Wee Free Men, Terry Pratchett, There are so many books in the YA category that entertain, distract, play at being parent. This one stands apart from that lot. This one talks about how the bones of the world are like the bones of your body. This one talks about real things by talking about things that are unreal. There are reasons for fantasy. This book is one of them.

The follow up books A Hat Full of Sky and Wintersmith are great too. I Shall Wear Midnight, a fourth book in the series, should be out this year.

One of the best grandmothers ever is talked about in this series.


Catherine

Patricia McKillip's Riddlemaster of Hed books, and her Forgotten Beasts of Eld. These books are wonderful wonderful wonderful.

Edited at 2010-03-26 12:32 am (UTC)

Oh yes. I'd forgotten about these. Very good.

Here are some I think she in particular would like. All of these feature really strong characters who combine intellectual curiosity and a certain moral bravery, both characteristics I associated with the_child. Some may be out of print, but I can lend a copy if need be. :)

* First Test, by Tamora Pierce. This is the first in a series, and one of several series she has that are awesome, but the on I would recommend starting with. It's about a girl in training to be a knight who is having to fight to be allowed to do so when traditionally it's just boys, but it's also about how she deals with all the ways in which she is different than the others there -- not just being a girl, but in having a different style of leadership, having different beliefs about how to deal with those who bully either people or animals.

* Eva, by Peter Dickinson. It's about a girl who had grown up with as many chimpanzees for friends as people, because of her father's job -- and then goes through an interesting transformation after she has very experimental surgery following a catastrophic car accident. She ends up having to make some very challenging choices, and work through the consequences.

* Galax-Arena, by Gillian Rubinstein. It's about children who were stolen from a tumbling competition to perform for aliens that thrive on fear.

* Hidden Talents, by David Lubar. It's about kids at an alternative school who discover some interesting skills while dealing with being outcasts among the misfits.

* Invitation to the Game, by Monica Hughes. Dystopian SF in which robots have taken over most jobs, and the government has taken over parenting. After finishing school, a group of kids are assigned based on test results to be permanently unemployed, and who get lured in to a virtual reality game that seems all too real, and where surviving requires bringing their strenghts together as a team.

* Unwind, by Neal Shusterman. Dystopian SF in which abortion is outlawed, but parents can elect to have teenagers "unwound" -- i.e., have them recycled as organ transplants. The book is about a group of kids destined for this, and their attempt to escape. This could be too dark for her, you should read it first. It is incredibly awesome, though.

* Everlost, by Neal Shusterman. It's about kids navigating a limbo world between death and the afterlife, and limbo world where only children are ghosts.

Also by Pierce I would suggest Sandry's Book which is the first of a quartet about a quartet of young Mage children and the fun times they have learning that they have magic and the trials that follow. I love them as an adult, and I'm sure she'll love them.

Tamora Pierce - circle of magic
There are eight books in two series, covering the adventures of four young people thrown together by circumstance. What I liked about these books was that they treat magic almost as if it's a technology. They have a slight detective feel about them - in most books a crime needs to be solved. There are two more follow-up books which I didn't like quite as much.

Hunger Games and Catching Fire by Susanne Collins
I found these really well-written, and refreshing in the face of a glut of standard cliche fantasy available for younger readers.

For MG readers I'd recommend Emily Rodda's Deltora Quest series
I have no idea if they're available in the US, but they should be, because these books are excellent, especially the first series of seven novella-length volumes. It's a classic collect-the-parts type of quest, but oh man, the inventive monsters are cool! The last book has what I must begrudgingly admit is the best and most unexpected twist I have come across in all of my reading in the last few years.

Why is there so little SF for younger readers?

I'll go old school:

Edgar Rice Burroughs-John Carter of Mars series
Madeline L'Engel-A wrinkle in Time series
any of Heinlein's YA books, my favorites are:
Citizen of the Galaxy, A door into Summer, Have spacesuit will travel, Time for the stars and the list goes on and on.
John Christopher White Mountains series

I totally second A Door Into Summer by Heinlein.....one of my VERY favorites!

