Help me find a book to read to my 11-year-old daughter

Cafe Society
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My daughter is 11, almost 12, but still likes it when I read to her in the evening. Recently, though, I’ve been having a lot of trouble finding something that works well for reading. After thinking about it, I think a successful book to read aloud to her needs to have the following characteristics:

  1. A good, fast-moving plot without a lot of introspection.
  2. Straightforward prose that is not too poetic or lyrical.
  3. Some humor or lighthearted parts to balance out anything darker or more frightening.
  4. Appealing characters that are not overly whiny or angsty.
  5. Some fantasy or sf content.

The books I have read to her over the years that have been most successful have been The Hobbit, Edward Eager’s books (Half Magic and so on), the Chronicles of Prydain by Lloyd Alexander, and Watership Down. I’ve also already read her all of the original Oz books, The Lord of the Rings, the Percy Jackson series, the Narnia books, and probably some others I have forgotten. She’s also read Harry Potter a half-dozen times. My wife also has read her The Hero and the Crown and The Blue Sword by Robin McKinley and some of the Pern books.

I’m looking for something to read to her that has those qualities, but it is a lot harder than I thought at this point. Most of the suggestions I have found on reading lists I have already read to her, and a lot of the more recent YA fantasy/sf books seem to be really depressing and grim, or is overly focused on relationships and romance. I want to find something that is exciting and fun and that reads aloud well.

If anyone has any suggestions, I would be grateful for any help.

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Have you read The Lost Years of Merlin series?

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My Side of the Mountain

I love this book. I read it as a kid and aloud to my kids as well.

4

I suggest the amazing Diana Wynne Jones. You could start with, say, Charmed Life for an easy one, or Dogsbody for an animal lover, or Enchanted Glass for a nice stand-alone novel…

5

If she liked Riordan’s Percy Jackson and the Olympians series, she might like his new series about gods of ancient Egypt in the modern world, the Kane Chronicles.

Kevin Crossley-Holland’s Arthur trilogy, starting with The Seeing Stone, is an excellent take on Arthurian legend in a late-medieval setting. Extremely good writing, especially for young adult fiction, spot-on historical atmosphere, and charming pseudo-medieval line-drawing illustrations.

For people who like Madeleine L’Engle, there’s always Madeleine L’Engle, although personally I think that would violate your ban on angsty/whiny.

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Protector of the Small

Good series. A girl masquerades as a boy to train as a knight.

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A recent one I really enjoyed (I was actually surprised) was Entwined by Heather Dixon. It’s a really good retelling of the 12 Dancing Princesses.

Girls are spunky, plot moves pretty quickly, and the dark/sad moments are pretty quickly glossed over. Reminded me very strongly of the Blue Sword/Hero and the Crown books.

There are some courtships and marriage plans, but most of them are logically discussed or lampooned by the multiple younger sisters who think the whole idea is quite silly. There’s not much mooning about that I recall.
If she’s up for sci-fi, there’s a really slim YA novel called A Beautiful Friendship by David Weber that has a girl making contact with an alien species that are essentially super-smart 6-legged cats. Very quick read, no romance, no really dark material. There are some very well-written short stories following up on various people’s interactions with the cats throughout the timeline of that universe if she’s interested in the concept.

Another good one is the Graveyard Book by Neil Gaiman. A very well-done send off of the Jungle Book.

If she’s open to historical fiction, I’d recommend Catherine, Called Birdy, by Karen Cushman. Really funny, diary-style writings of a 14 year old medieval noble girl.

What else… Princesses… Ella Enchanted, Princess Academy, Beauty (by Robin McKinley - I would wait on Rose Daughter, but Beauty is spunky and nicely paced). The Ordinary Princess, by M M Kaye, Bella at Midnight, by Diane Stanley (very good and inventive reworking of Cinderella) Tuesdays at the Castle, by Jessica George (castle gets new rooms on tuesdays, princess has to save king and queen - very quick read and quick resolution)

Tiny people: the Borrowers (ad infinitum sequels) by Mary Norton, the Littles (very junior, but you could probably finish a book in two nights for something fun and non-challenging) by John Peterson, Terry Pratchet’s Truckers, Diggers, and Wings (perhaps not for everyone) and also his unrelated The Carpet People, The Indian in the Cupboard, Mrs Frisby and the Rats of NIMH (and sequel).

Mystical: Have you considered A Wrinkle in Time yet? Very nice series also. The Neverending Story (much better book than movie), the Invention of Hugo Cabret (needs to be looked at to enjoy) The Phantom Tollbooth, The Egypt Game by Zilpha Snyder.

