# Recommend some children's books to me. **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [November 16, 2011, 8:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recommend-some-childrens-books-to-me/603164 "2011-11-16T20:00:25Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Binarydrone](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/3da27b/32.png) [@Binarydrone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Binarydrone)\ **Post date:** [November 16, 2011, 8:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recommend-some-childrens-books-to-me/603164/1 "2011-11-16T20:00:25Z")
These would be for a 9 year old girl who reads at a pretty high level. I am looking for books that would interest her. She has read the Harry Potter books and liked them and I have introduced her to some of the “classics” like Half Magic, How to Eat Fried Worms, The Wrinkle in Time books and the like. I am leaning towards more of that later type category. Think Newberry Award type books. Thanks! PS - The first one to recommend any of the Twilight books gets the back side of me hand. 😉 ---
**Author:** ![Sattua](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sattua/32/11906_2.png) [@Sattua](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sattua)\ **Post date:** [November 16, 2011, 8:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recommend-some-childrens-books-to-me/603164/2 "2011-11-16T20:04:45Z")
The Egypt Game by Zilphia Keatley Snyder enraptured me at that age. The detailed descriptions of the game are the best part. So did The Girl With The Silver Eyes by Willo Davis Roberts, about a little girl with magic powers–very much like Matilda by Roald Dahl… For that matter, how about ALL those Roald Dahl books? Matilda and The Witches were my favorites. ---
**Author:** ![Palo\_Verde](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/65b543/32.png) [@Palo\_Verde](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Palo_Verde)\ **Post date:** [November 16, 2011, 8:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recommend-some-childrens-books-to-me/603164/3 "2011-11-16T20:05:15Z")
My daughter just finished reading \* The Invention of Hugo Cabret \* which she adored. I read it too and really enjoyed it. It has a really complex plot line with a great deal of mystery, but it all becomes clear by the end. Check it out! ---
**Author:** ![Binarydrone](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/3da27b/32.png) [@Binarydrone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Binarydrone)\ **Post date:** [November 16, 2011, 8:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recommend-some-childrens-books-to-me/603164/4 "2011-11-16T20:14:03Z")
Additionally: She has read most of the Dahl books as well as the Black Cauldron series. Loved them both. While we are all here, I could also use some help remembering some authors and titles. There was a book about a kid who found out that his grandfather (?) was a magician, his grandfather was showing him how to open a door between worlds or something and got distracted and was lost. So the kid had to learn magic to get grandpa back. I remember a scene with him learning transformation and doing something to his desk and having trouble getting it back the right way. I think there was a female cousin or sister or something that ultimately helped him. I also remember a series of books that took place on the moon. Like there were people there. At one point they visit earth and get captured and the protagonists anti grav device is taken apart or something? Kind of vague, I know. More to come I am sure. Thanks for all the ideas so far. ---
**Author:** ![delphica](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e9a140/32.png) [@delphica](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/delphica)\ **Post date:** [November 16, 2011, 8:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recommend-some-childrens-books-to-me/603164/5 "2011-11-16T20:21:35Z")
The _So You Want To Be A Wizard_ series is pretty good, author is Diane Duane. I recommend Daniel Pinkwater a lot for boys, but he’s also great for girls. _Lizard Music_ is one of my childhood favorites, and he has a relatively new one, _The Neddiad_, that I thought was a pip. _From the Mixed Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler_ comes up a lot, and E.L. Konigsburg has a bunch of other books that are also great, for 9 years old I would say _The View From Saturday_. Elizabeth Enright is a terrific author (and underrated, I think, because her subject matter seems a little dated at first glance, it’s all brothers and sisters having adventures kind of stuff, but she’s as GOOD writer) - _The Saturdays_, _The Four Story Mistake_, _Gone-Away Lake_, are a few titles. If she likes books like Little House (I’m assuming she’d already have read the Little House books), Carol Ryrie Bink’s _Caddie Woodlawn_ is good. Recent titles that I liked a lot: _Masterpiece_, by Elise Broach _The Penderwicks_ (series, there are three), by Jane Birdsall _When You Reach Me_, by Rebecca Stead (if as you say, she’s a strong reader at 9, usually I would say this is more of a 10 - 11 recommendation) _11 Birthdays_, by Wendy Mass ---
