The gift-giving season is on the horizon. What to get your children to entice them away from mind-numbing electronic devices and toward reading a stimulating book? How about one that has some connection to the Adirondacks? We recommend three that meet those criteria.

The hilarious “Eric the Skier,” by James B. Kobak Jr., with equally wacky illustrations by his son James III (HumorOutcasts Press, 2025), is intended for readers “8 to 80 and up,” proclaims the book’s back cover. Kobak Jr. explains that it “originated with stories I made up and told my family on long drives (from their downstate home) to the Adirondacks.”

Those road-trip tall tales must have had everybody laughing themselves silly. Eric, his siblings and their parents are, to put it mildly, eccentric over-achievers. Eric himself wins Winter Olympics gold in three events at age 6. Never without his ultra-long yellow skis, he schusses the world in search of perpetual snow, carrying half a ton of it in his backpack in case he can’t find the real stuff. Fantasy comes to life in the children’s adventures as Kobak weaves in history, songs, literary allusions and, perhaps most important, a real-life global problem. In serious undertones, this freaky family discovers ways to educate humanity about that problem.

“The Most Marvelous Moose-Call Contest” (Adirondack Kids Press, 2024) is number 21 in “The Adirondack Kids” series of books for young readers by the father-and-son duo Gary and Justin VanRiper, with homespun art by wife and mother Carol. Aimed at ages 7-12 (“the sweet spot is 3rd to 5th grade,” said dad Gary), it is set mostly in Indian Lake.

This is fiction plugged into a factual event — the moose-calling contest that is part of Indian Lake’s Great Adirondack Moose Festival (www.indianlakegtheater.org), held each fall. Youngster Nick Barnes decides to enter the contest, and the tale proceeds, in often unpredictable ways, from there.

Two actual living beings inhabit this otherwise made-up story: Dax, the VanRipers’ cat, and Bloomingdale’s naturalist, guide and author Ed Kanze, host of the real contest and “a tremendous help to us on this latest volume,” Gary VanRiper said. Kanze stars in one of a series of addenda that run from moose behavior, through the theater where the contest takes place, to family photos. Despite some grammatical difficulties (punctuation is uneven, and there is no “the” in Smokey Bear), this book is a clever blend of the true and the fanciful.

What does a book set in California’s Yosemite National Park have to do with the Adirondacks? “First Ascent” (Yosemite Conservancy, 2025) is written by best-selling author, regional resident and Adirondack 46er Kate Messner. And its topic is mountaineering. A large-format book with minimal text and featuring marvelous big illustrations by rock-climber Stevie Lewis, it seems aimed at the lower elementary grades and pre-school.

The 45-page book — plus excellent concluding notes, on such matters as rock-climbing technicalities and further resources, meant for parents or teachers — tells the true story of Royal Robbins and Warren Harding, very different but equally laser-focused guys who were determined to be the first to pioneer routes on two of the world’s most famous and daunting rock faces, Yosemite’s Half Dome and El Capitan. They start out working together, but soon become rivals in pursuit of glory. Where does their relationship go from there? Messner’s account is a lesson in respect for exceptional abilities as well as for differences, with an editorial aside addressed to those who think they have conquered mountains. Peak-baggers, take note.

All three of these books will hold a young person’s interest. And like any good “kid lit,” they also convey important morals.