Pre-teen gifted readers often run into a problem around the age of ten: as younger children they read everything in children’s literature that they could get their hands on. By the time they reach ten years old, they’re starting to run into roadblocks when looking for appropriate books. Some ten-year-olds are ready to go on to Young Adult fiction, but most aren’t. Young Adult, with its focus on teens’ changing bodies and questioning of their place in the world, is often inappropriate and sometimes very upsetting for “tweens” who have outgrown children’s books but are looking for meaty reading to satisfy their literary cravings.
The list below contains books recommended for this demographic. In general, recommended books will not contain violence described in a visceral way, though books that very sensitive readers might want to avoid are starred. If you have recommendations for this list, please leave them in the comments below.
- Abe, Julie: Eva Evergreen, Semi-Magical Witch
- Adams, Richard: Watership Down
- Avi: The True Confessions of Charlotte Doyle, Crispin at the Edge of the World
- Alcott, Louisa May: Little Women series
- Barnhill, Kelly: The Girl who Drank the Moon
- Barry, Dave: Peter and the Starcatchers
- Birney, Betty G.: The Seven Wonders of Sassafras Springs
- Brinley, Bertrand R.: The Mad Scientists’ Club
- Brock, Betty: No Flying in the House
- Burnett, Frances Hodgson: A Little Princess and The Secret Garden
- Callender, Kacen: King & the Dragonflies
- Card, Orson Scott: Ender’s Game series*
- Clements, Andrew: Frindle
- Colfer, Eoin: Artemis Fowl series*
- Coville, Bruce: The Unicorn Chronicles series (starts with Into the Land of the Unicorns)
- Crossley-Holland: Arthur Trilogy (starts with The Seeing Stone)
- DiCamillo, Kate: The Magician’s Elephant
- Divakaruni, Chitra Banerjee: The Conch Bearer
- Duane, Diane: Young Wizards series* (starts with So You Want to be a Wizard)
- DuPrau, Jeanne: The City of Ember*
- Funke, Cornelia: Dragon Rider
- Enright, Elizabeth: The Melendy Quartet (starts with Saturdays), Thimble Summer
- Estes, Eleanor: The Witch Family
- Farley, Walter: The Black Stallion series
- Federly, Nate: Better Nate than Ever
- Flanagan, John: Ranger’s Apprentice series
- Foley, Lizzy K.: Remarkable
- Funke, Cornelia: The Princess Knight
- George, Jean Craighead: My Side of the Mountain
- Hawking, Stephen: George’s Secret Key to the Universe, George’s Cosmic Treasure Hunt
- Herge, The Adventures of Tintin*
- Herriot, James: All Creatures Great and Small
- Hiaason, Carl: Hoot, Flush, Chomp
- Hunter, Erin: The Warrior series
- Jacques, Brian: Redwall series* (starts with Redwall)
- Jones, Diana Wynne: Almost everything! Especially recommended are the Chrestomanci series, Howl’s Moving Castle and sequels, and Enchanted Glass
- Kay, Elizabeth: The Divide* series
- Kelly, Jacqueline: The Evolution of Calpurnia Tate
- Klages, Ellen: The Green Glass Sea, White Sands, Red Menace
- Konigsburg, E.L.: The View From Saturday
- Lang, Andrew: Fairy Books
- Law, Ingrid: Savvy
- Lawrence, Caroline: Roman Mysteries series (starts with The Thieves of Ostia)
- Le Guin, Ursula: Earthsea series (the 4th in the series, Tehanu, is very dark)
- L’Engle, Madeleine: Austin Family Chronicles series (starts with Meet the Austins), A Wrinkle in Time*
- Lin, Grace: Where the Mountain Meets the Moon
- Lord, Cynthia: Rules
- McAllister, M.I.: The Mistmantle Chronicles*
- McAnulty, Stacy: The Miscalculations of Lightning Girl [read my review]
- McKinley, Robin: The Hero and the Crown and The Blue Sword
- Michener, James: Various historical novels including Chesapeake, Centennial, Texas (may contain historical violence, some sexual content, outdated gender and race attitudes)
- Montgomery, L.M.: Anne of Green Gables series
- Murdock, Catherine: Da Vinci’s Cat
Mini review: History, time travel, and an adorable cat. What could go wrong? There’s a lot for kids to ponder here, and the book asks them to make connections between the personal and the historical. - Nesbit, E.: The Railway Children books plus others
