Favorite pre-teen/YA books

[MommyOfSchnauzers]

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.

[dober_gurl]

Oh yea, Goosebumps and Fear Street are also a favorite of mine too!

[Gypsy Jazmine]

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!

[Stacey]

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! 

[Gypsy Jazmine]

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!
 

I cry each & every time I read it...I think it was my first understanding that others felt deeply about animals as I did.

[jaspers mom]

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. 

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.

[Good Hope]

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

[Gevaudan_Jo]

omg i love the dahl books...
Charlie & The Chocolate Factory,
Charlie and the great glass elevator
James and the giant Peach
The Witches

[longshadowfarms]

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.

[dober_gurl]

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!

The last book(aside from "Marley and Me") I read was "The Tenth Circle"

[Nicole]

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!!!!

[NoDogNow]

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. 

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. 

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!   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. 

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.