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03-18-2004, 02:52 PM
| | Fallen angel & loving it! | | Join Date: Jan 2002 Location: Hell, MI
Posts: 322
| | Need a book recommendation for a 11 y.o. girl | |
i was trying to post this in the writing forum & couldn't. Perhaps it's appropriate here . . . or perhaps it fits better in the shopping channel. The busybiddies may move it where'er they please.
i know this soon-to-be 10 year old girl who likes to tell stories. If you get her relaxed, you might be regaled by stories featuring little bunny rabbits called Fluffy & deer & unicorns & other usual girly creatures. When she's around people who're used to her stories & don't pay her any attention (which happens quite often in rural Maine) when she's in the storytelling mode, she sits down at a computer—provided she can kick her brother off—and types out her story.
So . . . i'm wondering if the weirdos on this site who like playing wannabe writers know of any books for mightwannabe writer kidlets. i'm in a place where i pay for 'net access by the minute so the research for a project like this might hit my baksheesh bag a bit. So i'm hoping to harness the innate indolence of the average eaforums user to get recommendations (preferably something that can be obtained from amazon.com, but at this point online stores that'll ship to US addresses are open).
i know this distributed computing project isn't as exciting as the SETI or the genomeproject. But . . . be honest now . . . do you really believe that ET will ever call the earth, or that if cancer is "cured" that no other disease will take over the killer role? With this project, you might be helping to launch the career of another Rowling, or something . . .
. . . i've less than 5 mins left on my account here, so can't offer the usual promise of a reduction of your eternal purgatorial torment in writing. Please accept it in faith.  !thanks
__________________
Remember when you hear them beginning to say Freedom, look carefully — see who it is that they want you to butcher.
Remember, the smell of burning will not sicken you if they persuade you that it will thaw the world.
Beware, the blood of a child does not smell so bitter if you have shed it with a high moral purpose.
So that when they come to sell you their bloody corruption you will gather the spit of your chest . . . and plant it in their faces.
Last edited by satan; 03-23-2004 at 03:19 PM.
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03-18-2004, 03:09 PM
|  | Law Talkin' Guy | | Join Date: Jul 2000 Location: Trenton, NJ
Posts: 6,338
| | Re: Need a book recommendation for a 10 y.o. | |
Phantom Tollbooth.
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"Last time I checked, this was a free country."
Curtis Edmonds
curtis@txreviews.com |
03-18-2004, 03:11 PM
|  | Epinions Music Addict | | Join Date: Aug 2001 Location: Michigan
Posts: 1,354
| | Re: Need a book recommendation for a 10 y.o. | |
So she likes fantastic sorts of things...me too, at that age so I *might* be able to help out a bit. Here goes nothing (or something).
Alice in Wonderland/Through the Looking Glass - Lewis Carroll
Wrinkle in Time/Wind in the Door/Swiftly Tilting Planet - Madeline L'Engle (I was REALLY fond of all her stuff)
Charlie and the Chocolate Factory/The Great Glass Elevator - Roald Dahl
Bridge to Terabithia - Katherine Paterson
Shel Silverstein's Poetry
L. Frank Baum's entire Oz series
The Neverending Story - Michael Ende
__________________ Shelly. ('lambchops')
Check out my music reviews at Rock Reviews.net! [It's all in good fun...] |
03-18-2004, 03:38 PM
|  | Premium Member | | Join Date: Jun 2000 Location: Lansing, MI, United States
Posts: 10,392
| | Re: Need a book recommendation for a 10 y.o. | |
Hey you! It's good to see you again!
In no particular order:
Phantom Tollbooth (I know Curtis already said it, but it really is a must)
Chronicles of Narnia
The Westing Game
The Midwife's Apprentice
The Shakespeare Stealer/Shakespeare's Scribe
Catherine, Called Birdy
Bridge to Terabithia
The Egypt Game
The Prydain Chronicles (but you already knew that, right? Since you were the one who turned me on to them)
Ella Enchanted
The True Confessions of Charlotte Doyle
Laura Ingells Wilder series
The Great Gilly Hopkins
Judy Blume young reader books (not her teenager ones--at least, not yet)
The Cricket in Times Square
From the Mixed Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler
Little Women
Stuart Little
Charlotte's Web
The Borrowers (and the subsequent books in the series)
The Wind in the Willows
The Jungle Books
Alice in Wonderland
The Velveteen Rabbit
Shel Silverstein's poetry books (Where the Sidewalk Ends, etc.)
