I highly recommend that before you do any shopping, whether it be birthday, graduation, gift gifving for the holidays, Christmas shopping, whatever the reason, you visit the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission web site and view products that have been recalled.  You can simply visit the web site:  cpsc.gov/cpscpub/prerel/prerel.html  to see if any items, toys or not, that you may be shopping for may have been pulled off the shelves of your favorite store.

You may view by product type, company, product description, hazard, country of manufacture.  They not only list toys but child products (not including toys), household items, sports and recreation products, outdoor products and speciality items.   You can go back as far as 1973 and view items that may have safety alerts or have actually been recalled.   This is a great tool for parents, grandparents, anyone shopping for kids, young and old alike!

Wooden toys, PC notebook computer batteries (by Sony, Hewlett-Packard, Toshiba and Dell Notebook Computers), cribs, wireless guitars, Hasbro Nerf Blasters, outdoor play sets, all terrain vehicles, childrens necklaces, CD and MP3 players - just too many to name - all have been recalled as recent as October 2008.

Be safe, be aware and do your homework!  Your children's safety should be your first priority, big kids, little kids, children of all ages.  Take a moment to browse the web site and make sure you are buying a safe and compliant toy, item or prouduct.

Good luck!