I got the impression from Matt34 that for some reason his wife doesn't have a lot of expeirence with photography. If that is true, I'd recomment sticking with the kit lenses. The reason being the kit lens is cheap, but can be somewhat limiting. By using it to do whatever kind of photography she likes she'll quickly learn what she feels she is missing and can talk to experienced people to figure out what what lens she should have for her photography. You don't lose anything much by getting the kit lens because they're decent stopped down or as travel lenses and they're small and cheap.
