[Binder of Demons]

Hey Amphib, do you know whether she has any other hobbies/interests which could be an easy way into wanting to read a specific book.

For example, I was fascinated by the planet Mars and wanted to read any books (fiction/non-fiction) about it when i was young.


I know you specified having female protagonists, but would you think Codex Alera would be accessible/appropriate enough?

[Ukjent]

Narnia
Artemis Fowl
I remember when I was 12 I had read LOTR and was a good chunk into Wheel of Time.

[amphibian]

I'll ask about the interests. I'm pretty sure she has some, but they're not publicly displayed like my old dinosaur stickers or a million horse toys like some of my old playmates had.

It's one reason why I'm asking you all, she's not a "oh you would obviously want to read this book" easy to pick for person.

[Grimjust Bearegular]

upworthywort, on 02 July 2014 - 06:32 PM, said:

Did anyone mention the Oz books? I've only read the first one, but there's a ton of them so if it's a matter of getting used to reaching for a book during leisure times instead of automatically going for the tv remote, a series like that might be ideal.

I likewise haven't read any of these so I'm not up on their quality, but there's the Series of Unfortunate Events books. I guess point being, these series w/ several generally short books do help with the concept of looking forward to reading something, w/o the (possibly intimidating) heft of the later HP books.

I can second Unfortunate Events - wonderful books!

Maybe consider the Uglies-series by Scott Westerfeldt

[TheRetiredBridgeburner]

Will be some repeats (apologies)

From rough memory of my being 12...

The Redwall books by Brian Jacques - I believe there's about 20 of them now. Sticking with animals in the UK we had a series called Animal Ark by Lucy Daniels which weighed in at about 100 books last time I looked. Short novels about a vet's daughter in a country village sort of thing. Not sure about availability elsewhere but worth a mention. If she likes horses Bonnie Bryant's The Saddle Club books are a good bet too, and the Thoroughbred series by Joanna Campbell. Both of those are huge and better available in the US than they ever were here in the UK (I bought a load of mine whilst on holiday in Florida, so can attest to this!)

I read quite a few of what were called "young classics" at that age as I remember - What Katy Did (Sarah Chauncey Woolsey), Watership Down (Richard Adams), The Railway Children (Edith Nesbit), The Secret Garden (Frances Hodgson Burnett), Black Beauty (Anna Sewell) and Goodnight Mr Tom (Michelle Magorian) are the ones that stick out. The latter couple don't have female protagonists but I thought I'd mention them just in case.

His Dark Materials and Narnia have been mentioned but I'll add my voice to the recommendation. The Hobbit (I'd read LOTR too around then but I grew up with it) is a must.

The Little White Horse (Elizabeth Goudge) and The Last Unicorn (Peter S Beagle) are what I'd class as friendly fantasy and I read them at about that age. The former has a 13 year old female protagonist but is quite old-fashioned English in terms of ideas and manner of writing, so I'm not quite so sure with that one.

This post has been edited by TheRetiredBridgeburner: 07 July 2014 - 10:01 PM

[Vengeance]

My wife mentioned little women.

[Abyss]

Binder of Demons, on 02 July 2014 - 09:14 PM, said:

...
I know you specified having female protagonists, but would you think Codex Alera would be accessible/appropriate enough?

This was where my mind went esp because it has so many strong/awesome female characters, but there are a few elements to the series that may not be entirely age appropriate.

I'd go old school with this... DRAGONRIDERS OF PERN... seven out of the eight original books are led by female protags (the original trilogy, the Harper's trilo and MORETA, but not THE WHITE DRAGON), it's sf so can't really be too dated, and doesn't go anywhere too icky for a 12 yr old. Later books have other leads some of whom are male, but as many are female.

[Vengeance]

Abyss, on 11 July 2014 - 03:48 PM, said:

Binder of Demons, on 02 July 2014 - 09:14 PM, said:

...
I know you specified having female protagonists, but would you think Codex Alera would be accessible/appropriate enough?

This was where my mind went esp because it has so many strong/awesome female characters, but there are a few elements to the series that may not be entirely age appropriate.

I'd go old school with this... DRAGONRIDERS OF PERN... seven out of the eight original books are led by female protags (the original trilogy, the Harper's trilo and MORETA, but not THE WHITE DRAGON), it's sf so can't really be too dated, and doesn't go anywhere too icky for a 12 yr old. Later books have other leads some of whom are male, but as many are female.

I had completely forgotten about the Dragon Riders Of PERN. That is perfect.

[Abyss]

Vengeance, on 11 July 2014 - 04:35 PM, said:

Abyss, on 11 July 2014 - 03:48 PM, said:

Binder of Demons, on 02 July 2014 - 09:14 PM, said:

...
I know you specified having female protagonists, but would you think Codex Alera would be accessible/appropriate enough?

This was where my mind went esp because it has so many strong/awesome female characters, but there are a few elements to the series that may not be entirely age appropriate.

I'd go old school with this... DRAGONRIDERS OF PERN... seven out of the eight original books are led by female protags (the original trilogy, the Harper's trilo and MORETA, but not THE WHITE DRAGON), it's sf so can't really be too dated, and doesn't go anywhere too icky for a 12 yr old. Later books have other leads some of whom are male, but as many are female.

I had completely forgotten about the Dragon Riders Of PERN. That is perfect.