**Author:** ![Glory](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/7cd45c/32.png) [@Glory](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Glory)\ **Post date:** [November 16, 2011, 8:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recommend-some-childrens-books-to-me/603164/6 "2011-11-16T20:32:04Z")
Here is a list I made for a friend (who wanted suggestions for her daughter), sorry it’s so long, I’m like one of those crazy Cafe Society “list machines” - but I do love all of these!!! - A Little Princess, The Secret Garden - No Flying in the House - one of my all time childhood favs (watch her try to kiss her elbow after reading it!) - Chronicles of Narnia - Never too young to get a headstart for English class with the gorgeous D’Aulaire’s Book of Greek Myths (or the Norse, but it is out of print, great if you can find it) - The Miss Bianca books - Oz - The Road to Oz and Ozma of Oz were my favorites - Also by L. Frank Baum - The Sea Fairies (mermaids!) - E. Nesbit - 5 Children and It, The Enchanted Castle - Ballet Shoes (and all the other shoe books by Noel Streatfield, although that’s the best) - Heidi - Black Beauty - Betsy-Tacy by Maud Hart Lovelace (they start young, but follow the girls through high school) - Anne of Green Gables - Strawberry Girl - Charlotte’s Web - Harriet the Spy - From the Mixed-Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler by E.L. Konigsburg - Island of the Blue Dolphins by Scott O’Dell - DragonSong by Anne McCaffrey - The 100 Dresses, The Witch Family - Eleanor Estes (she has lots of good stuff) - Beverly Cleary - all of em, start with Ramona and work your way all the way through to Mouse on a Motorcycle! - The Phantom Tollbooth by Norton Juster - Mrs. Frisby and the Rats of Nimh by Robert C. O’Brien - Some Judy Blume might be fun at that age - Tales of a Fourth Grade Nothing, Blubber - Charlie and the Chocolate Factory/Matilda - The Great Brain - Encyclopedia Brown - The Adventures of Pippi Longstocking by Astrid Lindgren - The Littles by John Peterson - The Borrowers by Mary Norton (I had a weird obsession with tiny things) - The Five Little Peppers and How They Grew (and a weird obsession with impoverished English children) - 101 Dalmatians by Dodie Smith - The Westing Game by Ellen Raskin - Of Nightingales That Weep by Katherine Paterson - Bambi by Felix Salten - Peter Pan by J. M. Barrie - Sounder (crying) - Where the Red Fern Grows (more crying!) ---
**Author:** ![Binarydrone](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/3da27b/32.png) [@Binarydrone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Binarydrone)\ **Post date:** [November 16, 2011, 8:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recommend-some-childrens-books-to-me/603164/7 "2011-11-16T20:38:48Z")
These are great! Keep 'em coming! Also, do the “name these books” from my other post upthread ring any bells? ---
**Author:** ![Tangent](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tangent/32/3098_2.png) [@Tangent](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tangent)\ **Post date:** [November 16, 2011, 8:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recommend-some-childrens-books-to-me/603164/8 "2011-11-16T20:39:56Z")
How about _The Hobbit_? _The Chronicles of Narnia_ are good, if you don’t mind the religious symbolism. _Where the Red Fern Grows_ and _Summer of the Monkeys_ by Wilson Rawls were childhood favorites of mine. More tearjerker animal novels are _The Yearling_ by M. K. Rawlings and _Old Yeller_ (and other books) by Fred Gipson. ---
**Author:** ![MsWhatsit](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/eb8c5e/32.png) [@MsWhatsit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MsWhatsit)\ **Post date:** [November 16, 2011, 8:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recommend-some-childrens-books-to-me/603164/9 "2011-11-16T20:43:16Z")
Most of my suggestions have already been mentioned, but my 9-year-old has been enjoying the Percy Jackson _Lightning Thief_ series. ---
**Author:** ![Max\_Torque](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/e9bcb4/32.png) [@Max\_Torque](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Max_Torque)\ **Post date:** [November 16, 2011, 10:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recommend-some-childrens-books-to-me/603164/10 "2011-11-16T22:41:42Z")
Has she read Lemony Snicket’s **A Series of Unfortunate Events** books? Seconding Percy Jackson, though I haven’t read any of them personally. But, my 11-year-old nephew loves them. The author is Rick Riordan. ---