James and the Giant Peach
All-of-a-Kind Family (I loved these books when I was a kid and promptly forgot the title. I could remember all sorts of individual scenes, but not the book name itself)
Pippi Longstocking books
The Black Stallion books
The Magic treehouse series (if you don't mind them playing fast and loose with Camelot)
The House with a Clock in its Walls
I was also really into reading books of mythology at that age. Our library had a whole series of books that each told the myths of a different country. I loved it.
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Bridgette
"There are seven things that will destroy us: Wealth without work; pleasure without conscience; knowledge without character; religion without sacrifice; politics without principle; science without humanity; business without ethics." --Mahatma Gandhi
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03-18-2004, 03:40 PM
|  | Yes, I am just this cute! | | Join Date: Aug 2000 Location: The Gem State
Posts: 7,323
| | Re: Need a book recommendation for a 10 y.o. | |
The Great Brain series by John Fitgerald
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Margo
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03-18-2004, 03:55 PM
| | Law Talkin' Guy | | Join Date: Jul 2000 Location: Trenton, NJ
Posts: 6,338
| | Re: Need a book recommendation for a 10 y.o. | |
Quote: | mtomm said
The Great Brain series by John Fitgerald | These are quite good, IIRC.
The Encyclopedia Brown books, of course.
The "Tripods" books by John Christopher are favorites, too.
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"Last time I checked, this was a free country."
Curtis Edmonds
curtis@txreviews.com |
03-18-2004, 05:10 PM
|  | Insert witty comment here | | Join Date: Jul 2000 Location: Alabama
Posts: 18,815
| | Re: Need a book recommendation for a 10 y.o. | |
I don't know that I'd recommend the Magic Treehouse books for a 10 year old. They are good, but *quite* simple. They're good first chapter books, but a 10 year old would be way past them, I think. (Erin *adores* them, I gotta get her the next set soon!)
I 2nd and 3rd all the nominations so far! 
__________________ Melanie
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03-18-2004, 06:37 PM
|  | Epinions Members | | Join Date: Oct 2001 Location: Central California
Posts: 6,263
| | Re: Need a book recommendation for a 10 y.o. | |
Good to see you again. Fluffy is good. I can't add to what has been said. If she still likes a picture book now and then, a nice one would be one of the fairytales or myths illustrated by Kiyoko Craft including The Twelve Dancing Princesses (my favorite version is illustrated by Erol LeCain and not just for the pictures believe it or not!) and Pegasus ,
beyond pictures: Eragon by Christopher Paolini was enjoyed by both my sister and my daughter
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03-18-2004, 11:25 PM
|  | Epinions Members | | Join Date: Oct 2001 Location: Ohio
Posts: 1,080
| | Re: Need a book recommendation for a 10 y.o. | |
Wonderful recommendations, Bridgette! I'm sure I've got some duplicates, but here goes: The Story Girl and The Golden Road, by L.M. Montgomery Anne of Green Gables series, also by L.M. Montgomery Emily of New Moon. Emily Climbs, Emily's Quest, by L.M. Montgomery Matilda, by Roald Dahl The Hobbit, by J.R.R. Tolkien The Wind in the Willows, by Kenneth Grahame A Little Princess, by Frances Hodgson Burnett The Secret Garden, by Frances Hodgson Burnett The Princess and the Goblin, by George MacDonald Danny the Champion of the World, by Roald Dahl My Side of the Mountain, by Jean Craighead George Julie of the Wolves, by Jean Craighead George Island of the Blue Dolphins, by Scott O'Dell The BFG, by Roald Dahl Gom on Windy Mountain, The Riddle and the Rune, The Crystal Stair and The Starstone, by Grace Chetwin A Wrinkle in Time, by Madeline L'Engle Watership Down, by Richard Adams. Mandy, by Julie Andrews Edwards The Dark Green Tunnel, The Wand, by Allan W. Eckert The Amazing Maurice and His Educated Rodents, by Terry Pratchett Into the Land of the Unicorns, by Bruce Coville The Castle in the Attic, by Elizabeth Winthrop Ronia, the Robber's Daughter, by Astrid Lindgren Dealing with Dragons, by Patricia C. Wrede Favorite Tales from Grimm-- so many editions to choose from, but I like this one, it's got thse gorgeous color illustrations by Mercer Mayer: http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/AS...045881-3491260  |
03-19-2004, 09:08 AM
|  | Epinions Members | | Join Date: Sep 2000 Location: Alabama
Posts: 8,891
| | Re: Need a book recommendation for a 10 y.o. | |
I definitely second the Emily of New Moon books by L.M. Montgomery for a child interested in writing, and The Story Girl if she likes to tell stories.
