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evil
little pixie
Registered User
(5/20/05 11:18 am)
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yay- good books!
For the 9-year-old (some of these are out of print):
Kara Dalky: _Little Sister_; the _Water_ trilogy
Mary Downing Hahn's books, particularly _Wait Till Helen Comes_
Norma Kassirer: _Magic Elizabeth_
Jean Craighead George: _The Missing 'Gator of Gumbo Limbo_
Gregory J. Holch: _The Things with Wings_
Bruce Coville's Magic Shop series
Nick Sullivan: _The Seventh Princess_
Lynne Reid Banks: _The Fairy Rebel_ and _The Farthest-Away Mountian_
Zilpha Keatley Snyder: _The Headless Cupid_ and _The Egypt Game_
Joan Carris: _Witch Cat_
any and all of Ruth Chew's books
ELeanor Estes: _The Witch Family_
Edward Eager's books, particularly _Half Magic_
For the 13-year-old (and possibly the 9-year-old as well):
Mollie Hunter: _The Mermaid Summer_
Eloise McGraw: _The Moorchild_
Carol Matas and Perry Nodelman: _Of Two Minds_
Susan Price: _The Ghost Drum_
Alexander Dumas: _The Count of Monte Cristo_ and _The Three Musketeers_
Elizabeth Marie Pope: _The Perilous Gard_
Susan Butler: _The Hermit Thrush Sings_
Monica Hughes: _The Keeper of the Isis Light_ (but don't read the back cover of the latest edition because it gives away the twist)
David Calder: _The Dragonslayer's Apprentice_
Jean Thesman's books, particularly _Molly Donnelly_
Avi: _The True Confessions of Charlotte Doyle_
Willo Davis Roberts: _Megan's Island_
Elizabeth George Speare: _The Witch of Blackbird Pond_
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darklingthrush
Registered User
(5/22/05 10:18 am)
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Re: Brilliant book
I have to second Diana Wynne Jones for the moment as I am currently reading the Dalemark Quartet which has been recently rereleased in a lovely 2 volume format. While I love her Chresomanci series, I adore Howl's Moving Castle the most. And since there is a lovely anime version of it coming out this year in the US from Studio Ghibli, she may want to consider this as well.
I also want to include the The Last Unicorn by Peter S. Beagle. While I feel Philip Pullman's His Dark Materials trilogy may be a bit heavy-handed for a 9 year old, I would recommend his short novel Clockwork.
Robin McKinley's Beauty was another I loved at that age. I don't remember A Wrinkle in Time being mentioned but I've always loved this series as well.
I hope she will love McCaffrey. My 5th grade homeroom teacher introduced me to the Dragonsinger books. Actually she unlocked her little bookcase in the back of the classroom after school one day and told me how much she trusted me with one of her favorite books. While I loved those Harper Hall books, her trust and friendship definately added something to that series.
What luck to have such a voracious reader for a daughter!
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Anansia
Registered User
(5/22/05 6:43 pm)
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What about Garth Nix?
13 y.o. may like either of his series:
Old Kingdom, which starts with Sabriel (it's dark fantasy, which I normally wouldn't go near, but I found it actually very positive). This series is complete.
and
Keys to the Kingdom series, which starts with Mr Monday. This series is still four books away from being finished but is complex, quirky and interesting and full of the unexpected. My ten y.o. finds the books "weird", but devoured them anyway. I haven't let him near the other series tho as I think he's a bit young. Garth Nix does good female characters.
Another Aussie writer whose books are available through Amazon or similar is Patricia Wrightson. Her books would be fine for a nine y.o.:
The Nargun and the stars.
An Older Kind of Magic
We've also just been reading Terry Pratchett's The Wee Free Men and A Hat full of sky, which are written for children & so much fun.
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Aer
Unregistered User
(5/22/05 8:06 pm)
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Great Books
Choosing the Patricia C. Wrede books is a very good choice. They are still among my favorite reads, and she is my favorite Author.
Heidi, you mentioned Protector of the Small, but I would start actually with the Alanna books if one wanted to begin Tamora Pierce. Alanna is quite a good book for a girl around 10 or older.
