DD is 9, but for her friends that are boys - they LOVE getting gift cards. I got one a gift card to a book store and he LOVED it. I packaged it in a book - think old school... Hardy Boys, Boxcar Children. Boys also love to read the Guiness Book of World Records - always a hit at the school library or book fairs. There's also a Dr. Seuss Book - My book about Me. They fill it in. DH had it when he was little and we were reading through it with DD when she was 8 - it was awesome! The drawings and little things he filled in were SO cute!!!
Oh - another book series that's cute for boys - The Mouse and the Motorcycle by Beverly Cleary. Cute story, pretty easy read, and series is 3 books long, published in 1965, but still relevant in with today's youth. Another that DD's 2nd grade teacher read - SuperFudge. It's a series of 4 books by Judy Blume, published in 1980, but that whole class, boys and girls in 2012- they were riveted!
Oh, also, DD LOVES
National Geographic Kids - it's all about animals and it's actually really interesting! (DD got a subscription as a gift).
Maybe I'm a boring gift giver, but we're not raising our kid in a tech-heavy youth... Many kids that come over to play absolutely LOVE the more simple things we do - imaginary play, dolls, etc. It's not what they're used to at home, where they always have some kind of screen in front of them - Computer, video game, tablet, phone. We do play wii, but they normally want to do that for just a little bit and return to a board game, painting, or looking through DD's shelves and shelves of books, or begging DD to teach them how to knit or make friendship bracelets (so they can pick from her string stash - she has quite a collection of color choices) - ha!
Anyway, we find that a small
lego set, a book, and a gift card to a book store for $10 is a great go-to gift from our family. We personalize it to their interests - what kind of lego set, what kind of book, and then the receiver gets to pick their own book with the gift card.