The Prydain Chronicles - Lloyd Alexander (was the first fantasy series I ever read....somewhere around 4th grade, I think)

The Belgaridad - David Eddings (Also very early fantasy that I read.....it's very accessible, and has great characters.)

The Harper Hall series by Anne McCaffrey (Music, dragons, young girl runs away to hang with fire lizards, what more could you want? *grin*)

And yes, seconding the Prydain Chronicals.

Catherine

Most of Robin McKinley's books. (I don't know if Deerskin and Sunshine are YA or not.)

Whoops...because they star Girls Who Do Things.

Scott Westerfield's Uglies Series is very, very good. That's 4 books of genetic modification and human enhancement, and what might be wrong with that.

Megan Whalen-Turner's The Thief series, which uses a fantasy Greece as a political backdrop. The second book has some very heavy things going down in it.

Sarah Prineas' The Magic Thief books, although they might be a little young.

D.M. Cornish' Monster Tattoo books, for fantasy in a colonial regency setting.

Patricia Wrede and Carolyn Stevermere's The Enchanted Chocolate Pot and the books that follow it. Empowering for girls; interesting and Regency.

I did not know of this series by Wrede and will now have to find it given how much I enjoy her Enchant Forest series.

Diane Duane, the series starting with So You Want To Be A Wizard. The protagonists are mid-teens, if I remember correctly. There are two related books, Book of Night With Moon and To Visit The Queen, where the main characters are cats.

My daughter enjoys Jim Hines' Goblin Quest books. I've read the first one and found it funny. She's also working her way through the Becka Cooper series by Tamora Pierce (fighting with her father for them, actually).

I'm seconding the votes for Madeline L'Engle, the Pern books, the Chronicles of Prydain, and the Heinlein juveniles.

I liked Isaac Asimov's Robots of Dawn stories, but I was a weird child. I also read Dune repeatedly (just the first one, I didn't encounter the sequels until many years later).

Mirror of Her Dreams and A Man Rides Through by Stephen Donaldson might work and might not. They're depressing books, but not the assault his Thomas Covenant series is. There is some adult theming, so you may want to read them first (or not, if you dislike Stephen Donaldson's work).

How old is the_child? I might be able to get a more extensive suggestion list from my daughter, who is thirteen, if you'd like.

12-1/2, actually, so your daughter's perspective is likely spot-on. Thank you!

I'll chime in with Tamora Pierce also. She was my introduction to YA literature. Her Circle of Magic Quartet is for a slightly younger audience than her Tortallan books (which include The Song of the Lioness Quartet, The Immortals Quartet, and Protector of the Small Quartet--that's the order written and also chronological--and then several other duologies, trilogies, and stand-alone novels off of it).

Someone already explained Circle of Magic, so I'll jump in with Song of the Lioness: Alanna is a twin. She wants to be a knight, but girls aren't allowed to become knights, and her brother Thom wants to be a sorcerer but their father wants him to be a knight. They switch places. What follows is Alanna in her Page years (Alanna: The First Adventure), Alanna as a Squire and earning her knighthood (In the Hands of the Goddess), one of her time among the Bazhir, the desert tribesmen of her country (Woman Who Rides Like a Man) and her quest for the Dominion Jewel, a powerful object which will allow her king to add powerful protections to Tortall (Lioness Rampant). There's a lot more to them, obviously, than my brief summary. It's about becoming a woman and finding her place in the world as both woman and knight; being one of the Gods-touched whose destiny is extraordinary; and a whole lot more.


Gerald Morris: The Squire's Tale (first in a series called The Squires Tales). Stories of King Arthur and the round table. The first one follows Sir Gawain's squire Terence (a character of Morris' creation). I love the series because they're highly entertaining and fun reads. There are points I laugh hysterically--usually involving witty exchanges. Suitable for just about any age, I'd say.


Madeleine L'Engel was a favorite of mine when I was in middle school. It's SciFi, probably one of the few that I've encountered in YA/juv lit.

Lois Duncan's A Gift of Magic. Middle-grade, but wonderful even when I re-read it years later. A young girl discovers her ESP and has to come to terms with it and how to use it. (I also recommend others, but many of them are a touch on the creepy side, or so I thought when I read them.)

