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I shall certainly investigate the "Wheel of Time" further as something for me to read .
I've read the first 5 or 6 books 3 times, and the 7 & 8th twice - the 9th & tenth only once, since I decided to stop rereading the series until it's done, then I'll probably read it twice more, in rapid succession, because I really want to figure out something that happened at the end of the 5th book.
(hm, off topic -> but then, this is FOO, right?) :)
I started reading the WOT about 10 years ago.
How bout the clean source huh?
Ok, nuf spoilers.
the Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy series?
ehm... well... a little bit adult. Nothing explicit, just some things wouldn't have been as funny to me if I had been so young.
Also, if you get into those enough, you'll probably want to read the rest of Adams' books, and those are much harder to get through. (Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency is full of metaphysics and math, and then there's the Long Dark Tea-Time of the Soul, with electric monks and vast quantities of Norse mythology. Hm...)
I'd recommend the "Increasingly Inaccurately Named Hitchhiker Trilogy" for ages 13-15 and up.
LOTR for a 12-year-old is probably good. As I said, I could handle it, but my little sister needed a little help. It wasn't that she found it too scary, it's that she just found it hard to read. Not language-wise, there was just something about the part where frodo and sam are in Mordor that she found hard to sit through, i guess. i reread the series semiannually, I think, but I have to admit most of the time I skip the second half of Two Towers. (I make up for it by reading the 1st half twice. Well, I read the part with Faramir in Ithilien, too. Which they BUTCHERED in the movie to make a cheap point, but don't get me started. ;] )
What worked for me was just my mom getting The Hobbit out of the library, and a while after I finally read it, she mentioned that there were more books where it came from. There's a big disconnect, but I totally fell for her salesmanship...
Narnia at 11 would be excellent, too. I haven't read those in a while.
And I reiterate support for Susan Cooper. Honestly. They're about 11-year-olds, and have far more compelling magic than harry and his ridiculous pig Latin.
Did you know that CS Lewis and Tolkien were friends? They were drinking buddies. Over beers one night they came up with an agreement-- CS Lewis was going to write a book that explored space if Tolkien wrote a book exploring time.
Lewis wrote Narnia, and Tolkien made some notes but never finished his. Fascinating stuff. He puttered around with LOTR until he died, pretty much.
My life's goal when I was 12 was to become a dusty and eccentric old professor of Anglo-Saxon and live in a garret and write epics in fountain pen on scrap paper. I thought it would be brilliant.
I'm not entirely convinced I was wrong...
I also really love the CS Lewis Space Trilogy, "Out of the Silent Planet," "Perelandra," and "That Hideous Strength." Again, I'm not sure whether it would work for an 11-year old. Someone with kids would know. I remember that there were passages in the first one that made me cry, and that I kept rereading "Perelandra" because I didn't want to leave that watery world.
A little off topic, because this definitely isn't for 11-year olds... but I can see it may be right for a lot of folks here... there's the Dan Simmons "Hyperion," "Fall of Hyperion," and "Endymion" series, with its future internet TechnoCore that's taken over the universe.
Also the Dune series may be an option too - I think i read those when I was around 13 or 14. More of a scifi / fantasy combo there though. The first novel is pretty huge and is an epic in itself. The rest follow on from the original story.
Scott
I must've read the Narnia books 10 times when I was a kid, along with Enid Blyton (any book called "The <something> of Adventure), Tolkein.
My daughter is almost 2 (two). Not reading Harry Potter yet, but she has watched the movies and likes to ask us "Where's Harry?"
I cannot believe none of the Roald Dahl books have had a mention. They are fantastic! I used to bury myself in his brilliant characters and clever and witty adventures.
I reccommned Danny the Champion fo the world, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, The fantastic mr fox and James and the Giant Peach. To name but a few.
Also his childhood autobiography "Boy" is very good.
I remember I collected all his books along with the complete Asterix series. I wonder if I still have them somewhere? a trip into the loft has been long overdue :)
<added>You beat me to that one Hayluke :) </added>
[edited by: limbo at 9:13 am (utc) on July 2, 2003]
I read "James and the Giant peach" many times, but I think before I was 11. After all, it's a children's book!
Mind you I was not reading Ivan Denisovich at 11! You must've been a special kid, vincevincevince :)
Based on my son and his friends, I'd also recommend Eoin Colfer's "Artemis Fowl" books, though I haven't read them.
And every child from 8 to 80 should read "The Little Prince" every few years.
I know who died - I read that bit on the bus this morning. Only 50 pages left. :(
Along those lines...