**Author:** ![Slow\_Moving\_Vehicle](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/slow_moving_vehicle/32/291_2.png) [@Slow\_Moving\_Vehicle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Slow_Moving_Vehicle)\ **Post date:** [November 16, 2011, 10:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recommend-some-childrens-books-to-me/603164/11 "2011-11-16T22:52:19Z")
Surprised no one’s mentioned Norton Juster’s great _The Phantom Tollbooth_. It’s a classic, it’s very clever, and it will get her thinking about language, mathematics, and ideas. _And_ it’s a good story. Susan Cooper’s _Darkness Rising_ gave me an agreeable sense of mystery when I was a preteen; though she might find it a bit tame next to _Harry Potter_. ---
**Author:** ![rhubarbarin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/eb9ed0/32.png) [@rhubarbarin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/rhubarbarin)\ **Post date:** [November 17, 2011, 12:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recommend-some-childrens-books-to-me/603164/12 "2011-11-17T00:34:49Z")
I’m trying my best to come up with some not already mentioned. **Glory** ’s list is epic! Almost everything by Diana Wynne Jones, who has written what feels like a hundred hilarious and moving children’s and young adult fantasy novels. If she likes Harry Potter she will probably love DWJ. Also: _A Room Made of Windows_ (my personal fave at her age) _Walk Two Moons The Boggart_ _The Jungle Book_ and _Just So Stories_ by Rudyard Kipling _Adventures of Huckleberry Finn_ _(I found_ Tom Sawyer _dull in comparison)by Mark Twain_ To Kill a Mockingbird\*\* _Mrs Frisby and the Rats of Nimh Ender’s Game_ Julie of the Wolves The Little Prince Shabanu: Daughter of the Winds\* My Side of the Mountain Lord of the Flies\* The Wind in the Willows The Hall Family Chronicles _by Jane Langton; my favorite (but saddest) is_ The Fledgling The Diary of Anne Frank\* \*The first few of Brian Jaques’ \*Redwall _series (which should have died a long time ago) are good._ Redwall, Mossflower, Mattimeo, Mariel of Redwall, Salamandastron, and Martin the Warrior The Enchanted Forest Chronicles _by Patricia C. Wrede Heidi Number the Stars_ _Goody Hall_ _Understood Betsy_ The first of the _Emily_ series by LM Montgomery (I liked her better than Anne) _The Indian in the Cupboard_ and sequels _The … Fairy Book_s, by Andrew Lange _The Princess and the Goblin_ _The Mouse and the Motorcycle_ \* \*\*contain some heavy material such as child marriage, criminal trials for rape, murder, slavery, racism, genocide etc.I read most of these by the time I was 10 or so with much enjoyment and without emotional scars, though! ---
**Author:** ![wonky](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wonky/32/393_2.png) [@wonky](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wonky)\ **Post date:** [November 17, 2011, 1:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recommend-some-childrens-books-to-me/603164/13 "2011-11-17T01:21:53Z")
Lots of girls at that age love animals, especially horses, so Marguerite Henry, Walter Farley, and Jim Kjelgaard might be worth a shot. _The 13 Clocks_, by James Thurber _Book of a Thousand Days_, by Shannon Hale (unless I’m forgetting anything unsavory about it. I remember loving it when I read it a few years ago) _The Wolves of Willoughby Chase_, by Joan Aiken. Probably my very favorite book as a child. Seconding _The Westing Game_ and _From the Mixed-Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankwiler_. And three newer books that didn’t work so well for me but might really hit the right notes for a 9 year old: _The Mysterious Benedict Society_, by Trenton Lee Stewart _The Name of this Book is Secret_, by Pseudonymous Bosch _Alcatraz Versus the Evil Librarians_, by Brandon Sanderson ---
**Author:** ![Zsofia](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/7bcc69/32.png) [@Zsofia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zsofia)\ **Post date:** [November 17, 2011, 1:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recommend-some-childrens-books-to-me/603164/14 "2011-11-17T01:40:31Z")
Have you tried Susan Cooper’s _The Dark is Rising_ books? I loved, loved, loved them as a child (and still do.) Or Diana Wynne Jones - _The Nine Lives of Christopher Chant_, for example, is great. When I was a little older I fell for Tamora Pierce like old growth timber for a lumberjack. Might be a bit mature for her now. (Very nice lady, by the way.) ---
