Book recommendations for a 12-year-old girl?

My niece just got a Kindle Fire and for Christmas she asked me to give her book recommendations plus a gift card to buy them with.

She reads a lot. Like, really a lot. Pretty much any genre except mystery, I think. Definitely realistic fiction, and "some fantasy" books.

She enjoyed The Hunger Games Books, and for her birthday she asked for The Shadow Children books. A few years ago I gave her the Wrinkle in Time books, and a few biographies. I don't know if she liked Harry Potter -- I asked my brother but haven't heard yet.

Anyone have any recommendations?

Thanks!!!

I was going to recommend the Hunger Games trilogy. My son (will be 11 in early Feb.) really likes them. I look forward to seeing what others have to recommend.

My 13 year old daughter recommends the following:

Divergent (better version of the Hunger Games) - Veronica Roth
Maximum Ride - James Patterson
All American Girl - Meg Cabot
Uglies - Scott Westerfield
The Outsiders (one of my favorite books of all time) and any other SE Hinton Book
Red Riding Hood - Catherine Harswick
Click Here - Denise Vega
Inkheart - Cornelia Funke
The Lying Game - Sarah Shephard

Hope this helps

Lloyd Alexander's The Chronicles of Prydain is quite good.

Veronica

I really can't wait until my son is old enough for "To Kill a Mockingbird." I don't think I read it until 9th grade. I think in another 2 years that he might be ready. A mature 12 year old girl might really enjoy that.

if your daughter is into sci fi fiction a few classics like Anne Macaffreys Dragonrider series or something like "the ship who sang" might be fun. Also some of the Heinlein stuff,"the cat who walked through walls", the triology "time enough for love , "Methusalahs Children",The Notebooks of Lazarus Long" and the short story ""the door into summer. Of course there are also the Ray Bradbury classics "The Martian Chronicles" and "Golden Apples of the Sun." on a more fantasy and less sci fi line there are several (actually I never read one I didn't like) Charles De Lint books, "Dreams and Memories" "The Onion Girl" and "Savaha" which are deeply complex with multiple layers of stories and characters and beautifully and compelling story lines.

marni

The Once and Future King was my favorite book around that age. And how about Ursula LeGuin's Earthsea Trilogy?

That's such a fantastic gift request from a girl that age! Sounds like you have a great niece.

I suppose they're a little dated at this point, but I loved Katherine Patterson's books as a teen. Jacob Have I Loved is still one of my favorites. I loved all of Madeleine L'Engle's, too. She has a number of good books in addition to the Wrinkle in Time series.

I teach middle school and here is what's been hot lately:

Hunger Games series (Suzanne Collins)
Eragon series (Christopher Paolini)
Alex Rider series (Anthony Horowitz)
most things written by Meg Cabot

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Originally Posted by Veronica

Lloyd Alexander's The Chronicles of Prydain is quite good.

Veronica

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These were wonderful. I'm tempted to find them again for myself.

Ooo... loved Once and Future King by T.H. White Also loved reading Mist of Avalon by Marion Bradley.

I'll come clean and admit I loved reading Anne Mc Caffrey's Harper Hall Trilogy. It was part of Dragonsong series. Sad that she just recently passed away.

The Hobbit, and the Middle Earth Trilogy. I wasn't too keen on Silmmarillion.

Can't imagine how a good story ever go out of style...

I'm now told she did not like Harry Potter. Hmmm.

The Chronicles of Ancient Darkness by Michelle Paver - six books in the series and the research and writing are some of the best I've ever read, set in Woodlands era, northern Europe, among the nomadic tribes

The Protector of the Small quartet by Tamora Pierce - girl power! medieval fantasy

Song of the Lioness quartet by Tamora Pierce - more girl power, with magic -- this one actually predates The Protector of the Small

Brand new science fiction, The Future of Us by Jay Asher and Carolyn Macker, author of The Earth, My Butt, and Other Big Round Things - in The Future of Us, a girl in 1995 gets a computer and a disk to load AOL, only she gets Facebook instead and she and her best friend learn about their future selves.

Roxy

Most anything by Cynthia Voigt is appropriate for a kid that age - she's done a couple for younger children and one for adults, but the Tillerman series (her first) is a good place to start, and the Bad Girls series is also very good.

