Best gifts for nine-year-olds, approved by kids

Most nine-year-olds love Harry Potter or Lego (if not both), and all our mini testers agreed this detailed model of the knight bus from Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban is exactly the kind of gift they’d love to receive. The 499-piece build was tricky enough to hold their attention but straightforward enough for all levels of Lego enthusiasts to enjoy.

We love all the cool features in this triple-decker bus model – in particular, the swinging chandelier and moving beds. With four minifigures (including Harry Potter) as well as a Padfoot figure, there’s bags of play potential, and our young testers enjoyed playing with and displaying the bus once the build was complete. This is a fantastic, crowd-pleasing gift that had our testers hooked from the moment it arrived.

If you’re after a novel your nine-year-old won’t want to put down, The Wild Robot is an excellent choice. A firm favourite with our young testers, it’s a moving story about a robot stranded on a wild island. It has all the makings of a classic, and our testers raced through it, wanting to know what happens next.

With illustrations to keep reluctant readers engaged, the language and reading level are perfectly suited to nine-year-olds. The fact that it’s now a massively popular movie doesn’t hurt either. Part of a series of three books, this unforgettable story touches on family, the power of nature and unlikely friendships.

This compact and lightweight handheld gaming device is the perfect on-the-go alternative to the Nintendo Switch. It’s designed as a one-player console, but you can sync with up to eight other Nintendo Switch or Nintendo Switch Lite consoles to play against friends and family.

It’s fair to say our young testers are obsessed with the Switch Lite. It’s a nifty size – just right for taking on car journeys or trips away, although we suggest investing in a travel case to keep it scratch-free. The battery life is impressive, too – we tend to get around five and a half to six hours of play before it needs a recharge.

What we love the most is the huge choice of age-appropriate games. Mario Kart 8 Deluxe is addictively good, but Super Mario Bros Wonder and Minecraft were also big hits with our testers. If you’re after a big-ticket birthday present that will be used for years, you can’t beat the Switch Lite.

This personalised football makes a great birthday gift. You can choose from three different sizes of Mitre balls – children’s sizes three or four, or the full-size five – and all can be customised with a name, team name or even a short message. Our tester chose to have his name on the ball, and it’s quite possibly his proudest possession – definitely not one to lose over the garden hedge.

Unlike some other footballs for children, this is high-quality. The football comes in a choice of colours – we opted for the yellow, turquoise and black colourway, which, according to our young testers, is the coolest of the lot. The ball also comes fully inflated, so you can just wrap and gift it, without having to dig out the pump.

Nine-year-olds are information sponges, so anything that arms them with more facts to share will go down well. What’s The Actually Factually Difference? is a great concept for a non-fiction book. It compares two similar things – or things that kids often get muddled up – to get to the bottom of how they are different.

Covering an eclectic mix of topics, including the difference between a galaxy and the Milky Way, a glacier and a fjord, and a frog and a toad, this book is crammed with brilliant facts – we definitely learnt a thing or two. It's perfect for encouraging a love of independent reading, and the engaging illustrations bring the book together. We think it’s a brilliant gift for curious kids.

This electronic tag game is such a clever concept – it’s perfect for letting kids burn off some energy while having fun. The game features four targets of different colours and one hand-held ‘tagger’, and can be played in a variety of game modes for 1-10 players. You just need to spread out the targets – inside or outside – then follow the voice and light commands from the tagger, placing the device on top of the coordinating target before moving onto the next one.

It brought out our testers’ competitive sides as they raced against each other to complete the course in the quickest time. We couldn’t resist joining in and can confirm it’s huge fun. We love that this game can be set up anywhere; we’ve played it around the house on rainy days, in the garden when the sun came out and have even taken it to the local park and the beach. It’s a fantastic, versatile present that our young testers go back to again and again.

Another off-the-wall game from the makers of Exploding Kittens, Let’s Hit Each Other With Fake Swords is as delightfully bonkers as you’d expect. It’s a card game, but with the added twist of having to battle it out against your opponents using the foam (smiley-faced) swords included. Our nine-year-olds loved the chance to poke and bash each other (and us) with these soft swords. When our young testers played this game with their friends, all we heard was non-stop laughter.

While we were a little sceptical about how well these swords would cope with over-enthusiastic use, they are remarkably robust, showing no signs of damage or bending so far. We also like that the swords come apart, so everything can fit easily into one box.

Best of all, it’s quick to play, so there’s no repeats of those excruciating games of Monopoly that drag on for hours. This is such a fun game that it’s impossible not to get swept away by the silliness of it all, even for a grown-up.

This colourful 3D puzzle and logic game is a fun way to flex kids’ burgeoning problem-solving skills. Based around a dog agility course, featuring cute pieces such as a see-saw, ramp and tunnel, it’s an addictive one-player game that had our nine-year-old tester hooked.