A word of caution about the Madeline L'Engle books: they are very explicit in their Christian ideology, which really shocked me when I read them as an adult, while I found the Narnia Chronicles much more subtle (if you didn't want to see the Christian symbology, you needn't).
--naomi
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03-20-2004, 08:05 AM
|  | Epinions Members | | Join Date: Mar 2003 Location: The City In A Garden
Posts: 5,237
| | Re: Need a book recommendation for a 10 y.o. | |
Not specifically oriented toward kids who write, but a series I remember as being terrific (from when I was about that age), is Walter R. Brooks' Freddy the Pig (which no one seems to have heard of here). They were right up there, in my mind, with Tom Swift.
I found a couple of websites that have some info on them: www.harley.com/freddy-the-pig (by a fan, it includes a good general background on the the stories and a complete book list) and www.freddythepig.org (yes, Freddy has a fan club).
The major characters are all animals living on a farm in upstate New York who talk. Freddy is, by turns, a detective, a space explorer, a journalist, a poitician, and more.
And, yes, Amazon carries them.
Bob |
03-23-2004, 03:19 PM
| | Fallen angel & loving it! | | Join Date: Jan 2002 Location: Hell, MI
Posts: 322
| | Re: Need a book recommendation for a 11 y.o. girl | |
Thanks for the reccs, everyone, though i was really looking for something of an 'encouragement-to-write' type o thing . . . as it is, this's turned out to be like a previous post which involved the same young lass . . . and rereading that post, i just realized that she's turning 11, not 10 . . .
. . . anyway, it's kinda belated, but as you can imagine, the Princess of Darkness has been really really busy since you humans have been naughtier than usual, but . . .
. . . redlass wins the Purgatorial Pardon promised in that previous thread for her suggestion of Letters From Rifka.
Congrats B! Go and sin evermore. 
__________________
Remember when you hear them beginning to say Freedom, look carefully — see who it is that they want you to butcher.
Remember, the smell of burning will not sicken you if they persuade you that it will thaw the world.
Beware, the blood of a child does not smell so bitter if you have shed it with a high moral purpose.
So that when they come to sell you their bloody corruption you will gather the spit of your chest . . . and plant it in their faces. |
03-25-2004, 04:17 AM
|  | Housemother to the World | | Join Date: Nov 2002 Location: A Capital Ship For an Ocean Trip
Posts: 3,306
| | Re: Need a book recommendation for a 10 y.o. | |
A warning regarding A Bridge to Tarabithea. One of the two main characters dies. I read this aloud to my then 10 and 13 year-old sons, and I cried at the end. It was not the book I would have chosen for a grade four assignment, and my 10 year-old found it disturbing.
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03-25-2004, 12:17 PM
|  | duck duck duck goose | | Join Date: Oct 2000 Location: Jerusalem, ISRAEL
Posts: 125
| | Re: Need a book recommendation for a 10 y.o. | |
I realize she might be a bit old for Eragon by Christopher Paolini, however he did write it when he was 16, which might be cool to her.
I'm also currently reading Inkheart by Cornelia Funke which not only has a strong 12-year-old girl as protagonist, but she is an absolute book-lover herself which is an added bonus.
Oh yeah, and I'll third (or fourth or fifth) The Phantom Tollbooth for what it's worth.
In any event, thanks for the thread. Lots of new books to check out myself.... |
03-25-2004, 01:41 PM
| | Premium Member | | Join Date: Jun 2000 Location: Lansing, MI, United States
Posts: 10,392
| | Re: Need a book recommendation for a 10 y.o. | |
Sweet! I can sin at will now?
Did she like "Letters from Rifka" then? I was really impressed with that book.
Want an encouragement to write for that age? Just promise you won't tell anyone but the lass involved, OK? (Yes, I'm letting out my dirty little secret here.) Have her take a book that she really liked or even (gasp) a television show and write her own stories about them. Maybe even insert herself into the stories. I think there are now even Websites where young folks can publish the stories they write based on other tales.
For example, what if she entered the world of The Phantom Tollbooth? What new adventures would she find there now that Rhyme and Reason rule? Would she gain a position in the court of Dictionopolis? Would she further adventure into the Mountains to fight off new demons?
