perfect birthday present for eight/nine/ten year old

I get up first on weekday mornings in our house. Closely followed by my thirteen year old. I start making the lunches and he gets his own breakfast and asks me when he will be allowed get 18 rated computer games. (When he is eighteen. Funny how that seems to take so long to sink in.) His three younger brothers come down gradually, one by one, and take their sleepy places on the stripey couch. This morning one of them had a book, which he read to his brother.

D C Superpets Character Encyclopedia. (Please ignore the state of our couch. We tried to clean it last week and made it worse.)

They read it on the couch, and then brought it over to the table, to keep them company over breakfast.

It did slow things down a bit but something always does. We made it to school just in time all the same. This book is just over €11 and is quite substantial. It occurred to me that it would make the perfect birthday present for an eight, nine or ten year old. Actually for anyone who can read. Its graphic novel-ish and funny and definitely cool. In fact, think I'll order a few myself.