information is presented in such a way that she thinks it is a game -- constantly trying to get a better score. According to her mother, "if she had to do things over and over for school, she would view it as a chore.  However with the iQuest it's fun!"   Much of the information is in keeping with what she is learning at school. According to her mother "we absolutely love it and would definitely recommend it to others!" Ages 10 - 13, $59.99

Best Interactive Play

Robosapien (WowWee) Ages 6 and up, $99.99
This walking, grunting, dancing robot - actually invented by a rocket scientist! - promises to be the big-ticket toy of the season, guaranteed to impress every kid on the block.  Responding to commands from a hand-held remote, Robosapien can move body parts, grasp and drop items,
and run through pre-programmed routines. Our 8-year-old tester was able to learn how to operate him with a little help from an older sibling; the 11-year-old caught on quickly, and proceeded to program new routines for Robosapien to follow. For instance, he explains, "you can make him do a high-five whenever someone touches him or makes a loud sound. So if someone says 'hi' loud enough, he lifts his arm up and says 'Ayy!'" The company website offers more ideas for expanding the robot's repertoire. Parents should be warned that there's no way to adjust volume (though a little tape over the speaker helps tone him down). In addition to some grunts, dance music, and an occasional "ouch," Robosapien can produce a few less sophisticated noises that will amuse the kids to no end. The kids in our tester family soon learned to keep the ruder sounds to a minimum, but won Mom over by making the cute little guy wolf-whistle whenever she came in sight. Not surprisingly, Robosapien requires heavy-duty power: four D batteries for the robot, plus three AAA batteries for the remote. Marked for ages 6 and up, but younger kids will need some initial help.