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BPO Recommended Reading => Book Club & Noteworthy Reads => : jaspers mom July 22, 2006, 03:39:47 PM
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Hi folks,
I just thought I'd post a few favorite books if anyone else likes YA books or are looking for books for thier kids this summer. This is just off the top of my head, I'm sorry if there are any spelling mistakes or missing/inaccurate authors
Preteen/YA favorites
Verse Books
Out of the Dust, Karen Hesse
Spinning through the Universe, Helen Frost
God Went to Beauty School, Cynthia Rylant
World’s Afire, Paul B. Janeczko
9-14
Lizzie Bright and the Buckminster Boy, Gary Schmidt
Harris and Me, Gary Paulsen
Wringer, Jerry Spinelli
Tale of Despereaux, Kate DiCamillo
Gossamer, Lois Lowry
Peter and the Starcatchers, Dave Barry
13-17
House of Spies, George Ella Lyon
A Northern Light, Jennifer Donnelly
Sledding Hill, Cris Crutcher
Nothing to Lose, Alex Flinn
Trilogy/Sequel/Series
Uglies, Scott Westerfeld
His Dark Materials, Phillip Pullman
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I don't know how I could forget, Love that Dog, by Sharon Creech. Every dog lover should read this. It will take you about 20 minutes.
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Where the Red Fern Grows by Wilson Rawls
and anything by Judy Blume!
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My favorite books when I was a child/young adult were:
Charlie and the Chocolate Factory
The Princess Bride
Soup
Soup and Me
Ramona (...the Great, all of them)
Fudge/Superfudge (a series of kid books about a pesky lil brother)
Judy Blume (Tiger Eyes, Are you there God, it's me, Margaret, Forever-older teen book, really anything by Judy Blume is great)
I read hundreds of books as a kid, I can't believe these are the only ones I'm remembering offhand!
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Where the Red Fern Grows by Wilson Rawls
Definitely. :) I second that!
Some others I have especially enjoyed (strictly "young adult" - there are way too many other books that I really like and that isn't the topic of this thread ;)):
-The Weka-Feather Cloak by Leo Madigan
-The Shadow of the Bear and Black as Night, both by Regina Doman
-Under a Changing Moon by Margot Benary-Isbert
Sofia
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Bridge to Terabithia by Katherine Patterson was an all-time fave...a tearjerker though :'(
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I have that on my shelf in the next room and haven't picked it up yet. I'll have to get it out. I'm in the middle of four others, so it will probably be a couple of days. I just started Caesar's Antlers, by Brooks Hansen. I loved The Chessman in college, but that's not a recommendation because I never found anyone else who liked it.
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I have that on my shelf in the next room and haven't picked it up yet. I'll have to get it out. I'm in the middle of four others, so it will probably be a couple of days. I just started Caesar's Antlers, by Brooks Hansen. I loved The Chessman in college, but that's not a recommendation because I never found anyone else who liked it.Â
You will have to tell me your thoughts after you read it. It is a great book!!
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I've only read a few of Judy Bloom books, but I've loved them all!
Umm
Memories Of Summer
The Saddle Club series
The Baby-sitters Club series
Junie B. Jones series(OMG I absolutely love this one!!)
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James Herriot's tales were awesome. I still have some of his stuff - finally got some of the shows on TV about his life as a Vet.
Thanks for that reminder!!! I have some Herriott books that I don't think the kids have devoured yet.
I have 3 young teens in the house on summer vacation and we watch almost no TV. My kids discovered a while back that they enjoy most of the Newberry Medal or Honor books so I searched and found a list:
http://www.ala.org/ala/alsc/awardsscholarships/literaryawds/newberymedal/newberymedal.htm
We're working our way through the list. Our local libraries are small but they are linked so that I can order through the internet and they'll deliver them to whichever library I request. When we find an author the kids really like, we jot that down and search for books by that author. We've had so many favorites on that list that it would take me hours to list them all! LOL! Yes, I read a lot of the books the kids read. They are just GOOD! My 11 yr old has really struggled to learn to read but all of sudden he is really taking off like wildfire! It is exciting! The 14 yr old has been a voracious reader forever so it has always been challenging to find enough interesting stuff for him to read. He was really into the Hardy Boy books until I ruined it for him :-[ He asked why I didn't like the books and I told him I thought they were all the same - dad told the kids to be careful, they always went ahead and checked it out themselves, almost got themselves killed, managed to get away and won the day. He read one more and that was it! :-[
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also
The Shadow Childen series
Harry Potter
Holes
A dog named Kitty
Because of Winn Dixie
OMG and ANYTHING that Lurlene McDaniel writes.
Then there's this series about being trapped in other bodies... like "help I'm trapped in my lunch lady's body!" books.
Black Beauty
The Black Stallion Series
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Casey is 12, but reads at high school level, as did Nick at the same age. The challange of finding books sophisicated enough keep their interest and yet not too "adult" in content led me to Terry Brookes and the Sword of Shannara series. They are much like the Lord of the Rings in nature, but easier to comprehend than Tolkien.
But look carefully, as I recall he did another series, including The Knight of The Word that was more adult in nature.
Stella
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OOOH another favorite!
Behind the Attic Wall by Sylvia Cassidy
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oouuu i was a sweet valley twins girl!! (hmm... wonder why :P)
i also liked some books that were about a school that had like 20 stories, and the kids were really weirD! and it talked about the teachers too.. i don't remember the name of it! but it was definately a favoritE!!
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oouuu i was a sweet valley twins girl!! (hmm... wonder why :P)
i also liked some books that were about a school that had like 20 stories, and the kids were really weirD! and it talked about the teachers too.. i don't remember the name of it! but it was definately a favoritE!!
stacy said it's wayside school is falling down!