There is one book I would recommend, but it is not available for a kindle (I guess it would help if people request it) and it is hard to find in English: "My Sweet Orange Tree" by José Mauro de Vasconcelos. I remember sobbing as I read, but I could not put it down.

This is such a great list!! And it's also giving me ideas for my other niece, who is 10 and also loves to read. They share a lot of books, and actually make recommendations for each other.

The younger girl really loved all the Harry Potter books. When she was younger, she absolutely adored the Rainbow Fairy books. Even when they were way below her reading level, she still asked me to buy the new ones for her.

I was going to suggest the Tamora Pierce books also, if she likes fantasy, and books by Diana Wynne Jones.

I also teach middle school and can ask the language arts teacher.

I don't know why it took so long to occur to me to tell you this, but Suzanne Collins (Hunger Games) also did a really delightful 5-book series for kids called The Underland Chronicles: http://www.suzannecollinsbooks.com/g...cles_48384.htm

And while it may have been written for kids, I read every single book and really enjoyed myself!

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Originally Posted by ny biker

My niece just got a Kindle Fire and for Christmas she asked me to give her book recommendations plus a gift card to buy them with.

She reads a lot. Like, really a lot. Pretty much any genre except mystery, I think. Definitely realistic fiction, and "some fantasy" books.

She enjoyed The Hunger Games Books, and for her birthday she asked for The Shadow Children books. A few years ago I gave her the Wrinkle in Time books, and a few biographies. I don't know if she liked Harry Potter -- I asked my brother but haven't heard yet.

Anyone have any recommendations?

Thanks!!!

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My middle school kids kids (both genders) loved "Redwall" by Brian Jacques, Tolkienish fantasy- many in the series.....

One thing I have learned is that some of the books I loved as a kid don't work so well across generations. So I wouldn't recommend My favorites to your 12 yr old niece.

My 16 yr old daughter loved Hunger Games and she also loved the Uglies series (Scott Westerfield). She really likes Orson Scott Card, but I think she might have been a little bit older before she first read Ender's Game. It might be tough going for some 12 yr olds, but maybe not your niece, since she's a voracious reader.

In the same vein as Hunger Games, try The Giver and it's sequels, by Lois Lowry. She loved all of those too.

A new book I loved, and appropriate for a 12=year-old is "Bigger than a Breadbox," by Laurel Snyder. A young girl's parents are going through a divorce, and she ends up with her mother at her grandmother's where she finds a magic breadbox. Good lessons, but very realistic writing. A touching, good story.

Howl's Moving Castle by Dianna Wynne Jones
The Uglies/Pretties/Specials series is pretty decent.
Dealing With Dragons series by Patricia Wrede

:)

My now grown daughter suggested Watership Down. She remembers reading it at age 12. I read it about that age too and loved the story, but it was not until I read it again as an adult that I got the whole political under tones.
The Hobbit would be a good one too.

At that age maybe it's a good idea to start with the classics, as a child of that age I loved "The Secret Garden" by Frances Hodgson Burnett.

My niece, who is now 15, enjoyed the Rick Riordan series which was suggested by a middle-school Reading teacher (friend of mine). Her students loved them & my niece really liked them as well.

The Lightning Thief
The Sea of Monsters
The Titan's Curse
The Battle of the Labyrinth
The Last Olympian
The Demigod Files

I think that's all of them?

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Originally Posted by TxRider

My niece, who is now 15, enjoyed the Rick Riordan series which was suggested by a middle-school Reading teacher (friend of mine). Her students loved them & my niece really liked them as well.

The Lightning Thief
The Sea of Monsters
The Titan's Curse
The Battle of the Labyrinth
The Last Olympian
The Demigod Files

I think that's all of them?

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Loved these and he has another set going about the Roman gods. He's two books into that one and a set on Egyptian gods - also two books in. I can barely wait for the next ones to come out. :D

Scott Westerfield also has a trilogy set in an alternate version of pre WW1. The first one is called Leviathian.

I just read The House on Mango Street today and it is a little adult in some places, too much for me to read aloud to my class, but I've got a girl I would give it to. It's a very easy read, but the language and the images she evokes are amazing. It's often referenced as an example of good writing in teacher manuals, and I had never read it. i can see why it's referenced.

Veronica

When I was teaching 8th grade Language Arts, I had to buy several copies of The House on Mango Street, because it kept getting "borrowed" and not returned, so popular it was.

:)

Roxy