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middle school reads

TooPatient

TooPatient

Super_Ideal_Rock
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Sep 1, 2009
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I'm busy stocking a bookcase for a 13 year old girl. She enjoys Harry Potter and vampires. (we're getting a bunch to start with and then she'll be choosing more to add)

We've already got Lord of the Rings, complete collection of Sherlock Holmes, Horatio Hornblower series, lots of the classics, and lots of non-fiction.

Suggestions?


Here's what I've got on my list to stock in her bookcase so far:

Twilight series (Stephenie Meyer)
Harry Potter series (JK Rowling)
Hatchet series (G. Paulson)
Holes (Louis Sachar)
Bridge to Terabithia (Katherine Paterson)
The Hobbit (JRR Tolkien)
Island of the Blue Dolphins (Scott O’Dell)
The Uglies Trilogy (Scott Westerfeld)
Where the Sidewalk Ends (Shel Silverstein)
Anne of Green Gables (LM Montgomery)
The Diary of a Young Girl (Anne Frank)
The Book Thief (Markus Zusak)
The Time Trilogy (A Wrinkle in Time, A Wind in the Door, A Swiftly Tilting Planet) (M. L’Engle)
The Devil’s Arithmetic (J. Yolen)
Kite Runner (K. Hosseini)
The Time Machine (HG Wells)
I am David (A. Holm)
 
I am an electic reader with a leaning towards fantasy, so here are some of the books that I loved at that age and still love today:

Watership Down, Richard Adams
The Little House series, Laura Ingalls Wilder
Little Women, Louisa May Alcott
The Belgariad series, David Eddings
The Prydain Chronicles, Lloyd Alexander
The Spellkey Trilogy, Ann Downer
The Woods Family Saga, Eileen Charbonneau (I think these are mostly out of print, which is a shame, because they are excellent)
The Witch of Blackbird Pond, Elizabeth George Spear
Ender's Game, Orson Scott Card
The Enchanted Forest Chronicles, Patricia C. Wrede

Hope that helps! Let me know if you want to know any more about each book/series, I'd be more than happy to oblige!
 
Looks like a great list! Thanks for the suggestions. I just looked up information on each of those and added them to my list of books to get.

I've never really read much from this genre, but some of these look great. I may have to read them too!
 
Have you considered the Percy Jackson series by Rick Riordan? I think the series is about 5 books and then he comes out with a brand new Percy series as they're a bit older (like 16-17ish) with the same characters and adding in some new flare. I LOVED that idea and it was pretty genius to me. Loved Percy! These books were about demi Gods and had a lot of run Greek mythology facts.

Also, the Pendragon series was pretty cool for me. By DJ MacHale. This series is about alternate universes that the main character Bobby Pendragon has to travel to and fight the main villain (although he is in different forms depending on the world he's in) in each world. It's very fun and lively!
 
I second the Percy Jackson books, excellent reads and lots of books in the series to keep going with. Another series I discovered as an adult, Gregor the Overlaner, by Suzanne Collins. Lots of fun.

I would throw out the Hunger Games, also by Suzanne Collins, but only if you think this young girl can handle the violence and the themes of loss; I read them as an adult so I can't honestly say how I would have reacted as a middle schooler.

Maybe we can catch Haven's attention and have her visit this thread- her recommendations are always spot on!
 
Thanks for all the suggestions! I'm adding to my list. Starting to buy today and get on shelves.

Hunger Games might be a bit much. She's been through a lot of losses lately so that is probably something for a bit later.

She's currently reading a book with dragons (I think she called it "Pillage") and is enjoying that as well.
 
TooPatient|1342726419|3236756 said:
Thanks for all the suggestions! I'm adding to my list. Starting to buy today and get on shelves.

Hunger Games might be a bit much. She's been through a lot of losses lately so that is probably something for a bit later.

She's currently reading a book with dragons (I think she called it "Pillage") and is enjoying that as well.
Click to expand...


Have you read The Book Thief? I love this book, it had a huge impact on me, but it is also filled with much loss. Much hope, too, but...it wasn't an emotionally easy read for me. Just a heads' up!
 
aviastar|1342744054|3236931 said:
TooPatient|1342726419|3236756 said:
Thanks for all the suggestions! I'm adding to my list. Starting to buy today and get on shelves.

Hunger Games might be a bit much. She's been through a lot of losses lately so that is probably something for a bit later.

She's currently reading a book with dragons (I think she called it "Pillage") and is enjoying that as well.
Click to expand...


Have you read The Book Thief? I love this book, it had a huge impact on me, but it is also filled with much loss. Much hope, too, but...it wasn't an emotionally easy read for me. Just a heads' up!
Click to expand...

