Books for Young Girls Who are Advanced Readers – Part I

So you have a young, avid reader on your hands - that’s fantastic! little girls love to read stimulating books about fairies, love, princes, and horses. Perhaps your daughter, or granddaughter is an innovative reader. You’d like to get this 2nd, 3rd, or 4th grader a new book, but you might be unsure what is appropriate. Is it possible to find books that aren’t too mature, scary, violent, or sexual?

Here is a list of books suggested by mothers for young girls who are innovative readers. Your little smarty pants will love them.

Use your best judgement when selecting a book. Most are intended for children age 7 -12. if you have a Kindergartner or 1st grader that is at a high reading level you may want to preview the book, ask a teacher or librarian.

I hope you find something you (and she) will enjoy.

The Girl who Could fly by Victoria Forester

(This may be suitable for girls closer to 11 or 12 year old. Read the reviews. also – a great way to test a book is to download the free Kindle app to your PC, MAC or smart phone and then download the free sample. eBook samples are free!)

You just can’t keep a good girl down . . . unless you use the proper methods. Piper McCloud may fly. just like that. Easy as pie. sure, she hasn’t mastered reverse propulsion and her turns are kind of sloppy, but she’s real good at loop-the-loops.

Problem is, the good folk of Lowland County are affrighted of Piper. and her ma’s at her wit’s end. so it seems only fitting that she leave her parents’ farm to attend a top-secret, maximum-security school for kids with particular abilities.

School is great at original with a bunch of new friends whose accomplishments range from super-strength to super-genius. (Plus all the homemade apple pie she may eat!) But Piper is special, even among the special. and there are consequences.

Consequences too dire to talk about. too crazy to consider. and too dangerous to ignore.

The Anybodies by N.E. Bode

This is book one of a three book series. the second and third titles are – The Nobodies and The Somebodies. You may want to order all three at once. They would make outstanding birthday or Christmas gifts.

N. E. is also getting good reviews for her not so scary mystery – The Slippery Map.

Description for the Anybodies from School Library Journal – Fern Drudger, an imaginative misfit in her extraordinarily boring family, discovers that she and Howard Bone were swopped at birth. the adults decide that the children will spend the summer with their birth parents and Fern meets her father, the Bone. He is an “Anybody”–he may modify into someone or something else. however, he’s not very good at it. He’s convinced that Fern may help him find the Art of Being Anybody, a book once owned by his dead wife, which will allow him to improve his skills–but he must locate it before his enemy, the Miser, does and stop him from using it for evil purposes. Fern and the Bone end up in camouflage at Fern’s grandmother’s boarding house, a magical, if dilapidated, palace of books, where anything may happen, specially if you take place to be an Anybody.

The Doll People by Ann M. Martin

You may have heard of The Baby-Sitters Club Series which were also written by this author. the doll series is evenly as good. This is the firstborn title of a three book series. one mother commented that her 7 year old daughter, with solid reading skills, was able to handle this title easily.

Annabelle Doll is 8 years old–and has been for over 100 years. nothing much has changed in the dollhouse for the duration of that time, except for the fact that 45 years ago, Annabelle’s Auntie Sarah disappeared from the dollhouse without a trace. After all this time, restless Annabelle is getting more and more curious about her aunt’s fate. and when she discovers Auntie Sarah’s old diary, she becomes in a positive manner driven. her cautious family tries to admonish her, but Annabelle won’t be stopped, even even though she risks Permanent Doll State, in which she could turn into a regular, nonliving doll. and when the “Real Pink Plastic” Funcraft family moves in next door, the Doll family’s world is turned upside down–in more ways than one!

The Mysterious Benedict Society by by Trenton Lee Stewart

This is another three book series – three books so far. I wonder if there will be another one released. the publisher is little Brown Books for Young Readers.

Description from Booklist – “are you a gifted child looking for Special Opportunities?” This curious newspaper ad catches the eye of orphan Reynie Muldoon. After taking exams that test both mind and spirit, Reynie is chosen along with four other contestants–Sticky Washington, a nervous child with a photographic memory; irrepressible Kate Weatherhill; and a tiny child who lives up to her name, Constance Contraire. the children soon learn they’ve been chosen by mysterious mr. Benedict for an necessary mission: they are to infiltrate the isolated Learning Institute for the Very Enlightened, from which messages of distrust and compliance are being broadcast into the minds of the world’s citizens. Debut novelist Stewart takes some intimate conventions–among them, an orphan engaged in a struggle versus evil forces (Harry Potter, anyone?)–and makes them his own. But like the Potter books, his story goes beyond mere adventures, delving into severe issues, such as the way sloganeering may undermine society–or control it. through it is interesting characters, the book also tackles personal concerns: abandonment, family, loyalty, and facing one’s fears. the novel could have been shortened, but Stewart writes with such attention to the intricacies of plot and personality, his story seldom feels slow; only a substantial disclosure about Constance seems forced. Smart kids who like Blue Balliet’s books are the natural audience for this; but, read aloud, the novel will attract many others as well.

