Book recommendations for a 12-year-old girl?

[ny biker]

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.

[azfiddle]

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.

[salsabike]

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!

[tealtreak]

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!!!

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

[Melalvai]

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.

[carolp]

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.

[Reesha]

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

[missjean]

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.

[Lizzz]

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.

[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?

[Veronica]

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?

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.

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

[channlluv]

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