Farenhiet 451
Night
any Jane Austin book
Arabian Nights
The Giver
any Dickens books
several Nesbit books
Treasure Island
James Rollins books if she likes science type adventures
And I am half through "Les Misérables". I hope you're happy now :).
Got to read "The Last Unicorn" by Peter Beagel (sp?)
I read that for the first time when I was about 11 and I think I have re-read it at least 100 times since then and have gotten something new from it each time. It works for all age levels, child or adult. Not very long.
"Princess Bride" (Unabridged) is another good one.
If she is looking for something outside of fantasy, there is "Little House on the Prairie". A great series that a girl can really get into.
When I was about 8 I got hooked on my uncles' "Hardy Boys" collection, I think I ended up reading about 20 of them, if not more. I knew they were terrible, even then, but I just ate them up. I also remember reading every book in my elementary schools' library on "strange phenomena" - bigfoot, UFOs, the crystal skull, Erich Von Daniken - Chariots of the Gods stuff. But I grew up in the 70's, so that stuff was in "style".
--
OT - but if you haven't read Dahl's stories that were originally published in Playboy, check out Switch B*itch and My Uncle Oswald - really, really funny - and definitely not for kids.
Well done, now *I* have to read Narnia.
Similar feelings here :) .. have placed an order for a Narnia book already.
I liked
Robinson Crusoe
Around the world in eighty days
Tom Sawyer/Huckleberry Finn
20,000 Leagues Under the Sea
Three Men in a Boat
and Dickens' novels.
But I read abridged versions of some of these at that age.
I also liked Anne McCaffrey's Pern series (in fact I am still re-reading them!)
For an 11yr old, the Dragon Singer series would be perfect.
*Pern:*
For an 11yr old, the Dragon Singer series would be perfect.
Oh man... I forgot about those. Totally addicted to them in middle school! And Piers Anthony's Xanth nonsense. :)
As far as Narnia, I'd think twice about giving it to a young child. My wife and I both find it notably misogynistic. Not that it isn't wonderfully crafted, but between the misogyny and the strong subtext of Lewis's interpretation of christianity, I'd want to make sure that the reader was old enough to read critically and realize what they are being fed.
SN
Ditto from me on the votes for Narnia, DragonSinger, L'Engle's books, and the Dark is Rising series. I'd also add L.M. Boston's Green Knowe books (nice and spooky and magical), Jane Langton's "Diamond in the Window" (part of a really fun series), and if she likes Dark is Rising series another book with cornish/wales roots is Ruth Arthur's "A Candle in Her Room" (very spooky, subtle magic, good family/generational book).
She might also try Patricia McKillip's Riddlemaster of Hed series (three books) -- I just reread them myself recently, very good stories. McKillip has several other fantasy books that are also winners.
For adventure stories that aren't magical (just fun) have her check out E. L. Konigsburg's "From the Mixed-Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler", Zena Bernstein's "Mrs. Frisby and the Rats of Nimh" (cute, maybe a little young for 11, but still a fun summer read), and one of my all-time favorites Norton Juster's "The Phantom Tollbooth". Oh, and I almost forgot Zilpha Keatley Snyder's "The Egypt Game" -- loved that book, and all her other books too.
Now you just need a good library or used book store and you're all set!
Couple of good children’s books I read at that age were The Little Grey Men and the Boland Light Railway, and my favourite at that age was Brendon Chase about three schoolboys who ran away and lived in the woods, all these by BB.
The Gormenghast trilogy by Mervyn Peake is a good read but maybe in a couple of years.
It was good to see Gulliver’s Travels mentioned.
Has anybody read The Magic Pudding I seem to have lost my copy!
However it's a "young adults" book rather than a children's one. I don't know enough about children to tell what exact age group it's suitable for although it wasn't as scary as some reviews made me expect. There isn't anything really graphic or horrible in it.
Although I've never read Harry Potter I suspect this is aimed a little older so eleven may be too young. But since it's such a damn good book I recommend you read it first, since you'll be the best judge of what your child is ready for anyway. In fact I'd recommend everyone here read it, I was that impressed.
One downfall, it's the first in a series of four. I was so caught up in the book I didn't notice how close I was to the back with no story resolution in sight literally until I turned the page to see "This ends the first book of the Abarat". There was no indication in the front of the book it's a continuing story otherwise I wouldn't have read it yet (for example, I haven't read Wheel of Time yet because I'm afraid the guy will die before he finishes it). I am now itching for the rest to be written.
But at least this means that your daughter is sure to be old enough to read it by the time all the books are out :-D
Added: Oh and if you can get your hands on a copy, The Talking Parcel by Gerald Durrel. Sadly out of print now but an amazing book.
