In case you’re thinking of your own Christmas list, and you’re not planning to craft your own presents (you big chicken), may I suggest a book?

I know, I know. You’re bowled over in surprise. (By the way, have you heard of that 50 Questions series? I hear it’s all the rage for Christmas…)

No, no. That’s not what I was going to recommend. I was going to suggest that for all the middle-grade girls on your list, you check out Christy Goerzen’s Farmed Out. Christy is a member of my most-awesome-writing-group-ever, and her book, in my highly biased but still reliable opinion, is wonderful.

I’ll prove it. Christy had a launch a couple weeks ago in Surrey. The day before the event she sent out a message on Facebook that read something like, “Should I read the part where the mom writes on the goat butts in lipstick, or the part where she does reiki on the pigs?”

Now, if you buy the book, you get to read BOTH those sections. Or at least the gift recipient does.

If you can’t give a handmade gift for Christmas, giving a goat/lipstick/reiki experience is the next best thing.