**Author:** ![Left\_Hand\_of\_Dorkness](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/left_hand_of_dorkness/32/7156_2.png) [@Left\_Hand\_of\_Dorkness](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Left_Hand_of_Dorkness)\ **Post date:** [November 17, 2011, 2:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recommend-some-childrens-books-to-me/603164/15 "2011-11-17T02:29:38Z")
> [@MsWhatsit](#): > > Most of my suggestions have already been mentioned, but my 9-year-old has been enjoying the Percy Jackson _Lightning Thief_ series. Yep–my high-reader third-graders love the Lightning Thief series. I read the first one as a matter of research. It’s not fantastic literature (e.g., not The Prydain Chronicles), but it’s pretty fun stuff. One of those super-good readers came in to class the first day with **The Hunger Games**. I haven’t read it, but they’re young-adult; others can speak to their appropriateness. **Inkspell** , by Cornelia Funke, has a female protagonist and is excellent. The books center a family who can read a story and bring something in the story to life–but there’s always a cost. I haven’t read the second in the series. The first one isn’t gory or anything, but there’s definitely violence in it. Neil Gaiman’s **The Graveyard Book** is pretty good, and **Coraline** is flippin’ great. Last recommendation: **The Watsons Go to Birmingham** is a surprisingly fun book about a black family that visits Birmingham during the civil rights movement. I avoided it for a long time, afraid that it was going to be Deep and Meaningful and Relevant and Tragic. Nah, it’s just a great novel for kids. Newbery winner, too! ---
**Author:** ![Kolak\_of\_Twilo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kolak_of_twilo/32/73_2.png) [@Kolak\_of\_Twilo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kolak_of_Twilo)\ **Post date:** [November 17, 2011, 2:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recommend-some-childrens-books-to-me/603164/16 "2011-11-17T02:43:14Z")
**Glory** already mentioned them but I have to second these: _Harriet the Spy_ by Louise Fitzhugh - From the Mixed-Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler\* by E.L. Konigsburg & EVERYTHING ever written by Beverly Cleary And I have to add the following: **by Keith Roberston** _Henry Reed, Inc._ _Henry Reed’s Journey_ _Henry Reed’s Babysitting Service_ **by Eleanor Estes** _The Moffats_ _Rufus M_ _Ginger Pye_ _The Middle Moffat_ _Pinky Pye_ **by Robert Lawson** _Ben and Me_ **by Robert McCloskey** _Homer Price_ _Centerburg Tales_ **by Carl Hiaasen** _Hoot_ ---
**Author:** ![Greg\_Charles](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/839c29/32.png) [@Greg\_Charles](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Greg_Charles)\ **Post date:** [November 17, 2011, 2:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recommend-some-childrens-books-to-me/603164/17 "2011-11-17T02:44:27Z")
+1 on Dianna Wynne Jones. The first time I read Harry Potter, I thought how much it seemed like Dianna Wynne Jones. I especially liked _Archer’s Goon_ and _The Lives of Christopher Chant_. I also just recommended in another thread, _Whales on Stilts!_ by M.T. Anderson. ---
**Author:** ![Zebra](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/c0e974/32.png) [@Zebra](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zebra)\ **Post date:** [November 17, 2011, 3:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recommend-some-childrens-books-to-me/603164/18 "2011-11-17T03:07:49Z")
+1 for A Series of Unfortunate Events. ---
**Author:** ![VOW](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/vow/32/3043_2.png) [@VOW](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/VOW)\ **Post date:** [November 17, 2011, 4:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recommend-some-childrens-books-to-me/603164/19 "2011-11-17T04:55:11Z")
IMHO, the “Little House” series by Laura Ingalls Wilder should be mandatory for EVERY little girl! ~VOW ---
**Author:** ![Lynn\_Bodoni](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/e47c2d/32.png) [@Lynn\_Bodoni](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lynn_Bodoni)\ **Post date:** [November 17, 2011, 9:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recommend-some-childrens-books-to-me/603164/20 "2011-11-17T09:28:58Z")
When I was that age, I read the horse books (Black Stallion, Misty of whatever) and a lot of Andre Norton’s books. I also read a lot of Heinlein’s juveniles. I read some of Diana Wynne Jones’ books to my daughter when she was that age (Lisa is dyslexic, so I read to her until the end of middle school), and the reason that she took up recreational reading is because of DWJ. Now she’s an avid reader. I also read a lot of Beverly Cleary. I read a couple of the “Little House” books as a young girl, but found them boring to the point of tears. Now that I’m an adult, I can appreciate how different Laura’s life was, and how she had to do without so many things that I take for granted. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recommend-some-childrens-books-to-me/603164.md?page=2)