The Only Gift Guide for a 10-Year-Old You’ll Ever Need

When I polled my fellow Strategist parents aboutthe best kids’ stuff they bought in 2025,New Yorkfeatures editor Julia Edelstein included this Silent Basketball that bounces quietly enough to not disturb anyone and helps keep her two sports-fanatic tween sons off screens when it’s too cold to play outside.

New Yorkfeatures writer Kathryn VanArendonk says both of her tween daughters count boba and “things that squish” among their favorite things. Though retailers like Amazon, Target, and Claire’s sell a huge variety of squishies, VanArendonk specifically called out the stress balls and fidget toys from NeeDoh, which come in a wide range of designs and tend to be higher quality. TheNeeDoh Nice Cubeand this larger Nice Berg are among the most popular shapes NeeDoh makes, but they tend to sell out fast online (be sure to check your local independent toy store for other designs, as many carry products from the brand).

This building toy is similar to LEGO, but on a more minute scale: The brand’s smallest single-unit bricks measure just five millimeters long and are easilydwarfed by an equivalent LEGO piece. The tiny proportions make the building process painstaking, but there’s a wide variety of kits, including licensed characters fromSanrioandPokémonand famous places and landmarks like theEiffel TowerorOsaka Castle.

Strategist senior editor Winnie Yang bought this fast-paced party game as a birthday gift for one of her 10-year-old daughter’s friends. It’s played in short rounds where kids partner up, draw a card, and try to “match minds” by shouting the same word to fill the blank — before time runs out.

For crafty 10-year-olds who want more of a challenge than stringing beads, this kit comes with everything they’ll need to make embroidery floss bracelets they can trade with their friends.

With so many incredible graphic novels written for elementary-school kids, there is a lot of interest among 10-year-olds in drawing and making their own comics. This book is full of individual boxes, prompts, and activities to help kids start without getting overwhelmed.

In her guide to thebest kids’ books of 2025, Strategist contributor Youngna Park included the second book in theImpossible Creaturesseries based on a recommendation from artist and designer Erin Jang, whose fourth-grade son “devoured” the first book. In the first book, Mal and Christopher embark on a wild adventure to save the world’s last remaining magical creatures across an archipelago at risk of disappearing. The book is full of dozens of illustrations, including a map and a bestiary of magical creatures.

My husband is a fourth-grade teacher, and he and his students recommend this middle-grade book series, which also made our list of thebest books to give to big kids. It follows four middle-school athletes — Ghost, Patina, Sunny, and Lu — who are chosen to compete on an elite track team. Each one gets their own book that dives into their different backstories and motivations for being on the team.

TweenMinecraftfansalways appreciate Minecoins currency cards to purchase new skins, textures packs, maps, and more.

Similarly,Robloxplayers can put a Robux gift card toward customizing their avatar with clothing and accessories, buying other in-game goodies, and unlocking paid premium game features.

Kelly Harris Smith, founder of children’s art space Minni, told us that her family loves spreading out a big puzzle to work on together over the course of a long weekend. This 500-piece puzzle from Le Puzz is challenging enough to entertain both kids and adults, with a cute and silly payoff at the end.

Thames and Kosmos’s water-and-air-powered-vehicle building kit contains everything you need to create six different models, including a jet-propelled boat, water-rocket car, and even a working sprinkler for the lawn. Strategist contributor Ebony Roberts also featured it in our guide to thebest STEM toys.

Edelstein told me that Lululemon’s Everywhere Belt Bag, specifically in the 1L size, is enduringly popular among 10-year-olds at her sons’ school. It comes in a bunch of different colors and can fit keys, a wallet, lip balm, a couple of pens or pencils, and a phone (if they have one). It also has a hidden exterior zipper pocket in the back for valuables or top-secret notes.

Learning to knit or crochet is a wonderful (screen-free) way for kids to make stuff, and there are dozens of kits that make it fun and easy. I love the ones from Woobles that let kids crochet their very own stuffed animals and characters, like Woodstock fromPeanuts. There is also a kit for makinga little jacket and hatfor Woodstock to wear.

Building sets like the ones from K’Nex allow kids to flex both their construction skills and creativity. This Adventure Wheels set comes with 480 pieces — including wheels, rods, and rotors, plus an instruction booklet that kids can use to build 35 models.

