Holiday Gift Idea #8: Wings to Fly

Bartholomew Biddle and the Very Big Wind, by Gary Ross, illustrated by Matthew Myers, Candlewick, $17.99, ages 6 and up, 96 pages, 2012.

A boy flies away from home to escape his ordinary life, only to discover that he misses his parents, his tasks and routines.

In this exhilarating poem by film director Gary Ross, Bartholomew Biddle straps on a bedsheet and soars out of his window at night to see what the world has to offer.

"'Why, that looks like fun! / Just look at those trees! They're bending in half -- yeah, that's quite a breeze,'" he says, as a wind blows in to carry him away.

In bare feet and pajamas, Bart paraglides out over houses and cars, and fancies himself the "World's Best Bedsheet flier."

"'Wow, this isn't bad!' / he said, swooping and soaring, / buzzing the rooftops while / people were snoring."

5. Pick Me! Pick Me!

Clink

Written by Kelly DiPucchio

Illustrated by Matthew Myers

Balzer & Bray, 2011

$16.99, ages 4-7, 32 pages.

A run-down robot named Clink dreams of belonging to a child, but none of the children who come to the toy shop seem to want a toy like him.

He's got loose springs, and his selling points seem to be duds. All he can do is play music and pop out burned toast from the toaster that's his noggin.

Children nowadays want robots with zing -- which is what every other robot in the shop seems to have.

Clink's robot friend Zippy has retractable arms that twirl out and grab things, and Penny, wow.

She can bake cookies with one arm and do math homework with the other. What child wouldn't want that?

Poor Clink, all he does is "Plink! Plop!" and fizzle.