Are You Standing in Line to Buy a Hatchimal?

  This is What’s Trending Today. Do you know someone who is looking for a Hatchimal? If you do not, you probably will soon. Hatchimals are popular gifts for children this holiday season. A Hatchimal is a small, soft toy that comes inside a plastic egg. The owner is supposed to care for the egg, holding it in their hands and keeping it warm. After a while, the toy will break open holes in the surface. Hatchimals are able to move and light up. They can also play simple games and repeat sounds made by the owner. Hatchimals arrived in stores across the United States in October. Since then, Americans have been buying them as holiday gifts for children. Each one sells for about $60. But some people predicted the plaything would be a trendy gift this year. Those wise investors purchased several Hatchimals. They are now re-selling them at three or four times the price. A lot of parents who hope to buy the playthings as gifts are not happy about that. There are stories of parents sleeping outside of stores that claim to have Hatchimals for sale, only to find out that very few are actually available. A news reporter collected stories from over the weekend. One New York woman reportedly waited outside a store from 11:30 at night until 8 the next morning. She was the seventh person in line. The store let the people in front of her buy two toys each. The store only had 12 for sale, so she missed out. The woman said her 8-year-old child will not be happy this Christmas. Many people are reacting to reports that writer Sara Gruen bought $23,000 worth of the toys. Gruen wrote the popular novel “Water for Elephants.” She bought 156 Hatchimals. She is selling them to raise money for the lawyers representing a man she said is in jail for a crime he did not commit. Some people are reacting on social media to the stories. One woman in Manchester, England posted on Facebook in November. She said the toy was not worth the money, and once her children played with her gift for a few hours, they did not want to play with it again. Her post was forwarded almost 80,000 times and attracted over 40,000 responses. Another mother left a comment saying her son was bored with the toy after a while. She said she plans to make him remember Hatchimals the next time he says “Mom, I need that toy.” And that’s What’s Trending Today. I’m Lucija Millonig.   Dan Friedell wrote this story for Learning English. George Grow was the editor. Are you hoping to buy a Hatchimal? Let us know in the comments section. _______________________________________________________________ Words in This Story   trendy – adj. currently popular or fashionable bored – v. to make (someone) tired and annoyed by being uninteresting or too much the same  toy – n. a child’s plaything novel – n. a written work that is usually long and complex, and deals with a series of events attract – v. to pull or move toward someone or something  

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