I haven't yet. I think that one and I Am David are going to be kept aside until I can have a look through.

She is very interested in the subject and is familiar with what happened. I don't know how many details she knows, but she is familiar with her family history.Her grandmother spent her childhood in a convent and other family members were killed. Her therapist thinks that giving her some of this may actually help her at this point, but it has to be carefully chosen.


How is the Twilight series? Is there much in the way of.... romantic... scenes? (she's very uncomfortable with this topic and it isn't time to work on that yet)
 
If you're trying to stick with not so serious books, I definitely want to re-recommend the Percy Jackson books. They were just fun and adventurous. Plus, they have a school age relationship (nothing that will freak her out), since I think the books start when Percy is 12 or 13. I LOVED Hunger Games, but I would hold off on those if she is already dealing with loss. She can read them and love them when she's older :)

I'm going to peruse my bookshelves this evening and come back with suggestions on Monday :)
 
StacylikesSparkles|1342787550|3237130 said:
If you're trying to stick with not so serious books, I definitely want to re-recommend the Percy Jackson books. They were just fun and adventurous. Plus, they have a school age relationship (nothing that will freak her out), since I think the books start when Percy is 12 or 13. I LOVED Hunger Games, but I would hold off on those if she is already dealing with loss. She can read them and love them when she's older :)

I'm going to peruse my bookshelves this evening and come back with suggestions on Monday :)
Click to expand...

Thanks! They're on my shopping list for the day.
 
Twilight is pretty safe. It's kinda of a big deal, actually, to the characters that they limit their physicality with each other. There's no sex until the last book when the two leads are married and even then...it's mild and not descriptive.

But depending on her level of comfort- there is a lot of emotional romantic attachement; devotion, true love soulmate stuff. It's pretty melodramatic, but I thought it was great. Of course I read it as an adult who thought it was pretty spot-on (and hilarious) as a depicition of how you feel about your first love.

Read The Book Thief- I felt that was full of hope, even in the face of horrific things, and that the narrator's (Death's) perspective was re-assuring and kind, without resorting to platitudes and condescension. But it is not a light read by any means. It's actually one of my favorite books, so I am not trying to discourage anyone from reading it. But it's heavy stuff, treated beautifully, but heavy.
 
aviastar|1342812132|3237365 said:
Twilight is pretty safe. It's kinda of a big deal, actually, to the characters that they limit their physicality with each other. There's no sex until the last book when the two leads are married and even then...it's mild and not descriptive.

But depending on her level of comfort- there is a lot of emotional romantic attachement; devotion, true love soulmate stuff. It's pretty melodramatic, but I thought it was great. Of course I read it as an adult who thought it was pretty spot-on (and hilarious) as a depicition of how you feel about your first love.

Read The Book Thief- I felt that was full of hope, even in the face of horrific things, and that the narrator's (Death's) perspective was re-assuring and kind, without resorting to platitudes and condescension. But it is not a light read by any means. It's actually one of my favorite books, so I am not trying to discourage anyone from reading it. But it's heavy stuff, treated beautifully, but heavy.
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Twilight sounds like it may be interesting for her then. I might just get the first couple and see if she likes them.

The Book Thief sounds wonderful. I think I will read it first to be sure she's able to handle it now or set it aside for her to have later.
 
A Wrinkle in Time is a big hit. She has read it before and loved it so much she's got it picked up to read again and was thrilled to hear that there were two more after it.

She's also in the middle of a Harry Potter book.

I'm going to keep adding to the bookcase and then give her a giftcard to choose some on her own.
 
Anne McCaffrey's 'Dragonflight',then the rest of the series (another 25 books - if she likes them, they will keep her occupied for a while!)
 
Rae~|1342862288|3237645 said:
Anne McCaffrey's 'Dragonflight',then the rest of the series (another 25 books - if she likes them, they will keep her occupied for a while!)
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That looks interesting! Thanks for the suggestion.

She finished A Wrinkle in Time in a single day so she is quite the reader. Her vocabulary is quite impressive too.
 
Update:

She's already read (and loved!) the Percy Jackson series so that is a big hit to have in the house.

I'm adding The Chronicles of Narnia this week along with the first couple Dragonflight and Twighlight books.
 
Has she read The Heroes of Olympus books? This is the next 'chapter' in the Percy series...soo good!
 
Totally different genre than what you've listed, but I loved the Alice McKinley series by Phyllis Reynolds Naylor.

I may or may not still check the new ones out from the library...
 
StacylikesSparkles|1343674616|3243059 said:
Has she read The Heroes of Olympus books? This is the next 'chapter' in the Percy series...soo good!
Click to expand...

