Help find a great book series for an 8 year old girl

My daughter is a good reader in the 3rd grade. For a while she was reading like crazy, but recently she has lost interest in reading. I think the main problem is that she’s having trouble finding books that she just LOVES.

She tore through the first 4 Harry Potter books, but got bogged down in the fifth one and didn’t get past the first 100 pages.

She likes book series, doesn’t like books that are scary or have monsters. She’s a typically girly girl and likes puppies, fairies, etc. But most of the cute-puppy-types of books are at too easy a reading level for her, and she turns up her nose at them.

Any suggestions?

She might like books by Diana Wynne Jones. Jones has a series of books revolving around a man with the title of Chrestomanci, and she’s also written a number of stand alone books. Also, many libraries carry Jones, so you can check out a couple of books to see if she likes them.

The Chrestomanci books don’t have to be read in any particular order, either. Jones has written a couple of other related books. Have her read Howl’s Moving Castle and then Castles in the Air and then House of Many Ways, in that order. She won’t get all of the references, but you probably will.

I think that I was just about her age when I discovered Andre Norton. At first I had to have a dictionary at my side when I read Norton, who had been a children’s librarian at first and believed in increasing children’s vocabularies.

Secret Seven series by Enid Blython. Harry Potter five, six and seven are a bit too advanced for under 14’s.

Try Famous Five as well.

Anne of Green Gables and its many sequels occupied me for an entire summer around that age. Another fun fantasy book for kids that age is Patricia C. Wrede’s Dealing With Dragons.

I highly recommend the Little House series of books by Laura Ingalls Wilder. I devoured them at about her age and relished reading them to my kids several years ago.

At that age one of my younger sisters was reading the babysitter’s club series, the Nancy Drew series, and the Hardy Boys series. She was also reading the Goosebumps and Fear Street series of books, but those wouldn’t work for your daughter.

My youngest sister just recommended the Magic Treehouse series. I’ve browsed through a couple of them, and they might be interesting at that age.

Try the Redwall series. Fun for all ages.

Excellent suggestions so far. For some books specifically aimed at girls, try Ivy and Bean. They’re not fantasy, they’re mimetic fiction, but they’re really funny.

Apparently my mother had the same problem with me when I was about the same age. So she let me read Sweet Valley High although she thought they were trashy, and I got hooked on the series and read all of them. From there, as I grew older, I read books by Austen, and Bronte sisters, so she reckons it paid off. I’m an avid reader now and have read tons of non-trashy books.

I was never that keen on anything like Harry Potter or Enid Blyton(not that HP was even written when I was eight). Somewhere in between Sweet Valley High and Tolstoy, I also read all the Judy Blumes and Paula Danziggers - I would guess I read them in my teens.

SPiderwick Chronicles, Ivey and Bean, Artemis Fowl, hey check out this site www.kidsread.com for other recommendations…

What about the All-of-a-Kind Family series? Five sisters growing up in pre-World-War I New York.

Lloyd Alexander’s Book of Three series might not be girly enough for her, but there’s a strong girl second lead.

Or what about the Noel Streatfeild books? Very girly, mainly about little girls training to be ballet dancers/skaters/stuff like that.

Terry Pratchett’s Tiffany Aching series set on the Discworld. A great intro to a great series of books.

When I was her age I really liked Maud Hart Lovelace’s Betsy and Tacy books, and also John D. Fitzgerald’s Great Brain series. Betsy and Tacy are more girly.

My son had no interest in the Great Brain because he decidedly does not like “old fashionedy” things. I really did as a kid, and still do. If that’s not your daughter’s thing then I rescind my recommendation.

Also around that time I enjoyed Mrs. Piggle Wiggle books (Betty MacDonaqld), and Ramona (with and without Beezus) and anything by Beverly Cleary.

For more current authors, though I am not aware of them having series, I like Andrew Clements and Jerry Spinelli.

I also just remembered that I loved reading the Secret Garden and A Little Princess by Frances Hodgson Burnett at around that age.

And E.B. White.

Not so girly, but Encyclopedia Brown offers a lot of material.

Lemony Snicket

What about horse books? Misty of Chincoteague, The Black Stallion, etc? I loved all those when I was young.

Try the Boxcar Children series, I loved thoes when I was her age.

The Little House series is amazing.

And she may think she’s too old for Beverly Cleary (“Beezus and Remona”), but the woman never wrote a bad book – at least not that I’ve read.

Some or Cleary’s books do target early teens. (“Dear Mr. Hinshaw”)

I’ll recommend all these that have already been mentioned…

Little House series
Boxcar Children series
Babysitters Club series
Beverly Cleary books
Anne of Green Gables series

I always liked going to the library and finding that there’s a next book in a series.

The Ear, the Eye, and the Arm, by Nancy Farmer. A futuristic detective story set in Africa about three children getting kidnapped and having various adventures.

Where the Red Fern Grows. A classic story about a boy growing up in Arkansas and his two hunting hounds.

Absolutely any book by Daniel Manus Pinkwater. He’s written something like a hundred children’s books.

Three Investigators. Not at all aimed at girls, but awesome books.

Joe

Just be sure you check the order in which they were published and read them in something approaching that order. They get lamer after a while (as Brian Jacques ran out of ideas.)