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Background This being my first attempt at reviewing a book, I would appreciate any comments and suggestions that you have. This is the first of hopefully many reviews covering books about freebies and bargains. What's the Book About? Free Stuff for Kids is an annual book (in its 25th edition) covering hundreds of free, and almost free offers that children can send in for through postal mail. By almost free, I mean SASE (self-addressed stamped envelope) and up-to-a-dollar offers. Unlike the offers in the Weekly Freebie Compilation, these almost-free freebies will cost a minimum of 34 cents (the cost of a stamp) to request, but the offers listed in the book are all guaranteed through 2002. Labeled as a "Children's Activity" book, Free Stuff for Kids promises to keep your kids busy mailing requests, and eagerly waiting for their free stuff to arrive. What's Good? As a book geared toward kids, I found the book to be very well written and organized. At the beginning are very clear instructions on how to make requests, while the included requests checklist proved to be quite useful in getting kids to follow the instructions (now if only doing my taxes could be so easy!). The free stuff are broken into a variety of categories (see table of contents listing at the end of the review). Some of the freebies range from stickers and stamps to bracelets and baseball cards, guaranteeing interest for both boys and girls. What's Bad? Nothing is really bad about the book, but I found a few areas that were lacking. While the variety and quality of these freebies are excellent, I found that almost two-thirds of them are either SASE and up-to-a-dollar "freebies". While the cost is negligible, it would have been nicer to have more free "freebies". Also, I found the Internet section to be quite lacking, as there are only a few sites listed, and you can generally find many more better and entertaining sites through a kids directory like Yahooligans. What's the Verdict? Since I'm not a kid, the ultimate test for this book would be to let a kid decide. Recruiting my 10 year old niece, I gave her the book and let her at it. She was able to complete most of these requests without adult supervision, though I found that this activity was perfect to spend some quality time with them helping pick freebies. She found lots of stuff that she liked, such as the Friendship Bracelets, Stick-On Earrings, Hologram Stickers, and Troll Pencil Topper. If your child's handwriting isn't the best, as was the case with my niece, typing up the requests in a computer might be the best option to make sure the requests go to the right address. After mailing out the requests, she spent the next few weeks rushing to the mailbox looking for her freebies... it's simply amazing how much joy they can get from getting mail "just like the grown-ups". In the day and age of TV and video games, it's nice to see that something as simple as this can provide as much fun as those other activities. You can purchase the book from amazon.com.
Instructions
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