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

[nny]

Pretty much anything by Diana Wynne Jones and Tamora Pierce. Also The Graveyard Book and Coraline by Neil Gaiman.

[ladycat]

Rick Riordin's Percy Jackson series. About to come out as a movie (and looks halfway decent) soon. It's about the half-blood children of gods. I adore that series.

I also recommend the Tortall series' by Tamora Pierce. Start with Circle of the Lioness (still to this day one of my favorite series, and I started reading it when I was ten). I recommend vetting them for individual tastes, but if she's reading Twilight (highlighted for emphasis, not respect) there's no concepts in these books she can't handle.

this is a great series

[raveninthewind]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Sisters_Grimm_(novel_series)

[nestra]

Diane Duane's Young Wizards series? Narnia? Robin McKinley (er, except not Deerskin or Sunshine)?

[dogeared]

The True Meaning of Smekday by Adam Rex—SO AWESOME, and full of aliens and girl power. :D

[fox]

Hmm. Once upon a time, I'd have said Laura Ingalls Wilder, but that series - while important, don't get me wrong - has got Issues that I don't know if I'd be comfortable foisting on an impressionable kid. (I mean. I was impressionable, but I also had positive role models, you know? Maybe I read that stuff when I was younger than eleven, now that I think about it. Seems when I was eleven-ish I couldn't get enough of Anne of Green Gables. ... Which has different issues. Is there anything out there that's issue-free?)

[dogeared]

And! The City of Ember by Jeanne DuPrau, also wonderful and full of adventure.

[octette]

i second the percy jackson series, and want to add the claudia gray series, which starts with evernight. it's an age-appropriate vamp-focused series with an interesting twist, narrated by a teenage girl; my mom has a few copies she lends out to her 6th, 7th, and 8th grade reading students on a regular basis.

[sara]

Yep, I was going to say, "Sounds like a job for remedial Tamora Pierce!"

Hmm, good girl-centric YA...maybe Garth Nix's series that starts with Sabriel (some colonialism, yes, and the usual round of "oh look we're all sekritly royalty," but still holding up for me on reread), or...if she likes comics, Runaways is pretty good (stick to the stuff that's not Joss Whedon, and realize that there is a certain amount of lesbianism involved, but as I recall it's off-camera)...oh, a lot of Patricia McKillip should be approachable for someone who can get through Twilight, and none of that has any on-screen screwing.

I don't know; I prune Herself's reading for violence, not sex, which I don't think is the parental norm, and she's still not reading many chapter books, so I feel like my recs are kind of out-of-date. I really should do a long recs post about comics for early grade readers, though, because boy howdy, I have been through most of what's on the market in the last year....

[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.

[resonant]

The kidlet enthusiastically seconds all of those except for the Neil Gaiman, whom she hasn't read. Probably if I could persuade her the author is Nelly Gaiman, she'd be more interested in the books.

[laurashapiro]

At that age, I loved books by Zilpha Keatley Snyder and E.L. Konigsburg. They feature smart and capable young heroines and are funny and thought-provoking.

[nny]

The Gneil book contain one Very Much Hero, and one Awesome Hero's Best Mate who're asskicking girls, if that helps?

[takemyrevolution]

Companions of the Night by Vivian Vande Velde, if she wants more vampires.

Coraline by Neil Gaiman, if she likes creepy books.

The Everworld series (twelve books, I think) by K.A. Applegate if she likes mythology.

The Last Unicorn by Peter S. Beagle and The Neverending Story by Michael Ende if she likes fantasy.

[starwatcher]

.
Can't go wrong with Madeleine L'Engle's "Wrinkle in Time".

If she could find a copy (maybe interlibrary loan?) - Arthur Ransome's "Swallows and Amazons".
.

[cesperanza]

Evernight

http://www.claudiagray.com/books.htm

by one of us (TM) and consequently much more feminist!

[ellen_fremedon]

Lois Lowry's Anastasia Krupnik and sequels?

[cobweb_diamond]

How about Tithe by Holly Black? Or Weetzie Bat by Francesca Lia Block, which is brilliant but very short. Or Terry Pratchett?

[giglet]

Oh gosh, yes! Smekday is awesomely awesome!

[giglet]

The Tiffany Aching books by Terry Pratchett?

Wee Free Men, A Hat Full of Sky, and Wintersmith.

Because Tiffany is *awesome*

Also -- this isn't quite what you asked for, but it's a resource:
http://blog.scienceofheroes.com/2008/08/29/good-sf-books-for-girls-under-12/

[fox]

Oh, I'll second that. Also, where are we these days on Judy Blume? Some of her stuff is right off the board for this purpose, of course, but I believe when I was eleven I read "Remember Me to Harold [sic] Square" and "This Place Has No Atmosphere" to tatters. [googles] Which, upon a little investigation, both prove to be by Paula Danziger, so never mind the Judy Blume question, I guess. :-)

[allika]

The Secret Garden
From the Mixed-Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler by Konigsburg
A Wizard of Earthsea
The Giver
Something by Tamora Pierce (I liked the Song of the Lioness series and Circle of Magic)

[sorchasilver]

*seconds the Pratchett*