This collapsible version of cornhole conveniently zips up into an 11-by-11-inch bag and weighs less than five pounds, making it easy to store under a bed or couch and portable enough to bring to a park or a friend’s house.

Yang’s daughter has been wearing this Timex Snoopywatchlately, in part becausesmartwatchesand smartphones are banned in her school. It’s a good size (38 mm.) for tweens, with a retro look that’s very similar to avintage Snoopy watchthat I own.

Edelstein told me that after her son received this pair of Pit Viper sunglasses, which Mets left fielder Juan Soto wears, as a gift from his grandfather, he couldn’t wait to text all of his friends a photo of himself wearing them. As long as your giftee is responsible with their belongings, they’re a great big-ticket gift.

Since many 10-year-olds are starting to develop their musical tastes — from Sabrina Carpenter to Billie Eilish to whatever they’re currently hearing on TikTok or the soundtracks to their favorite video games — I asked the Strategist’s tech writer Jordan McMahon about the best Bluetooth speakers for tweens and teens. He recommended JBL’s Clip 4 because “it’s a fun speaker that they can carry with them to a friend’s house for a sleepover, or take to the park on a nice day.” It comes in more than 15 colors, or, if you’re not in a rush, you can order acustom versionthrough JBL that lets you add your own images and text.

This award-winning Brooklyn-based quarterly magazine is geared toward girls ages 5 to 12 years old. It’s full of vibrant illustrations, engaging activities, and stories written and inspired by legendary scientists, world-renowned artists, NASA engineers, U.S. senators, and Olympians. The magazine is also entirely ad-free. Trolio’s 10-year-old enjoysKazoo’s craft-project ideas most; over the summer, she built a working gumball machine out of cardboard based on instructions she found in one of the issues.

VanArendonk says that both of her daughters have become completely obsessed withThe Phoenix, a weekly comics magazine from the U.K. According to her, it’s designed for older elementary-school kids and is very popular in the U.K. but still relatively unknown in the United States. It is not cheap, but compared to kids’ magazines that are monthly or quarterly, you get a lot more for your money. It’s full of serialized and short comics that span multiple genres, as well as drawing guides, puzzles, and writing prompts. “We’ve been subscribers for two years and for a while, one of our biggest problems with it was that I refused to subscribe to two copies. But then there’d be a big argument about who got to read it first every week,” she says.

After a family trip to Japan, VanArendonk says that both of her kids became even more obsessed with anything Japanese or kawaii. So she got them each one of Sugio Mart’s Lucky Bags. There are over a dozen themes to choose from including Pokémon, Sanrio, Studio Ghibli, Sailor Moon, and more general kawaii bags all of which include a mix of snacks, capsule toys, stationery, beauty products, and plushies.

The ModRetro Chromatic is a modern handheld gaming console that is fully compatible with original GameBoy and GameBoy Color cartridges. But if you don’t have any original cartridges to hand down, it comes with an updated version ofTetris, and you can buy over a dozen other Chromatic games, from a trio of Atari classics to my personal favorite,Sabrina: Zapped. The shell is made of lightweight magnesium that is cool to the touch and available in seven colors. It takes three AA batteries, or you can play while plugged in using an included USB-C cable that also lets you connect with a friend for two-player mode. While it definitely counts as screen time, the Chromatic doesn’t require logging in to an account or downloading anything, and it’s never connected to the internet. In that way, it’s a lot like a dumb phone, which many parents will appreciate.

This 10,323-piece retro LEGOPac-ManArcade kit would make an amazing gift for kids who are into gaming. It has a four-way joystick, a light-up coin slot, an adjustable game-score display, spinning game characters, and a mechanical maze that mimics the chase between Pac-Man, Blinky, and Clyde. It also comes with a miniature ’80s-themed arcade scene. I included it on my list oftoys that are expensive but worth it, as well.

When we talked to parents and experts about thebest scooters for kids, Micro Kickboard was the most mentioned by a long shot. This two-wheel model — which most kids are ready for by age 10 — also features light-up LED wheels.

Whether they are listening to audiobooks before bed or watching a movie on a plane, a pair of wireless headphones is a greatgift for tweens. This pair from Beats has been recommended over and over by tweens and their parents.