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What books are your 12 yo daughters reading?


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My dd11 devours books like they are candy, too. For pleasure, she tends to read books that I consider below her level, but that is okay. Some she has enjoyed lately:

 

The Great Gilly Hopkins Katherine Peterson (sp?) same author as Bridge to Terabithia

 

Series of Unfortunate Events Lemony Snickett...some don't like this series b/c of the "dark" humor and references to death in each book. I don't find it a problem and dd certainly isn't effected by it...NOT great lit. but a fun series

 

The Westing Game Raskin is the author, I think

 

American girl books (way below her level, but she loves them)

 

Anything historical fiction esp. the My America or Dear America series

 

Anything mystery.

 

My Friend Flicka she's just starting this one

 

HTH a bit.

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My 11 1/2yodd has been more of a reluctant reader, but she is getting into it more this year and has begun reading for enjoyment rather than just because I'm making her:D She's been enjoying series like Nancy Drew, The Royal Diaries, and some animal series I can't remember the name of. She won't touch American Girl--has never liked them. She has read a few of the My America and Dear America books and liked them okay.

 

We've been reading the Little House series for school reading this year (following The Prairie Primer somewhat) and she loves these books. I can't believe how excited she is to read together each day and she frequently does not want to stop with the chapters assigned for the day. I never read the Little House books when I was a kid and I had no idea what I was missing.

 

I'd second The Westing Game. I read it when I was 10 or 11 and it was one of my favorites. Last year the younger two kids and I read it with our book club and all the kids loved it. My two older kids picked up on the excitement and read it when we weren't using the book. Of course it was well below their reading level and not exactly geared to their ages, but they really enjoyed it as well.

 

Has she read Heidi? That's another classic that I missed as a child but enjoyed as an adult.

 

Other books I remember enjoying at that age were Where the Red Fern Grows, Where the Lilies Bloom, The Three Musketeers, Black Beauty, The Secret Garden, Fahrenheit 451, and Agatha Christie books. 13yods just read And Then There Were None in one of his classes, and I think he's hooked on Agatha Christie now as well. I know there were many other books I read at that age, but many of them were popular teen/preteen fiction, and though I finished every book I ever started, I remember not liking quite a few. The one that stands out in my mind that I absolutely hated at that age was Are You There God? It's Me Margaret. Ick. I was also hooked on Mary Stewart novels at that age, but I'm not sure I'd recommend them. The details are fuzzy in my mind, but it seems there may be some things that might not be entirely appropriate.

 

Some other favorites from our book club:

The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy (Once I got into this book and got used to the author's unusual style, I really enjoyed it.)

Eragon

The Outcasts of 19 Schuyler Place

Summer of the Monkeys

Lizzie Bright and the Buckminster Boy

The Martian Chronicles

My Side of the Mountain trilogy

Hatchet/Brian trilogy

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My dd is 11. For free reading, she recently read Princess Academy and liked it very much. She loved Wheel on the School, which she read at the beginning of the school year. She enjoys Nancy Drew. A Little Princess. Oh, Princess and the Goblin. Thimble Summer. The Wolves of Willoughby Chase. Ronnia, The Robber's Daughter. I remember when I was 12, I read Death on the Nile and LOVED it. I don't recall if there are any mature themes in it, so I haven't given it to her.

 

Just some ideas...

 

Anita

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My 12dd is currently reading Peter Pan, plus the prequels by Dave Barry.

 

Another favorite is The Penderwicks. Yesterday I picked up the sequel The Penderwicks of Gardam Street. I haven't seen much of her since I brought it home. ;)

 

She's also been reading the later books in the Betsy-Tacy series.

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All of the books written by Lucy Maud Montgomery (author of Anne of Green Gables). Elizabeth Enright is a great author for this age - Gone-Away Lake, Return to Gone Away, The Melendy Family series.

 

The Pink Motel by Carol Ryrie Brink.

 

The Swallows and Amazons series by Arthur Ransome.

 

These were popular at my house!

 

Anne

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Thanks! Quite a few new titles recommended that I will want to check out for her. Great! I know she loved the Penderwicks, Maximum Ride, and Agatha Christie (all 60 titles!) so I will look into the other great suggestions. The Westing Game, Eragon, and Ray Bradbury's books are also among her favorites.