If you'd like, I could try to find some of the sites where kids are publishing Harry Potter or other type of stories. This can be especially fun if you trade the stories with other people doing the same thing--or even intermingle your stories and characters. It's certainly a good way to learn what to do when a plot doesn't go the way you want it to. (Granted, when I was little, we had to do this via snail mail, not the Internet. But I made lifelong friends with these people and several did go on to make their living as writers and have even published multiple novels with such houses as Time-Warner.)
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Bridgette
"There are seven things that will destroy us: Wealth without work; pleasure without conscience; knowledge without character; religion without sacrifice; politics without principle; science without humanity; business without ethics." --Mahatma Gandhi
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03-31-2004, 05:19 AM
| | Fallen angel & loving it! | | Join Date: Jan 2002 Location: Hell, MI
Posts: 322
| |  Re: Need a book recommendation for a 10 y.o. | |
Thanks again to everyone . . . & a special satanic 'sank you' to arianej for mentioning The Story Girl . . . it sounds like a good fit!
Yes B, i'd be interested in the type of sites you've mentioned . . . the computers here in Hell are too &%*&&()&$#%^# slow for my taste (part of quality control—if the Bossperson can't stand it, i can be sure our visitors won't find it much fun either) . . .
Yes, i'll seventh the recc for The Phantom Tollbooth too, but she sknows about that one (& some of the others that were mentioned also) . . .
. . . i'd like to submit a plug for The Neverending Story, the version with the green & red text . . .
. . . & i loved The Great Brain series as a wee devil-in-training & am hoping to find a set for her brother someday. i remember reading that an eight book had come out but haven't come across it . . .
. . . oh yea, before i leave, Jason (what're you doing in here? aren't you supposed to be fleecing sheep or something?) mentioned Paolini. i remember a young Canadian writer who i discovered around 8th grade or so—Gordon Korman i believe the name is. Mainly directed to pre-teen or neo-teen boys, i found them hilarious, specially the Rudy Miller stories. i wonder how they'd hold up to a rereading these days . . .
. . . thank you all again.
__________________
Remember when you hear them beginning to say Freedom, look carefully — see who it is that they want you to butcher.
Remember, the smell of burning will not sicken you if they persuade you that it will thaw the world.
Beware, the blood of a child does not smell so bitter if you have shed it with a high moral purpose.
So that when they come to sell you their bloody corruption you will gather the spit of your chest . . . and plant it in their faces. |
03-31-2004, 06:19 AM
|  | Hello, I'm Deb | | Join Date: Jun 2000 Location: Oregon
Posts: 7,323
| | Re: Need a book recommendation for a 10 y.o. | |
I loved the Anne of Green Gables books when I was about that age. And yes, I can remember being that age - no impish comments from you! Anything by Lucy Maud Montgomery would probably capture her interest if she loves to write down her imaginings.
Deb
__________________ Support our Marines "If you want to be free, there is but one way; it is to guarantee an equally full measure of liberty to all your neighbors. There is no other." - Carl Shurz, German general and politician |
04-01-2004, 04:30 AM
| | Fallen angel & loving it! | | Join Date: Jan 2002 Location: Hell, MI
Posts: 322
| |  Re: Need a book recommendation for a 10 y.o. | |
Quote: | conradd said
And yes, I can remember being that age - no impish comments from you! | i can't offer any impish comments . . . it was waaaaay before my time . . .  |
04-02-2004, 04:36 PM
| | Epinions Members | | Join Date: Oct 2001 Location: Ohio
Posts: 1,080
| | Re: Need a book recommendation for a 10 y.o. | |
Quote: | satan said
Thanks again to everyone . . . & a special satanic 'sank you' to arianej for mentioning The Story Girl . . . it sounds like a good fit! | You're welcome! It's still one of my favorites, actually. L.M. Montgomery does a wonderful job writing about imaginative, young female characters.
Ariane |
04-22-2004, 12:35 PM
|  | Epinions Members | | Join Date: Jun 2000 Location: in the palm of your hand
Posts: 12,708
| | Re: Need a book recommendation for a 10 y.o. | |
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04-22-2004, 04:11 PM
|  | Epinions Members | | Join Date: Aug 2000 Location: Northeast Malibu
Posts: 5,863
| | Re: Need a book recommendation for a 10 y.o. | |
My own 11 year old girl loved "White Fang" by Jack London. She also loved "Call of the Wild". | |
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