This isn’t a mystery recommendation either, but I absolutely adored anything by Diana Wynne Jones from when I was that age till…well, about now actually!
Particular recommendations: The Ogre Downstairs and The Homeward Bounders .
And if she does like 'em, you’ll be set for Christmas presents till she’s twenty 
Two of Terry Pratchett’s recent books would be good for that age: Wee Free Men and A Hat Full of Sky. Both feature a young farm girl who discovers that she has the talent to become a witch. Very funny and scary, too.
Also well-done, but truly scary is Neil Gaiman’s Coraline. It also has a resourceful young girl as a protagonist. I’d only recommend this if she likes scary stuff, though.
If she’s a strong reader, she might like Ella Enchanted. Don’t confuse it with the movie of the same title- it’s an exceptionally good book.
Hmm…maybe:
•The P.J. Clover: Private Eye series.
•The McGurk Detective Organization series
•The Great Brain series, definately.
•Maybe the Mad Scientists Club?
•The Egypt Game was an old favorite. There was even a sequel, The Gypsy Game, but I haven’t read it.
In addition to Nancy Drew, the Meg series by Holly Beth Walker and the Trixie Belden series are fun mystery series for girls. I think I was about nine when I first read them.
Lloyd Alexander’s Prydain books. He has other books, too, especially a charming series about a girl named Vesper Holly.
Another favorite author of mine is Robin McKinley. Some really wonderful retellings of faerie tales.
Diana Wynne Jones is simply excellent. Very talented writer. The Chrestomanci Chronicles are wonderful.
Marguerite Henry did wonderful things with stories about animals. I still have a beloved copy of King of the Wind that I wouldn’t part with for anything.
I just read a book by Nancy Farmer that was imaginative, though too long, called The Sea of Trolls. I think from reading the cover that she’s written lots of other things.
I’ve heard good things about the Trixie Belden books, but that really might be mostly from people who are being nostalgic. Still, if she likes mysteries, they might be worth a looksee.
The Alice books by Phyllis Reynolds Naylor are probably within her reach. It seems they are probably targeted at 9-12 years old (I’m guessing). The one I read was a very nice story about a little girl whose mother had died. She lived with her father and her older brother. I read the book because this series is one of the most often “challenged” in libraries. The book I read had a brief, envious, mention of the older girls having breasts, but I think other books in the series might discuss more about sexuality. If the one I read was any indication, Naylor handles the subject with humor and gentleness, and Alice has a wonderful relationship with her widowed father.
Oooh, and one of my all-time favorite books is probably readable for her now: From the Mixed-Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler, by E. L. Konigsburg. Highly recommended!
Also, if she likes animal books, there are the books of Jim Kjelgaard. They are usually dog books, with adventure and usually very sympathetic young heroes.
Oooh, and the Trixie Belden series is just recently back in print. My book club read the first one for a book discussion – while we were definitely reading for nostalgia, two of our members have daughters who are in the neighborhood of 9 or 10 years old, and they also enjoyed the book.
If you get her the Trixie Belden, get the first three. The first one ends in sort of a cliffhanger, and the whole group of mystery solving kids doesn’t really get together until the third book.
Definitely skip the John Bellairs suggestion from earlier unless you don’t want her to sleep for the next few years. He writes great books but they are fairly frightening. I still don’t re-read The House With A Clock in Its Walls after dark, and I’m thirty years older than I was when I read it for the first time at age nine.
Some not mentioned yet:
The Betsy-Tacy books by Maud Hart Lovelace
Anything by Noel Streatfeild – my personal favorite is Dancing Shoes
Understood Betsy by Dorothy Canfield
The Mrs Piggle-Wiggle books by Betty McDonald
Any of Rumer Godden’s childrens books, especially The Dolls’ House, which is not just a good book, it’s a beautiful book.
TACK. I remember them from grade school. I don’t remember any of them except Will, whose TACK initial was K, because TACW didn’t spell anything and K meant something like “frighteningly smart MacGuffin” in Morse Code.
Oh god, I loved these.
From the publisher:
Unfortunately, Roy’s first acquaintance in Florida is Dana Matherson, a well-known bully. Then again, if Dana hadn’t been sinking his thumbs into Roy’s temples and mashing his face against the school-bus window, Roy might never have spotted the running boy. And the running boy is intriguing: he was running away from the school bus, carried no books, and – here’s the odd part – wore no shoes. Sensing a mystery, Roy sets himself on the boy’s trail. The chase introduces him to potty-trained alligators, a fake-fart champion, some burrowing owls, a renegade eco-avenger, and several extremely poisonous snakes with unnaturally sparkling tails.
by Carl Hiaason (this is a kid book not one of Hiaason’s adult books) My 11 neighbor (a girl BTW) loved it and I did too.
I have a nine-year-old daughter who loves mysteries. Some recent faves:
The Sammy Keyes series by Wendelin Van Draanen. Newest is Sammy Keyes and the Psycho Kitty Queen. Sammy Keyes and the Hotel Thief actually won an Edgar, I believe – good mysteries.
Chasing Vermeer by Blue Balliett. She’s reading this now and it seems like a cracking mystery.
Other faves: Encyclopedia Brown, Nancy Drew, Lemony Snicket.
She’s a strong reader. When she was a little younger, she liked the Nancy Drew Notebooks, Jigsaw Jones, the A to Z Mysteries, and the Capitol Mysteries.
Mrs. Furthur
I second Hoot . I just love this book—my daughter just finished it and loved it to.
Never Miss a Sunset
If she like pioneer stuff and Little House on the Prairie, see if you can find this book. I adored it as a kid. It is a Christian book, which I never knew and thought it was out of print, but found it at a Xtian book store when I was waiting for a friend to make a purchase. I bought it immediately. Apparently it is a part of a set. Never read the rest, but I will one day.