 

Also, here are a few of her recommendations from the past few months (hope it helps someone):

 

Patel: Life of Pi

Zusak: The Book Thief

Buck: The Good Earth

Marshall: Christie

Hinton: That Was then, This is Now

Dhami: Bollywood Babes, and sequels

Gliori: Pure Dead Brilliant, and sequels

Ferris: Once Upon a Marygold

Colfer: Wish List (all all Artemis Fowl books)

Karon: These High Green Hills, and sequels of Mitford books

Murdock: Dairy Queen

Cabot: Princess Diaries, and sequels

Mass: A Mango-Shaped Space

Cormer: Chocolate War

Kindl: Goose Chase

Bloor: Story Time

Pedersen: Beginner's Luck, and sequels

Stewart: Mysterious Benedict Society

Brashares: Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants, and sequels

King: Christine

Hoeye: Time to Smell the Roses, and sequels

Riordan: Lightning Thief

Goldman: Bee Season

Wolff: Mozart Season

Shull: Skye's the Limit

Tolan: Surviving the Applewaits

Brown: Rope Walk

Bradbury: Illustrated Man

Edwards: Last of the Really Great Whang-doodles

Limb: Girl, 15, Charming but Insane

Zevin: Elsewhere

Lenhard: Chicks with Sticks, It's a Purl Thing, and sequels

Nesbitt: Phoenix and the Carpet

Card: Ender's Game

Spnellis: Love, Stargirl

Park: The Mulberry Tree

Buckley: Sisters Grimm, and sequels

Rolvaag: Giants in the Earth

Hinton: Goodbye, Mr. Chips

Steinbeck: The Pearl

Huxley: Brave New World

Fleischmann: Escape! The Great Houdini

Yee: Milicent Minn, Girl Genius, and sequels

Mowat: Never Cry Wolf, and sequels

Beck: The Secret History of Tom Trueheart

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Mowat: Never Cry Wolf, and sequels

 

 

OMG! I saw the movie when I was in middle school and LOVED it. It never occurred to me that it was based on a book. And I never realized the author of Owls in the Family was the main character. I'm going to look for the book now:)

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My 12yo dd just got home from a weekend trip with a group of middle school students, during which she discovered that pretty much everyone had read or was currently reading Tamora Pierce's Song of the Lioness series (dd and another girl both took it along to read, as a matter of fact).

 

Percy Jackson was also incredibly popular with the crowd -- dd had just purchased Titan's Curse, another girl had brought it along on the bus, and many other kids had read it already.

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Your dd might enjoy The Squire Tales series by Gerald Morris. The sequence of books are below and it helps to read them in order since they build on one another.

 

Set in England during the middle ages and King Arthur's time, these books are about knight, squires and ladies. My 12yo ds enjoyed them and wanted me to read them. I noticed that half the books focus on a brave lady either being escorted somewhere or having a quest of her own. Even though there is war, jousting and some beheading ... it is not the focus of the books ... it is more about honor and relationships. The books explain alot about life in that time , for instance, parts of an armor, the intricacies of having dinner with king in a castle, etc. If she likes the first one, she will like them all.

 

When we were reading these books, I found a little difficulty in finding the order of books. Since his first book was published in '98, and another one almost every year hence ... it has turned into a series of eight books. The first book originally was called "The Squire's Tale," but now the entire series is called "The Squire's Tales" with the first book being renamed, "Squire Terence and the Maiden's Knight." The first four books have been re-released as a trade paperback just last month with this new designation. He is now working on "The Knight Series."

 

Squire's Tales

1. The Squire's Tale (1998)

aka Squire Terence and the Maiden's Knight

2. The Squire, His Knight, and His Lady (1999)

3. The Savage Damsel and the Dwarf (2000)

4. Parsifal's Page (2001)

5. The Ballad of Sir Dinadan (2003)

6. The Princess, the Crone, and the Dung-Cart Knight (2004)

aka Lady Sarah and the Dung-cart Knight

7. The Lioness and Her Knight (2005)

8. The Quest of the Fair Unknown (2006)

 

Knights' Tales

1. The Adventures of Sir Lancelot the Great (2008)

2. The Adventures of Givret the Short (2008)

 

Enjoy!

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One of our favorite fantasy authors is Sherwood Smith; she has quite a range of books from adult down to younger chapter books, but they are all greatly loved here.

 

Vivian Vande Velde has written many books, of varying quality, our favorites are: Heir Apparent (far and away her best),

 

These are also favorites of my teen. Another favorite author is Tamora Pierce who has written a number of overlapping series.

 

Regards,

Kareni

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My dd13 has been reading books by Shannon Hale and has finished this year the "Dragons in our Midst" series by Bryan Davis. Her friends have like the "Viking Quest" series (she is getting ready to start them).

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