Girl power: A Tale of Two Castles, Gail Carson Levine (girl meets a dragon and giants and solves a mystery), Dealing with Dragons (et al) by Patricia C. Wrede (really hysterically funny set about a princess who runs away to get stolen by dragons because she doesn’t want to be a proper princess and get rescued and live a boring life. Very funny, very girl-powered. Ronia the Robber’s Daughter (by the writer of Pippi Longstocking - lots of fun, and a really spunky girl lead)

Have you considered any of Tamora Pierce’s books? The Alanna series is a girl pretending to be a boy so that she can be a knight (all she ever wanted in life) the Immortals series has an interesting girl who can talk to animals and learns she’s related to the Gods, Beka Cooper is about a girl who trains to be a medieval police officer, and Tricksters series is the daughter of Alanna who goes into politics on a Japanese-style island.

Those are all in the same universe, pretty good to start with at this age (each series has the girls starting around 10 or so, but they do age up to around 16 or so over each series, and there are talks of childbirth and homosexuality and birth control eventually.

There’s another set - the Circle (two sets of 4 books) that are in another world, and set a bit younger. It’s about a cluster of kids from unfortunate backgrounds who have to work together and learn discipline to control their magic and become helpful to their world.

That’s all I can think of off the top of my head… :smiley:

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L. M. Boston - The Green Knowe series
Ursula K. Le Guin - The Earthsea series
Eoin Colfer - The Artemis Fowl series
Jonathan Stroud - The Bartimaeus series

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A Wrinkle in Time and the other books in the series?

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The Enchanted Forest Chronicles, by Patricia Wrede, might be the kind of thing you’re looking for.

A Series of Unfortunate Events is, of course, dark and grim, but in a fun, ironic way, and I think they work well read aloud.

I don’t know whether E. Nesbit is too old-fashioned, but her books were a major influence on both Edward Eager and Narnia.

For a change of pace, you might read one of the Winniw-the-Pooh stories once in a while. Lately Disney’s been aiming it’s Pooh stuff at the toddler set, but I think the original stories work for all ages.

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Juniper by Monica Furlong. I loved it when I was your daughter’s age, and I just re-read it last year at age 28 and I still enjoyed it!

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:smack:its! “aiming its Pooh stuff”! (and I honestly didn’t even think about how that phrase sounds…)

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Wow, a lot of great ideas! Thank you. I have actually read A Wrinkle in Time and A Wind in the Door to her. They went over okay, but I don’t think she was wild about them, and I did not actually enjoy them as much as I remember liking them when I was her age.

I’ve also read the Earthsea books to her (well, the original trilogy.)

I think she may have read some of the books people have mentioned to herself already, so I’ll have to check. She’s getting to the age where she reads so much I can no longer keep track of what she has or hasn’t read. I wish I could still read so omnivorously.

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The Girl Who Circumnavigated Fairyland in a Ship of Her Own Making by Catherynne M. Valente

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I was going to say the Artemis Fowl series is quite good if she’s a fan of the Percy Jacksons and Harry Potters type stuff.

The first book is a fun one to read through in my experience.

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Diane Duane’s Young Wizards series, starting with So You Want To Be A Wizard. Though I’ve only read up to book four, and that was long ago, they were good adventure stories.

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The Golden Compass

Have you tried the Terry Pratchett Discworld books? They’re fun to read out loud, lots of silliness.

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Seconding Diana Wynne Jones, and suggesting her Dalemark Quartet as a good starting point.

Does she like horses? I’m rereading a very old favourite of mine from that age - Patricia Leitch’s Jinny series. It’s well-written, and long, 12 books, about a tween girl in Scotland who rescues an Arab mare from a circus, with just a hint of mysticism/spirituality. Lots of opportunity to practice your funny accents!

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Thirding Diana Wynne Jones (RIP). I didn’t care for Cart and Cwidder, but I did like the other books in the Dalemark quartet. She wrote a couple of adult novels, but almost everything is quite suitable for a tween. I’d start with the Chronicles of Chrestomanci series (first one is Charmed Life) and see if she likes the concept. Or go with Howl’s Moving Castle, which has a movie adaptation. In fact, I read a lot of Jones to my daughter, who is dyslexic. She had outgrown the little kids’ books, but didn’t enjoy reading at all, and wouldn’t read for pleasure, only for schoolwork. She DID enjoy being read to, though…and because Jones’ books were aimed at the teen/tween audience, they are longer, so I’d only read a chapter each night. My daughter was so anxious to find out what happened next that she would actually read for pleasure…and now reading is one of her biggest hobbies. So I owe a lot to Jones.

At that age, I was reading a lot of Andre/Alice Mary Norton. I never really got into the Borrowers series, but I did enjoy most of her SF, and some of her fantasy. I was also a Sherlock Holmes junkie. However, I was reading the books myself, my parents certainly weren’t going to read ANYTHING related to SF or fantasy to me. I also read the Earthsea trilogy constantly, and I think that I was just getting into Tolkien.

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How about Terry Pratchett’s Tiffany Aching books? They’re part of the larger Discworld series too, so it can lead to a lot of good books in her future.