One book that I absolutely adored was Murder for Her Majesty by Beth Hilgartner. It is a mystery set in York Minster, and is an amazing read.
Also when I was her age I was deep in the Redwall books by Brian Jaques... they were the first books that ever made me cry actually.
I second the choices of the Narnia Books, Lloyd Alexander, and George McDonald (all of which have wonderful strong heroines in them as well).
Also I gobbled up any of Andrew Lang's Fairy Books.
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Veronica
Schanoes
Registered User
(5/23/05 3:27 am)
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Re: Great Books
The Egypt Game by Zilpha Keatly Snyder.
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Jess
Unregistered User
(5/23/05 8:23 am)
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Another
Half Magic and the Phantom Tollbooth. Loved the Egypt Game at that age!
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Deborah O
Unregistered User
(5/26/05 9:50 pm)
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more suggestions
It would be thrilling to be 9 years old and about to read all these books mentioned here, for the first time! I haven't seen some of my favorites on the lists, so consider these:
L.M. Boston's Green Knowe series and Philippa Pearce's Tom's Midnight Garden, all splendid classics. Natalie Babbitt's Tuck Everlasting is well known but her Search for Delicious and Kneeknock Rise are less known. also fine stories.
If the girl has a good tolerance for sentiment, try Elizabeth Goudge's delightful The Little White Horse. Carol Kendall's Gammage Cup and Jane Langton's The Fledgling are fun and well written. William Nicholson's Wind on Fire trilogy gets dark in books 2 & 3, but they're marvelous, and book I (The Wind Singer) might be just right for many 9-year-olds. If she has a taste for a creepy, touching, somewhat macabre book, try Sylvia Cassedy's Beyond the Attic Wall. And Mary Norton's little people, The Borrowers, are always fun.
Patricia Wrightson's Ice Is Coming trilogy is for teen readers, but her The Nargun and the Stars is a great tale for somewhat younger kids. Wrightson doesn't seem to be in print in the U.S. but she's in a lot of libraries. She weaves her stories around a terrific Australian mythology that isn't familiar to most of us here.
Happy reading to the children and also their elders, who can certainly enjoy any of these I mention here.
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monicaedinger
Registered User
(5/28/05 5:34 am)
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One More Book Suggestion
I've used and recommended this wonderful site for years, peeked into this board occasionally, but never posted till now.
But being a fourth grade teacher I'm simply unable to resist this thread. Great choice to go with the Enchanted Forest Chronicles; I read aloud Dealing with Dragons when it first came out and often suggest it to my fantasy lovers. And yeah Pushcart War! --- a wonderful title indeed. One that I believe has not yet been suggested is Kate Dicamillo's The Tale of Despereaux. I read it aloud last year and would have this year if so many of my students had not already read it. I'm speaking this summer at a children's literature conference focusing on fairy tales (Children's Literature New England that was mentioned earlier on this board) and plan to talk about it along with a few other literary fairy tales (Thurber's Many Moons, MacDonald's Light Princess, and Pullman's I am a Rat!) in terms of audience. That is, I'm really interested in the difference responses the different audiences (creator, adult, and child) have to these well-wrought literary tales. Any thoughts much appreciated.
Monica
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Veronica
Schanoes
Registered User
(5/21/05 6:03 pm)
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Re: Brilliant book
One of my favorite children's books of all time that is all too
often overlooked is The Pushcart War by Jean Merrill. Fabulous,
smart, and funny. Every single person in the whole world should
read it!
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chirons
daughter
Registered User
(6/7/05 11:46 am)
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Re: Unknown
How perfectly heartbreaking that all these posts were lost. I am sure it was a wonderful list of suggestions.
I wonder how advanced a nine-year-old this is. I would say a book that would keep her busy and thoroughly engrossed for a good part of the summer would be Peter Dickinson's "The Kin." He's magical altogether; but the span of different ages of the protagonists (and the keen way he has of zeroing in on their thinking at each age) makes this "book" of four books great for an unusual range of readers (including me, a young 54. . . )
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