I read Heidi when I was ten and loved it.
Tuck Everlasting is one I discovered as an adult. (Part of the fun of having grandchildren with terrific reading lists!)
I second that ‘hooray’ for John Bellairs. I love all his books. He wrote series with three sets of characters. All excellent. Since he passed away a few years ago Brad Stickland finished several book that John Bellairs left unfinished so you will see both their names on some of the books.
Brad Strickland has continued writing books with John Bellairs’ characters. His latest just came out last month. I’ve enjoyed them all and they are a great tribute to John Bellairs.
http://www.compleatbellairs.com/
This is the definitive John Bellairs site but there are several other good ones. I highly recommend these books for all ages.
Avid readers are all kids at heart anyway, right?
Okay. It is late. I should be in bed but I have to clarify that last post. John Bellairs passed away. Brad Stickland has carried on his work and characters.
That sixth sentence in the first paragarph did not sound quite right. Going to bed now.
Great thread. I hope others will keep making suggestions too.
All kids should learn to love to read and there are many wonderful older and newer books out there for them. (And for those of us still young at heart.)
A couple more I just thought of: Catherine, Called Birdy, and Where The Red Fern Grows. I don’t think anyone’s suggested those yet.
I taught 5th grade for 7 years, including last year. The favorites among my class over that time, including those that I read to them, that we read together in literature circles, and that they read on their own were:
Holes by Louis Sachar (the most popular)
Mrs. Frisby and the Rats of NIMH (a close second)
There’s a Boy in the Girl’s Bathroom by Lois Sachar
Island of the Blue Dolphins by Scott O’ Dell
Esperanza Rising by Pam Munoz Ryan
A Single Shard by Linda Sue Park
Words By Heart by Ouida Sebestyen
Everything on a Waffle by Polly Horvath
Missing May by Cynthia Rylant
Because of Winn Dixie by Kate DiCamillo
Bud, Not Buddy by Christopher Paul Curtis
The Giver by Lois Lowry
Shiloh by Phyllis Reynolds Naylor
Abel’s Island by William Steig
M. C. Higgins the Great by Virginia Hamilton
Poppy by Avi
The Family Under the Bridge by Natalie Savage Carlson
Old Yeller by Fred Gipson
The Best contemporary writers of fiction for this age are, with books in the order in which I would recommend them:
Jerry Spinelli
Maniac Magee
Crash
The Library Card
Loser
Wringer
Stargirl
Katherine Paterson
Bridge to Terabithia
The Great Gilly Hopkins
Jacob Have I Loved
Lyddie
Jip: His Story
Then there are the series books:
The Time books by Madeline L’Engle
The Dark Is Rising sequence by Susan Cooper (skip the first one Over Sea, Under Stone, and start with The Dark is Rising. Dark is a much better book, and you’re not missing anything essential from Over.
The Chronicles of Narnia by C. S. Lewis
The Prydian Chronicles by Lloyd Alexander
The Earthsea Series by Ursula K. Leguin
The Tillerman Series by Cynthia Voigt
My daughter is 10 and her absolute favorite is Artemis Fowlby Eoin Coulter. There are now three books in the series and they are great fun. Do expect to have to explain some vocabulary, the author does not talk down to kids. She also loves
anything by Eva Ibbotson including Which Witch and Secret of Platform 13
Machiavelli’s “The Little Prince” is a must-read for this age group!
When I was about that age, my absolute favorite book was “True Confessions of Charlotte Doyle.”
For what it’s worth, I (just for fun) took a course in children’s literature a few years ago, and the reading list consisted of
Secret Garden by Frances Hodgson Burnett
Island of the Blue Dolphins by Scott O’Dell
The Cay by Theodore Taylor
Julie of the Wolves by Jean Craighead George
A Wizard of Earthsea by Ursula Leguin
A Stranger at Green Knowe by Lucy Boston
Alice in Wondeland & Through the Looking-Glass by Lewis Carroll
The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe by C. S. Lewis
Bridge to Terabithia by Katherine Paterson
Little House on the Prairie by Laura INgalls Wilder
Little Women by Louisa May Alcott*
Tom Sawyer by Mark Twain
I think that’s all. I enjoyed them all (some more than others, of course), and all could be considered “important,” I guess. I’d also second some of the others that have been mentioned so far, but there are too many good ones!