Island of Aunts by Eva Ibbotson

This author has many, many books. I don’t think they are affiliated or in a series but all seem very fun and imaginative. You may find them all by clicking the Island of Aunts link. there may be specials to buy three and get a discount.

It isn’t easy taking care of an entire island and it is needy, sometimes magical inhabitants and visitors, so the caregivers, Aunts Myrtle, Etta, and Coral, decide to kidnap three children from London to help them with such tasks as cleaning mermaids who were caught in an oil slick and coaxing an egg-bound boobrie to lay it is enormous eggs. two of the children, Fabio and Minette, turn out to be enthusiastic laborers who grow to love the island and their charges, but Lambert Sprott is a cell-phone-addicted brat. In fact, it is Lambert’s nefarious father who, in rescuing his son, makes a near-successful try to exploit the isle’s magical creatures for his own gain. the tone of this book is as no-nonsense as stern but kind Aunt Etta. no mercy is shown to self-obsessed, environment-polluting grown-ups and nasty, ill-behaved children, but sanctimony is kept at bay by the arid humor that permeates the story. the plunder of the sanctuary by mr. Sprott and his crew is filled with scenes of real menace and suspense-readers will not be able to put the book down until they know for sure that all the island’s inhabitants are safe and sound.

Side note – does your little reader devour books? are you perpetually buying more and more or running to the library? You may want to consider buying her a Kindle. if you are an aunt, mom or grandma would you consider buying a Kindle for the entire family?

Just something you may want to think about.

Millicent Min, Girl Genius by Lisa Yee

You may also find two more books by this author. 

Description from Booklist – Certified talent Millicent Min has problems. sure, her parents have at last consented to let her take a college poetry class over the summer (even though Millie is not yet 12). But it turns out college kids aren’t her peers–they’re as mute and lazy as her nemesis, Stanford. if Millie may just keep her splendor a mystery from Emily, Millie’s original real friend, and manage to keep Emily and Stanford from smooching (ick!), things might turn out OK. Yee’s basi novel examines child prodigies from a freshening angle, permitting nongeniuses to laugh appreciatively at the ups and downs of being a whiz kid. Millie’s pretentious voice grows tiresome after a while, but Yee does an excellent occupation of showing both Millie’s grown-up brain and her decidedly middle-school problems. Even if they can’t relate to her mastery of Latin, most kids will readily follow as Millie struggles through a world where she’s smarter than everyone but still sometimes clueless.

The Penderwicks: A Summer Tale of four Sisters, two Rabbits, and a Very interesting Boy by Jeanne Birdsall

Doesn’t the title even sound fantastic?! so much fun. This title is the initial of the three book series. This title won the National Book Award in 2005.

Description from School Library Journal – This gratifying tale of four sisters, a new friend, and his snooty mother is rollicking fun. the girls’ father is a gentle, widowed botany professor who gives his daughters free sovereignty but is always there to help or ease them. Rosalind, 12, has become the mother figure. Skye, 11, is fierce and hot-tempered. Jane, 10, is a budding writer of mysteries who has the disconcerting habit of narrating aloud whatsoever is occurring around her. Batty, four, is an endearingly shy, loving child who always wears butterfly wings. the family dog, Hound, is her protector. the tale begins as the Penderwicks embark on a summer holiday in the Berkshire Mountains, at a cottage on the grounds of a posh mansion owned by the terribly snobbish Mrs. Tifton. her son, Jeffrey, is a brilliant pianist, but her heart is set on him attending a military academy like her beloved father. the action involves Rosalind’s unrequited love for the 18-year-old gardener, Skye’s enmity and then friendship with Jeffrey, Jane’s betterment in her melodramatic writing style, and Batty’s encounter with an angry bull whom she rather hopefully calls “nice horsie.” Problems are solved and lessons learned in this wonderful, humorous book that features characters whom readers will without delay love, as well as a superb writing style.

Marigold and the Feather of Hope, the Journey Begins (The Fairy Chronicles) This is the primary book of many by J.H. Sweet

The series starts out with characters around the age of 8 or 9. As the series progresses the characters age. 

Nine-year-old Beth Parish dreads spending two summer weeks with odd Aunt Evelyn. Things alter when Evelyn reveals she and Beth are fairies. With Evelyn’s guidance, Beth, a marigold fairy, learns how to transform, fly, and use her wand. When the Feather of Hope (which keeps hope alive in the world) is taken, Beth, with her dachshund, Pete, joins other fairies in a plan to retrieve it from a gremlin-occupied house. This firstborn title of the in the first place self-published Fairy Chronicles series combines conventional fairy and contemporary elements with a likeable protagonist, who comes to appreciate her new abilities and responsibilities. the rescue is suspenseful, and Sweet laces the story with light humor and ample fantasy details (fairies commune via nut messaging). the colorful, classically styled illustrations, new to this edition, occasionally don’t match the text (characters drink root beer from bottles not mugs as shown), but they are quite appealing, as is the use of ornamental lettering here and there. an accessible, gratifying story for readers who can’t seem to get enough about magical spirits.

Great ready for summer reading or fun school book reports with these fantasti stories.