The Gist: A 12 or 13 year old girl, who is the oldest girl in a large 1900 time period family in Minnesota or somewhere Cold & Miserable, is stuck for another winter at home helping mama instead of going to school like she wants, because mama is pregnant again. Mama miscarries and there is some guilt issues. I must have read this story 60 times when I was about 12 Standard angst, different time period.
Understood Betsy is excellent and Robin McKinley’s work needs to be seconded.
I highly recommend Chinaberry for perusing for books that you might overlook or get lost in the rampant running of commercialism.
I just though of a mystery book recommendation:
The Eleventh Hour- by Grame Base
This is a picture book, but it has all sorts of hidden puzzles and clues in all the picture as well as having great illustrations. It’s a fantastic book for anybody of any age. I highly, highly suggest that you check this one out.
First, great work, team! Keep those recommendations coming… there’s a great collective knowledge base here. Also, mysteries are a suggestion, they don’t all have to be mysteries, she likes other stuff as well and is fairly adventurous in trying new things.
Last night I stopped into Borders, I was bit disappointed in their selection, very focused on Lemony Snicket* and a few other items that they’ll sell a lot of at Christmastime, but not as large a set of choices as I would have thought. For example, I couldn’t find the Wrinkle in Time book there. I’m going to check some other places today and tomorrow.
While the Girl was at soccer practice the Boy asked me to take him to the Library. I checked out the first couple of Nancy Drew books, the first Encyclopedia Brown, the first Boxcar kids** and the first book in the Chronicles of Narnia. Then the librarian told me that they had the Chronicles of Narnia*** new in on CD and that “the narration is excellent”. So I got that one, as well, and the narration if by Kenneth Branagh and most excellent indeed. We got home from soccer practice just at the end of Chapter 1 and the Shibblets wanted to rush inside to find out what happened to Polly.
*Lemony Snicket is excellent but it seems a bit of overkill.
**She liked the first couple of books but thought that they weren’t very good after that. I’m not familiar with them.
***I’ve never read these myself so looking forward to them. I tried to read one of the books when I was a kid, but it didn’t make any sense. I wonder if I started with the wrong book or was just expecting something different since this was after my exposure to Tolkien.
Whilst I adore Borders, being a Michigan Based store and the fact they do offer a good service, they are a business that is based on the whims of the commerical driven enterprises geared at our kids. So alot of well deserving books are lost in the Mass Marketing Mentality.
That is truly everyone’s loss.
Which is why I bring up Chinaberry as much as possible. I wrote them a letter of praise about two years ago which was condensed and now used in every catalog that has gone out. (page 37 this year!) To summarize:
" Your excellent selection of books that might have toherwise been bypassed for whatever is glitzy/pop culture/el trendy. Real books for real families. No commercial endorsement implied is a rarity in this day and age…" I order as much as I can afford with them, the rest, funnily enough, I find at used book stores. YAY ME!
I found a couple of books in Chinaberry that I have perennially ear marked to look at at the Library.
The Mary Celeste , The Salem Witch Trials and Another entitled **Roanoke: The Lost colony. All by the very esteemed children/Young adult writer Jane Yolen They are mysteries based on these actual events.
Gone Away Lake Which is a mystery set about some kids discovering a a deserted lakeside community. I gave it to my nephew for Xmas. I’m sure it will never be cracked open, but it is an award winner.
Another Pioneering Story:
Away Goes Sally A pastoral look at life 100 years ago, I am guessing. I will be getting this one day. I love this genre.
A Fantasy in the same vein as Indian in the Cupboard:
The Castle In The Attic I am reading it right now and thoroughly enjoying.
The Egypt Game. Which always crops up on Doper Kid books to read, so I have it in my towering pile to read one of these days. The pile is about 100+ deep. YAY!!11!!.
I would also highly, highly, highly recommend books on tape by Jim Weiss. His voice is like warm brandy and very comforting.
Available through Chinaberry or his place called: GreatHall Productions . They/he is a little slow for mailings, but it is very, very hard to find through/at book stores. When you do, grab it! Jim has a wonderful voice and he takes classic books ( just about every major classic out there.) and condenses them for the kids of all ages. Toning down the violence. I have: Good Night, Sweet Dreams, King Arthur and his Knights, Three Musketeers & Robin Hood & Treasure Island. It is a wonderful way to introduce kids to the classics and a great way to pass the time driving. The first two are geared for bed time and younger kids. I adore them all and have found a few of them through the library network and have just coughed up the rest of them through Chinaberry. Worth every penny. ( I haven’t ventured yet into the G.A. Henty Adventure audio’s he does, my kids are too young, but those look real promising.)
Also, I want to give a big shout out to the audio version of Little House In The Big Woods which has been done in the last two years and just brought to my attention. I haven’t listen to the entire Little House Set but this audio cd (about $25) is wonderful and availabe through alot of libraries…cough cough
I’ll shut up now.
One of my favourite series of books as a child was Mary Norton’s The Borrowers.
And they may be old-fashioned, but I always enjoyed so much Enid Blyton’s Famous Five books around that age…as long as you don’t mind an American 9 year-old having the British class system of the 1940s re-inforced!
Oh, and also a recommendation for Richmal Crompton’s Just William series.
I was once a 9-y/o girl and I loved to read. I’d recommend the Anastasia books by Lois Lowry (In the first one, Anastasia is 10).
I’d second or third most of the other things recommended in this thread, particularly the Ellen Raskin books, L’Engle’s A Wrinkle in Time series, the Besty-Tacy books, the Prydain chronicles, some of Roald Dahl’s books (though I was partial to The BFG and thought Matilda was too babyish, but I was a few years older when it was published), and the Ramona books by Beverly Cleary.