I know you said "classics" but I feel like I have to mention Tiger Eyes and Beat the Turtle Drum.

I envy you having someone to share all of these books with, OP. This thread is bringing back wonderful memories. I'm going to start working my way thru some of these title again!

Anonymous wrote:"From the Mixed-Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler", loved the book - Newbury Award Winner. I still love this book. Who doesn't want to run away from home and live in the Metropolitan Museum of Art?

+ 1
I read to the end of the list to make sure this one was on it.



Also good are Chasing Vermeer by Blue Balliett, Walk Two Moons by Sharon Creech , Esperanza Rising by Pam Munoz Ryan.

If you are on Facebook, go to the Mighty Girl page for countless suggestions of books with strong female protagonists.

Anonymous wrote:Phillip Pullman's Dark Materials trilogy.

These are great -- and the first one was just made into a movie.

Anne McCaffrey's Dragons of Pern series are wonderful if she likes scifi/fantasy. I don't hate Asimov's Foundation series, but there is one, ONE woman in the series. And she takes her shirt off. And not much else.

"From the Mixed-Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler", loved the book - Newbury Award Winner. I still love this book. Who doesn't want to run away from home and live in the Metropolitan Museum of Art?

Thanks for the great suggestions though and so many titles that I haven't thought to introduce her to yet. I never thought I'd ha e a daughter that I would have to nag to put down books but that's her.

Anonymous wrote:Spoiler alert Bridge is a real tear jerker.

Yes I read Bridge with her..it was too sad for me. Then again, I can't handle The Giving Tree without sobbing. I think my kids used to ask me to read it over and over again because they didn't understand the deeper meaning or my reaction.

She's read Black Beauty but no Dickens yet.

Spoiler alert Bridge is a real tear jerker.

I second the recommendation for Tuck Everlasting (Bsbbitt) and would add Bridge to Terabithia and Jacob Have I Loved (both by Katherine Patterson). If she wanted to try some Dickens, Great Expectations might be good for her age. Anything by E.J. Konigsberg.

Has she read The Wizard of Oz?

Alice in Wonderland

The Phantom Tollbooth

The Birchbark House

Oliver Twist

The Princess Bride

The Once and Future King

To Kill a Mockingbird

The Yearling

Watership Down

Black Beauty

The Swiss Family Robinson

The Scarlet Pimpernel

The Count of Monte Cristo

Tarzan

Treasure Island

Robin Hood

Ronia The Robber's Daughter
Terry Pratchett's YA novels: The Wee Free Men, Amazing Maurice, Nation

Wind in the Willows if she hasn't already read.

Susan cooper books

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Lots of good books here but not many that are over an 11-year-old's reading level. Dickens was a good suggestion--I would start with A Tale of Two Cities. Or what about The Scarlet Pimpernel (not by Dickens, obv)?

At some point reading level stops being that important. Just reading good books for the fun of it is what matters. I am sure all of us have read books below our "level" that we enjoyed, right?

I assumed that an advanced 11-year-old reader would already have read many of the suggested titles.

Holes
A Mouse and His Child
Watership Down
The Light Princess Series
Emily of New Moon Series
Wolves of Willoughby Chase
The Four Story Mistake series
The 100 Dresses
Jennifer, Hecate, Macbeth, William McKinley, and Me, Elizabeth

I agree with PPs. It's not so much about reading level as it is enjoying good books.

Older series that I have shared with my now 12 year old daughter include everything by Edith Nesbitt, half magic series, original Borrowers series, and the Children of Green Knowe series (author Boston).

For more recent books, I also recommend The Evolution of Calpurnia Tate, The Penderwicks series by Jeanne Birdsall, and Scrumble and Savvy by Ingrid Law.