Credit where due, i see King Lear mentioned it upthread too.

Also worth considering, albeit GN, not text-only, but still 'reading'...





...wholly age appropriate, two of the main (and impressive ) characters are female, and oh my fuck is it a fun read.

[Illuyankas]

Uh, doesn't the first Pern book have a scene where the teenage female lead gets raped by the male cause of the mental link from their dragons banging, so she hates him for most of the book and then in the end she falls in love with him anyway? I always thought that was kinda skeevy.

[cerveza_fiesta]

My 5 cents (canada doesn't have pennies anymore)

If you're trying to instill a love of reading, pick a book that she'll love without having to try. In that light I'd choose harry potter.

It's everywhere, every other kid her age has read some of it too, the characters and subject matter mature along with the reader (assuming she doesn't complete the series at age 12), the world of HP is compelling and the writing style is accessible to younger audiences - especially in the first couple of books.

That and it has excellent female role models in main character roles throughout.


If she shows more interest in fantasy, maybe CS Lewis, but I'd stick to the popular books as first tries. There's tonnes of time to get her into the lesser-known works once you know she's hooked and won't be daunted by a book she doesn't like right away.

This post has been edited by cerveza_fiesta: 11 July 2014 - 05:18 PM

[Abyss]

Illuyankas, on 11 July 2014 - 05:15 PM, said:

Uh, doesn't the first Pern book have a scene where the teenage female lead gets raped by the male cause of the mental link from their dragons banging, so she hates him for most of the book and then in the end she falls in love with him anyway? I always thought that was kinda skeevy.

Nope. Your remember is incorrect.

Assuming mine is correct.

cerveza_fiesta, on 11 July 2014 - 05:16 PM, said:

My 5 cents (canada doesn't have pennies anymore)

If you're trying to instill a love of reading, pick a book that she'll love without having to try. In that light I'd choose harry potter.... I'd stick to the popular books as first tries. There's tonnes of time to get her into the lesser-known works once you know she's hooked and won't be daunted by a book she doesn't like right away.

Could always buy her a few bk1s and let her pick which one she enjoys enough to want the whole series.

[QuickTidal]

cerveza_fiesta, on 11 July 2014 - 05:16 PM, said:

That and it has excellent female role models in main character roles throughout.

Hermione especially is one of the finest examples of strong female protags in literature.

Spoiler

(And if the recent Daily Prophet short story implies what I think it is, she's heading for the Minister Of Magic job as an adult!)

This post has been edited by QuickTidal: 11 July 2014 - 05:29 PM

[cerveza_fiesta]

Abyss, on 11 July 2014 - 05:22 PM, said:

cerveza_fiesta, on 11 July 2014 - 05:16 PM, said:

My 5 cents (canada doesn't have pennies anymore)

If you're trying to instill a love of reading, pick a book that she'll love without having to try. In that light I'd choose harry potter.... I'd stick to the popular books as first tries. There's tonnes of time to get her into the lesser-known works once you know she's hooked and won't be daunted by a book she doesn't like right away.

Could always buy her a few bk1s and let her pick which one she enjoys enough to want the whole series.

That's a good idea too. No need to overwhelm, just pick maybe 2-3 from the most popular series that fit your criteria and hope for the best. She's going to turn into a little drama queen that hates everything every adult says in another year anyway - there is nothing to lose. If you can hook her into reading before she goes on that wild tangent, maybe it will take root and she'll keep it up through the turbulent times.

[Imperial Historian]

Pretty sure the teenage lead getting raped by the male due to the dragon sex thing happens in the first book. I certainly wouldn't recommend pern or any of Anne McCafferys books to a twelve year old. I'd say 14 or so would be a minimum.

[QuickTidal]

Another quick suggestion would be Kazu Kibuishi's AMULET series. It's a YA graphic novel series about a brother and sister who get lost in an adventure of robots, monsters and gods while trying to find their kidnapped mother. The art is stunning (Kibuishi is the co-creator of the FLIGHT series, and did the recent redesign 15th Anniversary HARRY POTTER covers), and the writing is top notch. There are (I THINK) 7 volumes out so far.

Anyways, worth a look.

[amphibian]

So she and her family came up for the weekend. I put a giant stack of most of the books nearby and asked her to take a look.

She grabbed Sherlock Holmes (the biggest book, as I had a compendium on hand from years ago), moved it downstairs to the TV room and then proceeded to not read it and watch Frozen. I chided her gently, reminded her that she didn't need to impress me with a big book or even to read them all, but to at least try them (and turned TV off after the movie was over).

I packed a few books with her mother on the trip back this morning, so maybe she'll look them over at home.

C'est la guerre.

[Studlock]

As I see only worry mentioned it I'll also recommend basically anything by Garth Nix though his 'The Keys to the Kingdom' was a favourite of mine. I'll also tip my hat to His Dark Materials, and the Tiffany Aching Discworld books. Hopefully she picks up some books! I also came from a family that didn't read (we had many technical books but not much else) so I understand how hard it is to get family to start reading.

[Raymond Luxury Yacht]

Stephen R. Donaldson's two book series (duology?) Mordant's Need is some excellent fantasy. It appealed to my wife, who doesn't even read fantasy. It has a female protagonist and I think is mostly age-appropriate. The two books in it are The Mirror of Her Dreams and A Man Rides Through.