Best books for 12 year old girl

triumphguy · #1 Mar 1, '12, 6:23 pm

My daughter is 12 next week, and she loves to read. Right now I'm reading Lord of the Rings after supper each night - we're halfway through the second volume. My wife and I have read all the Narnia books, the Little House books, Black Beauty, Secret Garden etc to the kids too.

So apart from LOTR and Narnia what do you, dear CAF readers recommend?

Debora123 · #2 Mar 1, '12, 6:29 pm

Harry Potter

Luna Lovecraft · #3 Mar 1, '12, 6:33 pm

Lois Lowry

Bix · #4 Mar 1, '12, 7:32 pm

Little Women
Louisa May Alcott

gabestar76 · #5 Mar 1, '12, 8:06 pm

Twilight.

Catholic90 · #6 Mar 1, '12, 8:08 pm

Hunger Games

Havard · #7 Mar 1, '12, 8:14 pm

Okay, so it's not a book. Still, it's never too early to start reading The Economist.

triumphguy · #8 Mar 1, '12, 8:34 pm

You do have a point: I would never let her read the Grauniad though!

She's read Harry Potter.

Maybe some Dickens? Or is that too much of a slog?

Hunger Games and the Giver sound good. As does Little Women - though when my wife suggested LW to her earlier she nearly cried! The "Little" turned her off!

Luna Lovecraft · #9 Mar 1, '12, 9:06 pm

The Graveyard Book and Coraline - Neil Gaiman

Excellent children's authors:

Paul Yee
Sharon Creech
Penelope Lively
Walter Dean Myers
Joan Aiken
Yahya Alavi Fard
Siobhan Dowd
Avi
Christopher Paolini
Natalie Babbitt
Sid Fleischman
Malorie Blackman
Meg Cabot
Luis Sachar
Eoin Colfer
Ron Roy
Jerry Spinelli
Julia Golding
Laurence Yep
Ronald Dahl
Dianne de la Casas
Karen Hesse
Koji Ishikawa
Kate DiCamillo
Norton Juster
Jeff Kinney
Beverly Naidoo
Uma Krishnaswami

I'm pretty sure I have every book written by these authors either at home or in my classroom. My stepdaughters have greatly enjoyed most of their writings.

Check with a children's librarian at your public library; he'll have oodles of suggestions for you based on your daughter's interests.

Luna

Inquiringperson · #10 Mar 1, '12, 9:22 pm

Nancy Farmer

EasterJoy · #11 Mar 1, '12, 10:45 pm

If she likes horses, Walter Farley, C.W. Anderson's horse stories, and Marguerite Henry.

I also recommend going to Amazon.com, looking up books she liked, and then looking at the "people who liked this also liked" titles. After doing that, I go find the books in the library. We buy the ones we feel we'll read again and again.

I've also liked just going down the list of Newberry and Caldecott award winners: Wrinkle in Time, Johnny Tremain, and so on. You'll find some there you may have forgotten about. (I've meant to look up the children's book awards for other English-speaking countries, but haven't done it yet.)

It is interesting to see what books are being put on as musical or theatrical productions, then read the book, see the live production, and watch the movie based on it. Our kids have had several teachers do that, and it generated lots of discussion. We also read Johnny Tremain and also watched the Disney movie; they were appalled at what Disney did to that tale.

Another thing to do is to look at the summer reading lists for her grade and, if she's quite the reader, maybe the grade or two ahead of her.

Finally, if your local library has a children's librarian, arrange to have your daughter ask him or her personally for advice. 'She can find some unknown gems that way! This is especially good for kids who've gone through all the usual suspects.

triumphguy · #12 Mar 2, '12, 8:38 am

Thanks for all the helpful suggestions.

The reason why I'm asking here, rather than the library etc., is that I want her to read books that do not taint her faith, or that expose her to material that in my view is too distasteful or adult for her. There's so much well written literature that wallows in topics not suitable for kids. Stephen King, for example, is a very good writer (in that is he is very good at the craft of writing) but I would not want her to read his books.

When she has a good grounding and a mature faith then she can read authors not on my "approved" list.

JoArtist · #13 Mar 2, '12, 9:03 am

Well my very young sister in law (who is only 13) liked the Madeline L'Engle books. I also remember her reading the Baby Sitter's Club books, but I think that was a few years back, so it may be too young. I remember reading Roll of Thunder Hear My Cry around that age and I really liked it.

EasterJoy · #14 Mar 2, '12, 9:52 am

Quote:

Originally Posted by triumphguy

Thanks for all the helpful suggestions.

The reason why I'm asking here, rather than the library etc., is that I want her to read books that do not taint her faith, or that expose her to material that in my view is too distasteful or adult for her. There's so much well written literature that wallows in topics not suitable for kids. Stephen King, for example, is a very good writer (in that is he is very good at the craft of writing) but I would not want her to read his books.

When she has a good grounding and a mature faith then she can read authors not on my "approved" list.

There is a lot less of that in children's literature, particularly children's literature of a certain age. The nice thing about the older children's literature, too, is that it is not "dumbed down", either.

As for stuff you read to her, our kids have liked the Fr. Brown stories by G.K. Chesterton, too. Everyone in the stories thinks Fr. Brown is just a simple little priest, but he's been around the block and he knows the human heart. There were some things that were above our kids at the time, so a little translation was occasionally needed, but they're good stories.

If she likes mysteries, go for the older ones, written when the authors still had to assume the reader had morals. They are more clever than shocking, which makes a better story anyway, to my thinking.

HouseArrest · #15 Mar 2, '12, 10:04 am

Quote:

Originally Posted by triumphguy

Thanks for all the helpful suggestions.

The reason why I'm asking here, rather than the library etc., is that I want her to read books that do not taint her faith, or that expose her to material that in my view is too distasteful or adult for her. There's so much well written literature that wallows in topics not suitable for kids. Stephen King, for example, is a very good writer (in that is he is very good at the craft of writing) but I would not want her to read his books.

When she has a good grounding and a mature faith then she can read authors not on my "approved" list.

This is the advice I always give with choosing books for children and young adults - invest in a good book list. I use Teresa Fagan's "A Mother's List of Books" and Michael O'Brien's "A Landscape With Dragons".