Book talk

[snacky]

bedlamsbard linked to a list of 50 Books For An Eleven Year Old.

It's a pretty good list, but I found myself being critical of both the amount of "boy books" on it (interesting, because the creator of the list is a father of two daughters) and of the amount of more recent books that aren't all that great, imo.

So of course, I made my own list. :D

If you need my qualifications: I was (in my own childhood) and still am a voracious reader of children's books, and I was a children's bookseller for several years.

I kept it geared towards 11 year olds (some are age appropriate for younger kids too, and I don't think there's anything on this list too old for an 11 year old). I tried to keep a mix of old and new books in here (some are Newbery award winners, some are just classics). There probably could be more new books, I admit, because I added some old favorites of mine which I feel are still worthwhile. I also tried not to stack it by genre - there should be a decent mix of fantasy, mystery, historical, horse, dog, humor, drama, boy and girl books on here (although I admit it probably skews more towards "girl books").

So, fifty books for 11 year olds, in no particular order:

1. A Wrinkle in Time (and the rest of the Time Quartet) by Madeleine L'Engle
2. The Wind in the Willows by Kenneth Grahame
3. The Hobbit by J.R.R. Tolkien
4. Alice's Adventures in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll
5. Charlie and the Chocolate Factory by Roald Dahl
6. The Secret Garden by Frances Hodgson-Burnett
7. The Chronicles of Narnia by C.S. Lewis
8. Little House on the Prairie series by Laura Ingalls Wilder
9. The Adventures of Tom Sawyer by Mark Twain
10. Swallows and Amazons by Arthur Ransome
11. Charlotte's Web by E.B. White
12. Half Magic (and other books) by Edward Eager
13. Harriet the Spy by Louise Fitzhugh
14. Anne of Green Gables series by L.M. Montgomery
15. Coraline by Neil Gaiman
16. Bridge to Terebithia by Katherine Paterson
17. Because of Winn-Dixie by Kate DiCamillo
18. Mary Poppins by P.L. Travers
19. Inkheart by Cornelia Funke
20. A Series of Unfortunate Events series by Lemony Snickett
21. The Harry Potter books by J.K. Rowling
22. His Dark Materials trilogy by Philip Pullman
23. Holes by Louis Sachar
24. Percy Jackson & the Olympians series by Rick Riordan
25. The Dark is Rising series by Susan Cooper
26. The Melendy Family series by Elizabeth Enright
27. Ginger Pye by Eleanor Estes
28. Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry by Mildred D. Taylor
29. Starring Sally J. Freedman as Herself, by Judy Blume
30. Understood Betsy by Dorothy Canfield Fisher
31. The Outsiders by SE Hinton
32. 101 Dalmatians by Dodie Smith
33. Little Women by Louisa May Alcott
34. Call of the Wild by Jack London
35. Misty of Chincoteague by Marguerite Henry
36. The Westing Game by Ellen Raskin
37. National Velvet by Enid Bagnold
38. The Black Stallion by Walter Farley
39. All Creatures Great and Small by James Herriott
40. The D'Aulaire's Book of Greek Myths
41. Ramona Quimby, Age 8 by Beverly Cleary (I'm picking one of her best books, but I think they're all worthwhile)
42. The Watsons Go to Birmingham by Christopher Paul Curtis
43. The Egypt Game, by Zilpha Keatley Snyder
44. All of a Kind Family (series) by Sydney Taylor
45. Island of the Blue Dolphins by Scott O'Dell
46. Hoot by Carl Hiaasen
47. Ghosts I Have Been by Richard Peck
47. Ballet Shoes (and others) by Noel Streatfeild
48. The Diamond in the Window by Jane Langton
49. Hitty, Her First Hundred Years by Rachel Field
50. Howl's Moving Castle by Diana Wynne Jones



Okay, it was super hard to pick just 50 and I kept crossing things off the list. Feel free to tell me your essential books for 11 year olds in comments!