Just pick one of the challenges from the booklet included – split into increasing levels of difficulty from ‘starter’ to ‘wizard’ – then place the dog and its trainer on the game board as indicated. Using the various obstacles, the player needs to create a path from the dog to the trainer, but with the dog only allowed to move in certain directions, and each obstacle only used once. It’s not as easy as it sounds. There are 60 different layouts to work through, with the solutions all hidden at the back of the booklet. There’s plenty of kid-appeal here – it’s perfect for whiling away boring car rides.

The Squishmallows obsession continues. These super-collectable cuddly toys have cult status, and the brand is renowned for launching new collections that sell out instantly. We adore the latest Stitch designs, which tie in with the upcoming Lilo & Stitch live-action movie, and each plush toy is perfectly cuddly and packed with character. Get ahead of the trend by picking up this adorable summery Stitch, complete with red sunglasses and a pink snow cone. Our young tester has declared this the “best Squishmallow ever”, which is high praise indeed.

Whether listening to their carefully curated Spotify playlist or giving their parents’ ears a rest while gaming, a pair of Bluetooth headphones is always going to be a welcome gift for nine-year-olds. This excellent value pair from groov-e is affordable but high-quality, designed specifically with kids in mind. Offering up to 20 hours of wireless battery life and an all-important volume limiter, these headphones do exactly what you need them to.

Our testers found them comfortable to wear, and they loved the chunky style of the ear pads. With an adjustable headband, the option to use with a cable and even a built-in hands-free mic, these foldable headphones look the part and do the job, all for less than £20.

This modern version of the classic marble run ticks a whole load of boxes, encouraging creative thinking and providing hours of fun. This starter set includes everything you need to create an impressive marble run, either following the track layouts in the booklet or making up your own. Our nine-year-old tester found it a little challenging to begin with, but with practice, he soon got the hang of it and made some cool runs of his own.

The stars of the show here are the mini trampoline elements, which help the marbles bounce along the track – we were all captivated by these and the spiral sections, which added another dimension to the kit. We like that you can buy expansion packs to add to your marble run, making this a versatile toy with long-lasting appeal.

With its smartphone-esque styling and easy-to-use features, the myFirst camera certainly delivered on tween appeal. The fact that it looks like a phone is a huge plus, as far as our nine-year-old testers are concerned, and we were pleasantly surprised with the picture quality, considering this is aimed at children. The camera comes with 16GB storage and, while you can add your own memory card, we felt this was plenty for our testers’ camera roll.

It feels like a durable piece of kit that would survive being in the hands of a nine-year-old photographer (although you may want to attach the neck lanyard included, to prevent drops), and we like that you can take photos and videos. While our testers loved being able to customise photos with stickers and drawings, the feature that created off-the-scale levels of excitement was the integrated selfie light.

You can pair the phone with the myFirst Circle app for children to share their photos within a select group of family and friends, and we appreciated the lack of built-in games, which are often distracting and simply encourage screen time. Overall, this is a fantastic standalone first camera.

This craft kit really delivers on its no-mess promise. Featuring more than 4,000 pieces in 16 colours, you simply slide the pixel-style pieces together to create sturdy designs that hold in place without the need for glueing or ironing. Our testers flexed their fine motor skills to create their own pixel artwork. We were very impressed with their concentration as they followed the templates in the instruction booklet. Our only gripe is that there aren’t many templates in the booklet to choose from. Instead, you’re encouraged to download templates from the website (for free).

The carry case is perfect for keeping everything organised, and it offers mess-free crafting. We think it’s a great kit to take on holiday or for weekends at the grandparents’. Our testers loved the cute designs they could create – think a smiley face lollipop and narwhal – and we love that it’s a craft activity they can enjoy independently.

Nothing caught our testers’ imaginations quite as quickly as this cute Disney-themed toy. Just open the lid of the box and you’re greeted with a little hologram character, which you can tap, tilt and swipe. The more you play, the more features and Disney characters you unlock, from Mickey Mouse to Nemo, and our testers spent hours playing games and looking after their characters to try and unlock new ones. Among our testers’ favourite features was the ‘magical movie moments’, where each character acts out one of its iconic moments from film in tiny holographic form.

There are so many ways to play with the Disney Bitzee and so many different features to unlock. We’d suggest reading the instructions properly to get an idea of how much play potential there is here – it offers hours of fun at a reasonable price.

Fully waterproof, with soft brushed sherpa lining, this changing robe is the ultimate gift for outdoorsy nine-year-olds. It comes in a generous 9-12 years size (smaller sizes are also available), and we found the zip-up design to be the perfect oversized fit, offering plenty of room for our tester to grow into. The Velcro cuffs helped get a good fit on the sleeves, while multiple pockets, including a zip-up inner pocket, were great sizes for storing all of our tester’s essentials (usually snacks).

Whether your child needs something to keep warm on the football pitch sidelines, after a surfing session, or (as in our case) before and after a cross-country run, we don’t think you can beat this robe. Our young tester was the envy of his mates, and we love that the robe is made from recycled plastics and is designed to last. The undeniable quality and roomy fit more than justifies the price tag.