Catch up on last week’s news! Read The Toy Book Toy Report for 11/24/09.

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Just under half of toy purchasers (45 percent) plan to buy children’s books this year. The figure rises to 48 percent for those who have children in their household. Almost half of those with children in the household (47 percent) will buy video games. Other top toy categories for shoppers will be board games (30 percent), dolls (29 percent), arts and crafts (28 percent), building blocks and bricks (21 percent), sports equipment (21 percent), and handheld electronic games (20 percent). Twelve percent of those surveyed said they will purchase game consoles this year.

For those who have children in their household, 45 percent say they will be spending less on toys this year compared to last year, 37 percent said they will spend the same amount, and 17 percent will be spending more. In total, 16 percent of toy shoppers said they will spend more on toys compared to last year, 41 percent will spend the same amount, and 39 percent will spend less compared to last year.