Looking for recommendations - Kid/YA

[dreamshark]

One of my colleagues is looking for recommendations for books for her precocious 8-year-old daughter. My friend is Chinese, so she isn't familiar with classic American children's literature and would like some suggestions.  The little girl recently discovered "Wrinkle in Time" and couldn't put it down, and Liling is looking for more science fiction books that will keep her reading voraciously.  Any ideas?  

Comments

[dd-b.livejournal.com]

Diane Duane's Wizard books (starting with So You Want To Be A Wizard?. You did say "precocious". By the third book these do get into some fairly heavy themes, but they're about Good and Evil and godlike powers, not about teenage behavior stuff that parents might freak out over. So she'll probably either be happy with them or self-select out.

I wasn't that much past 8 when I met A Wrinkle In Time, so I'm almost tempted to recommend other things I liked back then; James White, Hospital Station. Allan E. Nourse, Star Surgeon.

She should try the collection Tomorrow's Children, too.

Oh, what about Zenna Henderson's "People" stories?

[cowfan.livejournal.com]

When You Reach Me by Rebecca Stead won the Newbery Award and is about a girl who loves Wrinkle in Time (and it has time travel in the plot). Where the Mountain Meets the Moon by Grace Lin is a fantasy based on Chinese folktales but it puts them together into a cohesive quest plot with a young girl as the protagonist. Also go to the Hennepin County Library website, to KidLinks, Booklists, and then look at the fantasy and science fiction lists. which I work on.

[mle292.livejournal.com]

I was also going to suggest the library website. Depending on what mood the girl is in, there's thirty-three oodles of recommendations for each whim.

http://www.hclib.org/kids/books/

[mle292.livejournal.com]

As an aside, I really love those library recommendation lists and I've found many great things via that list. Thanks to you and all of your co-workers for putting that together!

[barondave.livejournal.com]

DD-B's suggestions are good. I might add Andre Norton, esp. The Zero Stone and The Time Traders. Half Magic by Edward Eager remains my second favorite fantasy (after LotR). Jane Yolen's Briar Rose is a retelling of the Sleeping Beauty story set against the Holocaust, and Kara Dalkey's The Nightengale, while not precisely juvenile, is a retelling of the classic Japanese fairy tale.

While I can't speak to the tastes of today's 8-year-old daughters, books I enjoyed at roughly that time (or just after) in my life (hmmm... second grade?) included Black and Blue Magic by Zilpha Keately Snyder, The Little House on the Prairie books, The Story of Dr. Dolittle; (I eventually read almost all of them, with, iirc my favorite being the second, The Voyages of Dr. Dolittle).

At the moment, I'm probably better recommending kid's music to her (or trading mix CDs...).

Maybe I should ask my niece.

Books

[cavandal.livejournal.com]

Since it has been established that this young avid reader enjoys reading L'Engle why not have her continue with the entire quartet? They are: A Wind at The Door, A Swiftly Tilting Planet, and Many Waters. She might find some of these other books more difficult but I doubt it. She is already reading L'Engle so she obviously enjoys the challenge. Good for her!

We all know how fun it is for us to read an entire series written by our favorite authors. Why not turn her on to the world of being a completest? After all, it's addicting, adventurous, and a great habit to pick up if she is to continue reading Science Fiction.

Books

[markiv1111.livejournal.com]

I would disagree strongly with barondave's recommendation of Kara's *The Nightingale* -- simply not remotely a juvenile (and you should read it first). I think most of the Heinlein juveniles would work quite well (not sure what would be an exception, save that *Podkayne of Mars* really isn't a very good book).

Nate

Re: Books

[barondave.livejournal.com]

You're probably right about Kara's book(s). The problem with reading juvies as an adult is that, at least for me, "Young adult" can span tween to HS. Also, I recently saw the Faerie Tale Theatre version of "The Nightengale" (with Mick Jagger as the emperor) which is YA.

Re: Books

[dreamshark.livejournal.com]

"You're probably right about Kara's book(s). The problem with reading juvies as an adult is that, at least for me, "Young adult" can span tween to HS"

Exactly. Bear in mind that this little girl is only 8 years old. She must be a pretty advanced reader to be reading L'Engle at that age, but she still has the sensibilities of a 3rd grader.

I immediately thought of the Mushroom Planet books, for which she is exactly the right age. Two or three years from now the idea of building a working space ship out of tin cans will probably seem stupid to her, but 3rd graders are not usually sticklers for straight scientific accuracy.

Re: Books

[skylarker.livejournal.com]

I can only say that I loved 'Podkayne of Mars' when I was in middle school.

[sraun]

These might be more tempting to boy than a girl:

Alcatraz vs. ... series by Brandon Sanderson - my going-to-be-nine-in-six-weeks grand-son adored these last summer

The Eye, The Ear, and the Arm, by Nancy Farmer. Newberry Honor Book.
General Matsika's children steal out of the house on a forbidden adventure--and disappear. In Zimbabwe, in the year 2194, the children's parents call in Africa's most unusual detectives--the Ear, the Eye and the Arm--who have powers far beyond those of other human beings.

[skylarker.livejournal.com]

My old friend, MartyH tells me that her daughter loves the 'Molly Moon' series. I've also just read the 'Percy Jackson and the Olympians' series and can recommend it.

[skylarker.livejournal.com]

These are both currently popular series. PJ&O is fantasy based in the greek myths, and I haven't read the Molly Moon books yet (though have the first on hold with the library) and get the impression it's both very silly and somewhat reminiscent of the old Danny Dunn series.

[trinker.livejournal.com]

Is she looking for specifically American, or for books in English that she in her Chinese upbringing wouldn't think of?

Also, how concerned is your friend with representation in the books? Some favorite classics can be painful reading for a little Chinese girl in the U.S. (A steady diet of Caddie Woodlawn, Little House on the Prairie, and Frances Hodgson Burnett, all considered age-appropriate for little girls, left me feeling a terrible yearning to become a little white girl.)

You might ask emilytheslayer for recs - she's been useful for me in that regard in the past.