It’s officially the second day of summer and we’ve already made an emergency run to the library.  Does anyone else have a book worm-let at their house?  Mine is a tween, which makes book finding that much more difficult.  Twilight?  Pretties and Uglies?  There’s got to be something that will more nutritionally feed her mind…

Alice to the rescue!   My friend, Alice, recently posted some of her favorite tween books, and my daughter Lindsay (age 12) has already inhaled most of them.  We had to request an interlibrary loan for most of these, but each one has been a great suggestion.  Alice is an editor with discerning Christian taste, and absolutely loves to read.  Many of these are books that she read when she was a tween (just a few summer days ago… back when we would have called her a junior higher!)

Here are a few of Alice’s suggestions with my daughter Lindsay’s reactions in italics.

 Betsy-Tacy series by Maud Hart Lovelace. “At first I thought these stories were for little girls, even though I really liked them.  But as the characters grow up, they seem more for my age.  I have read three of the six so far.  The girls make me laugh with the things they come up with to do–like when they each cut off half of each other’s hair to remember each other by!” 

The Penderwicks: A Summer Tale of Four Sisters and Two Rabbits, and a Very Interesting Boy by Jeanne Birdsall.   “I felt like I got to know each of the four sisters.  I’m most like Rosalind, who is quiet and responsible.  But the other sisters made me laugh with their adventures of spying and falling into bull pens.”

 The Ark by Margot Benary-Isber. “I really want to buy this one to keep forever, but I’m so sad because Amazon only has a used copy for $107.64!!  I was sneakily reading this while I was supposed to be watching my brother’s baseball game last week… I just could never find a good stopping point because I always wanted to find out what happened next!”

The Railway Children by E. Nesbit.  “I liked this so much when I read it several years ago, that I read it again!  

The Little White Horse by Elizabeth Goudge.  “I just started this one yesterday.  It’s about a girl who goes to a mansion because her mom and dad died, and she starts discovering things that have happened in the past, and how she could be the one to fix them all… I think I need to go read some more, now!”

 Rainbow Garden, Treasures of the Snow, Star of Light, and Tanglewoods Secret by Patricia St. John. “These are next on my list!”

The Witch of BlackBird Pond by Elizabeth George Speare. “I read this last year and had forgotten about what a great book it is!  I need to read this one again.  My mom remembers me sending her to the library in hunt of other books by this author.  I don’t remember that, but maybe after I reread it, I’ll be sending her again!”  (Shannon:  “I must admit, I’m like a dog with a rubber ball when you throw out a good book suggestion for my kids!”)

 The Mysterious Benedict Society by Trenton Lee Stewart.  “I read these last summer and liked them so much that I got the set for Christmas.  Now, this is going to sound really dumb…  The story is about a man who is taking over the world, but four kids with special skills stop him.  But I promise these books aren’t dumb!  The author is really good at building suspense.  I loved these.” 

The View From Saturday by E. L. Konigsburg. “This was a unique kind of book.  It tells four stories that come together at the end, when the four children start having tea every Saturday at 4:00.  I also loved From the Mixed-Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler by the same author.”

Let us know if you read any of these, or if you have more great book suggestions for tween girls!

Love, Lindsay and Shannon

PS. See our second post here.