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Y'all are really making me think twice about LOTR.
I started reading it at her age, as did a few of my friends, but it's up to you. I was also reading a high like your daughter, so there wasn't much I didn't get my hands on! Books of all kinds sparked my creativity, open my mind and really made me think.
In my original post I forgot about A Wrinkle in Time quintet, if she hasn't already read that or Miss Peregrine's Peculiar Children
I would like to get my daughter a new book series for Christmas. She is in 6th grade (age 12) but is on at least a 9th grade reading level.
She is currently on book 5 of Harry Potter and loves it. She seems to have a taste for fantasy, and definitely prefers a series.
She has read ALL of Warriors, Land of Stories, Mysterious Benedict Society, and the like.
She is too advanced for middle year readers, but probably not at the level of Lord of the Rings.
Language is OK...no sex please.
Any ideas?
Don’t sell your kid short. By the time I was in 8th grade I had already read all of Stephen King’s books to that point, Roots, Gone With The Wind (glad I read Roots first because they were wildly different perspectives), The Winds of War and the two volumes of War and Remembrance, and many other books on my mother’s bookshelf. Interspersed with all those I also read many of the Sweet Valley High books, so I wasn’t against young teen books. I just liked to read.
I will say many of these books had lots of adult situations, so I don’t recommend any of them for your twelve year old if you’re uncomfortable with that. The Winds Of War and War and Remembrance are historical fiction set in WWII, so very little of a sexual nature but great reads.
I read The Hobbit and LOTR after the first movie came out and long after I had read all the Harry Potter books published to that point (I believe it may have only had four or five at that time). While I found LOTR interesting, I enjoyed Harry Potter much more. I know LOTR was a more complex story, and kudos to him for creating a language. I just found Harry Potter to be a better story. But I could have easily devoured it at the age of twelve. I may have even liked it better then.
Last edited by katygirl68; 11-18-2018 at 11:01 AM..
I'm going to float the idea that specifically looking for a series is the wrong way to go. In general, you'll find that great books tend not to be in a series.
So, buy her some great stand-alone book for Christmas. And then encourage her to herself find series either to check out of the library or buy with her own pocket money. And so you needn't buy her fantasy. It might be better not to just keep pushing her down the same road she's already on. Hey, even try non-fiction. You're so lucky to have a child who's a good reader! So take advantage of that and broaden her exposure.
What about a scholarly work that's impossible to put down? It's The Prose Edda of Snorri Sturluson. Living in early Christian Iceland, he wrote of the Norse gods, their friends, and their enemies. I received this book as a gift when I was nine years old. I loved it then and still do now. If the child wants more after she finishes this, a world of of Old Norse literature awaits her.
Wow, OK, saying I don't think she is ready for LOTR is not "selling her short". There are many reasons why I don't think she is ready for LOTR besides her reading ability. Her reading ability is excellent. I think LOTR is quite dark and in some places slow. If she wants to try it, we can get it from the library.
Thanks to everyone who made suggestions for actual books; I have repped you.
Wow, OK, saying I don't think she is ready for LOTR is not "selling her short". There are many reasons why I don't think she is ready for LOTR besides her reading ability. Her reading ability is excellent. I think LOTR is quite dark and in some places slow. If she wants to try it, we can get it from the library.
Thanks to everyone who made suggestions for actual books; I have repped you.
I wasn’t trying to be offensive. I just remember reading many books for adults when I was a young girl, and it was actually very helpful to me in life. My mom never told me not to read anything because I think she was just happy that I wanted to. I was at that age where I was too young to go out all the time so I read anything I could get my hands on, which turned out to be mostly what was on my mother’s bookshelf. The YA books today are better than what was available to young readers at that time.
All I’m saying is that reading books above her grade level won’t hurt her or bore her. I remember always having a dictionary nearby to look up words I was unfamiliar with when reading adult books, and that served me very well in life. My reading comprehension was better than most people my age at the time.
An excellent adventure-fantasy series for a young teenage girl is The Unicorn Chronicles by Bruce Coville.
I think my 2nd place recommendation would be the Harry Potter series, but I still think The Unicorn Chronicles is the better choice for a 12-year-old young teen girl. (That's the same age as Cara, the protagonist in The Unicorn Chronicles. So she will be able to relate to the protagonist and her journey at the land of the unicorns much better.)
The book names in order are: Into the Land of the Unicorns, Song of the Wanderer, Dark Whispers, and The Last Hunt. They can be bought separately, but there is a book in amazon named "The Unicorn Chronicles" that has the first 2 books in the series together in 1. That's what I recommend and it is cheap.
Check it out: https://www.amazon.com/Unicorn-Chron...orn+chronicles
Also, a little warning: books 1, 2, and 3 can be bought cheap from amazon, but book 4 (the last hunt) is expensive. I bought it for $40 and the cheapest I have seen it go for is $34.
And naturally, in order to finish the series, the last book will be needed.
For the record, I am also planning to give this series as a birthday gift to one of my cousins (a girl in middle school), and I read the 4 books myself not too long ago. I consider it a good birthday gift for any girl that will like reading and good stories.
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