Hmmm... I'm not sure. She didn't mention them. I saw those as I was looking at the first books and they looked pretty good.
 
sillyberry|1343691207|3243259 said:
Totally different genre than what you've listed, but I loved the Alice McKinley series by Phyllis Reynolds Naylor.

I may or may not still check the new ones out from the library...
Click to expand...


Those look great for a little later! I've got them added to my "a bit later" list. (I'm the sort to keep a running list of stuff to get now, stuff to get a bit later, and stuff to someday get :rolleyes: )
I don't think she'd do well with them right now mostly because I suspect she'd love the earlier books and zip through the series quickly.
She's been through a lot this last year and is terribly uncomfortable with any mention of anything even relating to sex. (which isn't healthy and is on the list of stuff to work on, but there are much more pressing issues to work through first)
 
I thought of some more!

Maybe for the little bit later list:
Enchantment, Orson Scott Card. Older college age protagonists; re-telling of Sleeping Beauty; one mild 'sexy time' between prince and princess after they are married
To Kill a Mockingbird, Harper Lee. I read this as an 8th grader, liked it, read it again in college, loved it!
Anything by Patricia McKillip; high fantasy, you have to love the genre, but they are so beautiful, clean, full of lovely images and words; the language constructs might be a little advanced for 13.


Totally fun and appropriate for right now:
Howl's Moving Castle; Dianna Wynn Jones. Fantasy, female non-princess protagonist, funny, kind, clean and all about choosing your own destiny.
Goose Girl, Shannon Hale. Re-telling of a fairly obscure fairy tale, female protagonist, lovely and the start of a series (Bayern Series). Actually anything by this author is young, fun, clean, and well written.



I am having just as much fun remembering these books (ok, remembering is being generous- I still read all of these!) as I hope she will have reading them!
 
Thanks Aviastar!

I'm still buying stuff and building lists of stuff to buy soon and stuff to buy later. SO and I both LOVE books so our house is packed with bookcases everywhere. They are all full (and then some) so we've got to find room for a couple more tall bookcases. We're thrilled that the love of books is shared all around.
 
Ok, I am on the third book in the Chaos Walking series. It follows two kids, roughly around the age of 14 in a New World where they live (one lives there and the other comes from a ship of settlers that will be arriving shortly). On this New World, they have what is referred to as the Noise. Basically you can hear the thoughts of all men on the planet, but the women are immune. I have read the first two books and it has went in a completely different direction than I originally thought. They have gotten a bit darker, so if Hunger Games didn't work, maybe wait on this in the next grouping.
 
The Knife Of Never Letting Go
The Ask And The Answer
Monsters Of Men

all by Patrick Ness
 
Updating with some of the stuff she's loved and some of the stuff she's not. She's getting more into branching out so the shopping is now a lot easier.

She would NOT go near the Twilight series. Her friends had warned her that it was VERY sexual and she didn't want to read something like that. One of the ladies at Half Price Books agreed with her when I returned the whole collection and said that there is no out and out sex but it is so full of tension and "steaminess" that you'll need a cigarette after reading.

She LOVED the Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy series.


Branching out now into some classics and other interesting reads. Here are some of the recent reads:

Gulliver's Travels (now reading)
Gone With the Wind
Scarlet (started reading but didn't finish)
Lord of the Rings (made it halfway through and just wasn't enjoying the read)
The Hobbit (re-read a couple of times)
Sarah's Key (really liked)
The Day the Cherry Blossoms Fell (okay, but not a favorite -- I really liked it though!)
To Kill a Mockingbird
The Book Thief
 
TooPatient-

I read this thread and, based on it, I do not think you have yet given your fiancé's daughter any of the books I am recommending. I did want to ask if you had looked at the thread in, "The Library" about Young Adult Literature, however. Because as I started to compile a list for a middle schooler, I remembered contributing to that thread on Young Adult Literature (and learning from that thread as well). So besides my contributions, here is a link to the thread if you have not, yet, used it.

Young Adult Literature Thread...[URL='https://www.pricescope.com/community/threads/any-other-ya-lit-fans-here.142841/']https://www.pricescope.com/community/threads/any-other-ya-lit-fans-here.142841/[/URL]

Other Books To Add To The List:

The Edgar Eager books on magic (Half Magic, Magic by the Lake, The Well-Wishers, Knight's Castle, The Time Garden).
A book by Georgette Heyer, perhaps Devil's Cub, which is romantic.
The C.S. Lewis series of books that follows The Lion, The Witch, and The Wardrobe.
Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry.
Tuck Everlasting.

I am sure if this thread continues that many more books will come to mind, these were just ones that popped into my head. I would like to know more about what she has already read. Has she read the Mary Poppins books? The Oz books? You mentioned, "the classics", but there are so many classics! And now I haven't looked back. Did you write Little Women, Jane Eyre, Wuthering Heights? I should look before spouting off anymore! But this is fun!