- Nimmo, Jenny: The Children of the Red King series (starts with Midnight for Charlie Bone)
- Nix, Garth: Keys to the Kingdom series (starts with Mister Monday)
- Oppel, Kenneth: Airborn (further books in this series are more violent)
- Palacio, R.J.: Wonder
- Paolini, Christopher: Eragon* (further books in the series have graphic depictions of violence)
- Park, Linda Sue: Project Mulberry and A Single Shard
- Paulsen, Gary: Hatchet
- Paver, Michelle: Chronicles of Ancient Darkness series (Wolf Brother is first)
- Pearson, Barry: Peter and the Starcatchers
- Pratchett, Terry: Tiffany Aching series (The Wee Free Men, etc.), The Bromeliad Trilogy (Truckers; Diggers; Wings), The Amazing Maurice and his Educated Rodents
- Ransome, Arthur: Swallows and Amazons series
- Redman, Jess: Quintessence
- Reeve, Philip: Larklight, Starcross, Mothstorm
- Riordan, Rick: Percy Jackson series, Heroes of Olympus series, Kane Chronicles series, Rick Riordan Presents series
- Rowling, J.K.: Harry Potter series
- Rupp, Rebecca: Octavia Boone’s Big Questions about Life, the Universe and Everything
- Sacher, Louis: The Wayside School series, Holes*
- Snyder, Laurel: Any Which Wall, Penny Dreadful
- Spinelli, Jerry: Stargirl
- Stead, Rebecca: When You Reach Me
I read this book and wondered, Wait, is this a book for kids or for grownups? It’s apparently very popular with kids, but I suggest that you read it aloud with your kids because it’s fantastic and thought-provoking. - Stevenson, Robert Louis: Treasure Island
- Stewart, Trenton Lee: The Mysterious Benedict Society series
- Tolkein, J.R.R.: The Hobbit*
- Ursu, Anne: The Cronus Chronicles series (starts with The Shadow Thieves)*
- Van Draanen, Wendelin: The Running Dream
- Verne, Jules: Around the World in 80 Days, Journey to the Center of the Earth
- Voigt, Cynthia: Homecoming
- White, T.H.: The Once and Future King
- Wyss, Johann D.: The Swiss Family Robinson
- Yee, Lisa: Millicent Min, Girl Genius
- Yolen, Jane: Young Merlin trilogy
See also:
- Book list for young gifted readers
- The Search for the Girl Scientist in Literature
- Empty Shelves for Gifted Readers
Resources:
- Child Lit WIKI
- KidsReads
- Hoagies’ Gifted
- Ambleside Online
- CommonSense Media
- J.K. Rowling’s Amazon.com book list page
- Some of My Best Friends Are Books: Guiding Gifted Readers from Pre-School to High School
- Wikipedia List of Classic Children’s Books
- Using Bibliotherapy with Gifted Children
- Books about Geeks
- Tamora Pierce’s Book List for Gifted 8-year-olds
- Geekdad’s Stories about Girls
- New York Review of Books Children’s book reviews sorted by age range
Here’s a book list vetted by Common Sense Media for a variety of ages and on a variety of topics: http://www.commonsensemedia.org/guide/essentialbooks?utm_source=042213_Essential_Books&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=weekly
Hi – Love the list – it’s very useful thank you. Ender’s Game though, has visceral violence in it I think (I reread it a few months ago), and a couple of other topics than you wouldn’t have to be “very sensitive” to be bothered by.
That’s why Ender’s Game has an asterisk – some parents said their kids did fine with it, and others thought it was too violent. Sometimes it’s hard to make a call so included it with caution.
I’m glad you found the list useful!
I have also written a book list that intersects well with this age range:
The Search for the Girl Scientist in Literature: http://www.write4kids.com/blog/2011/01/the-search-for-the-girl-scientist-in-literature/
Very good list of books thank you very much for sharing it.
Regards!
I think I have a preteen fiction book recommendation for your list. “The TortoiseTales” is a fiction book collection of nine separate short stories targeting the 8-12 year old reader. A 130 year old tortoise communicates the stories to a young girl he meets and the stories are fun with relatable animal characters who also teach some great life principles and pique interest in nature…www.thetortoisetales.com.
Thanks! It sounds great.