Thirded. Sort of.

I had an encyclopedia while growing up, which gave the ability to address an intellectual interest on a topic, and just browse and see interesting things too. I read a lot of that. I don't know that kids get a lot of encouragement to read non fiction.

I like your impulse to physicality. There's something to be said for a book as a fixed object that you have a relationship with. You get a sense of completion, advancement, and accumulation that way. I don't know that it has to be a physical object, however, just something with object permanence. Khan Academy might be an alternative. A growing collection of knowledge, which will display to you your growing body of knowledge. I'm sure I would have liked that as a kid.

Some basic tools and a pile of things that are kind of broken? I do think there is something to just taking physical things apart and putting them back together. Getting acquainted with the idea of mechanism. How about a kit to build something? A go cart?

I like the go cart better than even the encyclopedia for the physicality of it. Get her something where she thinks without words. I think that's important, and increasingly missing in the industrialized world.