Good luck to you.

Hugs,
Deb
 
I saw Little Women and The Chronicles of Narnia were already recommended before I mentioned them, and that was just skimming through the thread a second time! If I look closely maybe more of what I mentioned will be up there. Oh, well. This was my first go 'round. I hope I helped a little. I just read The Book Thief for the first time myself a few weeks ago. It was good.

Deb
:read:
 
AGBF|1379470730|3522653 said:
I saw Little Women and The Chronicles of Narnia were already recommended before I mentioned them, and that was just skimming through the thread a second time! If I look closely maybe more of what I mentioned will be up there. Oh, well. This was my first go 'round. I hope I helped a little. I just read The Book Thief for the first time myself a few weeks ago. It was good.

Deb
:read:
Click to expand...

It is fun going back through these books!

The Edgar Eager books look interesting!


Thanks for the link to the other thread. I'll look through there too!
I've also been working off of the recommended reading list from Kumon (the tutoring center she attends). Lots of good ones there too.


"Classics" is super vague! There are so many!

She loved The Chronicles of Narnia. Still have Little Women sitting on a shelf for her to read.

Also (to name just a handful):
Jane Eyre
Wuthering Heights
The Strange Story of Dr. Jekyll & Mr. Hyde
Around the World in 80 Days
The Kite Runner (great movie too!)
The Pearl
The Old Man and the Sea
20+ Mark Twain books
Touching Spirit Bear
Hatchet (plus sequel)
Winds of War
War and Remembrance
Horatio Hornblower (entire collection)
The Killer Angels
Gods and Generals
The Last Full Measure
Tale of Two Cities
Three Musketeers
Man in the Iron Mask
Poe (complete collection of works)
The Odyssey
The Scarlet Letter
Moby Dick
 
Watership Down
Jane Eyre
Julie of the Wolves
The Secret Life of Bees
A Wrinkle in Time
The Red Pony
The Adventures of Tom Sawyer
The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn
Where the Red Fern Grows
The Yearling
The Firebringer Trilogy
My Brother Sam is Dead
Sula
Alice in Wonderland
Through the Looking Glass
20,000 Leagues Under the Sea
The Once and Future King
Wicked
The Scarlet Letter
The Notebook
Memoirs of a Geisha
The Black Stallion
The Little Prince
Diary of a Young Girl
Night
Day
Animal Farm
The Martian Chronicles
My Side of the Mountain
The Bridge to Terabithia
Great Expectations
Jurassic Park
Anything by Mercedes Lackey
Anything by Maeve Binchy
Hoot
Under the Tuscan Sun
The Fualt in our Stars
The Book Thief
The Catcher in the Rye
Romeo and Juliet
The Hunger Games
The Outsiders
Their Eyes Were Watching God
Autobiography of a Slave Girl
The House on Mango Street
Lord of the Flies
Life of Pi
Eragon
The Sign of the Beaver
City of Glass
Hatchet
Call of the Wild
White Fang
Farenheit 451
Speak
Ms Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children
Old Yeller
Heart of Darkness
1984
Charlotte's Web
Silent Spring
The Color Purple
Fire & Ash
Interview with a Vampire
Dracula
Frankenstein
The Princess Bride
The Giver
She's Come Undone
Go Ask Alice
Little Women
Jo's Boys
A Christmas Carol
The Odyssey
Mythology
Feed
Holes
The Daring Book for Girls
Sold
The Enchantress
Graceling
A River Runs Through it
Misty of Chincoteague
King of the Wind
Mirror Mirror
The Three Musketeers
The Count of Monte Christo
The Neverending Story
The Necromancer
Roald Dahl's Book of Ghost Stories
Sir Gawain and the Green Night
Across Five Aprils
The Chocolate War
Charlie and the Chocolate Factory
A Monster Calls
Rifles for Watie
Jacob Have I Loved
Incident at Hawk's Hill
Banner in the Sky
Scorpions
The Road From Home
October Sky
Catherine Called Birdy
The Midwife's Apprentice
The Other Boelyn Girl
The Dark Frigate
The Old Man and the Sea
What Hearts
The Loner
The King's Fifth
A Conneticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court
Shabanu
A Ring of Endless Light
The Last Unicorn
After the Rain
Hope was Here
Things Fall Apart
Hattie Big Sky
All Alone
Carry On, Mr. Bowditch
The Dark Thirty
The True Confessions of Charlotte Doyle
Bunnicula
Shadow of a Bull
Dogsong
A Solitary Blue
Mr. Popper's Penguins
To Kill a Mockingbird
Of Mice and Men
 
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