Recommend a book?

[resonant]

The kidlet is looking for books to buy a friend. What we know about the friend's reading habits: She's turning eleven, and she's all into the Twilight series.

So. Rec us meaty-yet-fifth-grade-appropriate books that are better than Twilight?

Comments

[resonant]

I'm not concerned about sex so much (and actually my impression is that there's very little sex in most of the Twilight books, though lots of sexual tension); it's more the "stalking is romantic!!1!" message. Also maybe it would be nice to have a book that was about something other than (or in addition to) romance.

[sara]

Yeah, I don't know what I'm going to do about Twilight -- it doesn't seem terribly healthy. Probably the same thing I did about the very heteronormative volume of Babymouse that she brought home the other day: let her read it but say a lot of things like, "Don't you think it's silly that she bases her happiness on what boys think? I think it would be a better story if she went to college, rather than becoming a mother when she's so young," and so on.

ETA: There's a fair bit of Ursula K. LeGuin that should be accessible to an eleven-year-old, too.

[maire]

It's not even the stalking that really bugs me about Twilight. It's the 'go out with me or I'll harm myself' thing that the girl seems to be into. Ick.