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Alyx has every Junie B. Jones book ever written. Those are always favorites around here.
She's read Because of Winn Dixie, The Secret Garden, Black Beauty, Little Women, many books in the Pony Pals series, and she is currently working on the American Girls Felicity series.
The Goosebumps series are usually winners for those who like a little mystery.
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Oh yea, Goosebumps and Fear Street are also a favorite of mine too!
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I've only read a few of Judy Bloom books, but I've loved them all!
Umm
Memories Of Summer
The Saddle Club series
The Baby-sitters Club series
Junie B. Jones series(OMG I absolutely love this one!!)
since my kids were in k-garten I'd read them a chapter ofJunie B. Jones before bed & just devour the rest of the book after they were sleeping & I'm still doing it!...Junie B. Jones is the ultimate kid!
Where The Red Fern Grows-I've been reading it since I was 9 & this year my mil gave me my own hard cover copy for my b-day!!!...We don't do cable t.v. here for going on 2 yrs...I encourage reading & I also encourage the classics...my kids are 7 & 9 & read at 5th grade & almost 7th grade level...we have weekly "read & feeds" usually on Sat...We take our books back to the library & get new ones & I make up a ton of snack...cheese sausage, crackers, cocktail weenies, taco dip w/ chips, cut fruit, etc...We help ourselves when we are hungry...Save me making meals for one day & we have a quiet & mentally productive day!
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Where The Red Fern Grows-I've been reading it since I was 9 & this year my mil gave me my own hard cover copy for my b-day!!!...
Don't you just love that book, I have read it countless times and it still makes me cry!
(Same with Bridge to Terabithia though!)
I was such a bookworm growing up, I cannot believe these are the only ones I have thought of!
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Where The Red Fern Grows-I've been reading it since I was 9 & this year my mil gave me my own hard cover copy for my b-day!!!...
Don't you just love that book, I have read it countless times and it still makes me cry!
Â
I cry each & every time I read it...I think it was my first understanding that others felt deeply about animals as I did.
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Alyx has every Junie B. Jones book ever written. Those are always favorites around here.Â
She's read Because of Winn Dixie, The Secret Garden, Black Beauty, Little Women, many books in the Pony Pals series, and she is currently working on the American Girls Felicity series.Â
It sounds like you daughter might like a book we finished this Spring. The Miraculous Journey of Edward Toulane is by the same author who wrote Winn Dixie and Tale of Despereaux, and we read it aloud together. The pictures are beautiful, and the story is fantastic.
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G. A. Henty books are good reads too!
Here's a link to Mortimer Adler's Good book list:
http://www.angelicum.net/the_good_books_list.html
Here's a link about the "Great Books":
http://www.angelicum.net/great_books_movement.html
Deena
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omg i love the dahl books...
Charlie & The Chocolate Factory,
Charlie and the great glass elevator
James and the giant Peach
The Witches
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It sounds like you daughter might like a book we finished this Spring. The Miraculous Journey of Edward Toulane is by the same author who wrote Winn Dixie and Tale of Despereaux, and we read it aloud together. The pictures are beautiful, and the story is fantastic.
Oh my! I LOVED this book and Winn Dixie. Kids loved Despereaux but I didn't read that one. I cried! In a good way. Wrinkle in Time was awesome too. Number the Stars was another favorite. Like I said, I have too many favorites to list! Many of these listed are Newberry Medal or Honor books - with good reason. They are very well written and just gripping stories.
Edited to thank those who provided links with book lists! My kids are such voracious readers that it is nice to have more choices to check out.
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Gosh if I could only remember my favorite books, I think I may have to take a trip to the library to find them all! ;D
The last book(aside from "Marley and Me") I read was "The Tenth Circle"
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I can't remember the type of book it was or what they were called, but they had pictures for every page of text...so like 20K leagues under the sea had accompanying photo's, same with Black Beauty, Count of Monte Cristo, etc.
That made me think of something else ... did anyone read the Choose Your Own Adventure books? Do they still make those? I loved those things when I was young!
OMG! THOSE WERE MY FAVORITE!!!!
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The challange of finding books sophisicated enough keep their interest and yet not too "adult" in content led me to Terry Brookes and the Sword of Shannara series
LOVE the Shannara, esp. to give teenage boys. David hadn't read a book voluntarily in his LIFE until my mother made me let him have the copy of Sword that I took with us on a 7 week long RV trip we took across the whole US and back. He was forced by sheer boredom to start reading it, and never looked back as a reader.
Also give Brooks' Landover series a try: it starts with Magic Kingdom for Sale--Sold! I'm sure all your teens will love the scribe who's been turned into a large dog by the inept wizard.Â
Also quite good for avoiding most objectionable adult material is David (and oft-uncredited Leigh!) Eddings Belgariad/Mallorean series. Some of their other work isn't as teen friendly, but these were sort of designed as YA fantasy novels.Â
About James Herriott: Just keep in mind that there IS a good bit of fairly explicit 'vet' work! The opening scene of All Creatures Great and Small has the poor guy on the floor of a cow shed, stripped to the waist and up to his armpit trying to sort out a breech position calf, remember! :o Be prepared for some birds and bees explaining with these. I gave a whole set of Herriott to Desi's kids last summer (11 and 12) and trust me, there was a WHOLE lot of discussion about just where that guy had his arm, what he was doing, why it was necessary, and did that ever happen to human moms, etc. Herriott can be a great read for kids, but be sure yours is ready for the gory details. :D
And don't forget Anne McCaffrey. The Dragonriders trilogy may be a little old for early teens (there's some stronglly implied passion going on when those male dragons fly the queens!) but the Harper Hall books were deliberately written as a YA intro to the world of Pern.