The Girl With Silver Eyes--Willo Davis Roberts. [Summary stolen shamelessly from Amazon because I can't remember specifics beyond the fact that I re-read it obsessively for a couple of years.] Katie is different from her peers; she has silver eyes, can move things with her mind, and can even read the minds of animals. But she's also a 10 year old girl, and she is beset by the usual problems of fitting in with the other kids, and relating to her mother. But her life takes a turn for the worse when a mysterious man starts asking questions about her. She is eventually forced to strike out into the world in an attempt to learn more about herself, and to help herself deal with the special pressures she must face.

I really can't remember why I liked it so much. I read it probably 6-8 years ago. I do remember that the story entranced me and I'd say the voicing was probably what had me hooked.

Dealing with Dragons, by Patricia C. Wrede. Discovered in middle school, loved even today. I still re-read the Enchanted Forest Chronicles. It's fairly easy reading. It has a really clever mix of fairy tales throughout the series. In the first one...there's a talking frog, a fairy godmother, princess stereotypes (and breaking of them), dragons, a very unusual witch and a whole lot more. Princess Cimorene likes fencing, cooking, Latin, and other un-princessy subjects. To top it off, she's dark-haired and tall, unlike her short, blonde sisters. When her parents arrange a marriage with a prince from a nearby kingdom whom she doesn't like, she follows the advice of a frog and finds herself as the princess of a dragon. She must deal with increasingly persistent princes and knights eager for glory (and half of her parent's kingdom) who come to try to fight Kazul, the dragon. (Cimorene resorts to offering to fight them herself to get them to go away.) She gets to utilize her Latin in organizing Kazul's library and discovers a plot among wizards against the dragons. Charming, fast-paced, and hilariously good, not to mention clever. I love-love-love this book.

...I'll stop now.

Seconding Lois Duncan's A Gift of Magic....I LOVED that book and I think read it in my early teens as well. :)

Sarah Prineas' Magic Thief books, of course. Middle grade. About a street urchin who enters the world of wizardry when he steals a wizard's magic stone. Deceptively simple storytelling done with great heart.

Nation, by Terry Pratchett. YA. About a 19th-century boy in the Pelagic Sea whose entire nation is wiped out by a tsunami, and the shipwrecked possible-heir to the English crown. It's sad, funny, and wise. Maybe my favorite book of the last three years.

When You Reach Me by Rebecca Stead. Middle grade. This year's Newbery winner. A quirky time-travel book that feels in many ways like contemporary, mainstream middle-grade fiction.

Airborn by Kenneth Oppel. YA. Romantic adventure set in the late 19th or early 20th century, with airships.

And, uh, if she can wait till May 11, there's some book about the survivors of Atlantis washing up on the shores of a central California beach town, by some spazwad whose name I can't spell.

"And, uh, if she can wait till May 11, there's some book about the survivors of Atlantis washing up on the shores of a central California beach town, by some spazwad whose name I can't spell."

Really? So cool!

"Flora Segunda" and "Flora's Dare" by Isabeau Wilce - funny and twisted, plus Girls Who Do Things.
"Tithe" by Holly Black, not funny but well-done.
"The Shadow Speaker" by Nnedi Okorafor-Mbachu would be about the right age range.
"The Vampire's Beautiful Daughter" by S.P. Somtow. Quirky, interesting fairytale, of sorts.

"Ender's Game" is the obvious choice, but with the rampant cretinism of OSC lately, I have to say, "get it used."

Madeline L'Engle's stuff, obviously, and, depending on The Child's attitude, I'd say Steven Brust's stuff up to but not including "Teckla," wouldn't be bad for fantasy. C.S. Lewis' Narnia series works, as, perhaps, does The Hobbit, though I found them hideously boring.

Gibson's work, and maybe even Stephenson's (Cryptonomicon and prior) may also, though there are the occasional things you'll need to intercede and explain, though they are generally treated lightly.

Ursula le Guin's Earthsea books (if she hasn't read them already)
Tiffany Trent's "Hallowmere" series
Maggie Stiefwater's "Shiver" (sequel coming soon!)
Libba Bray (everything)
and, um, well, there's yours truly - she can see if the Worldweavers books are her cup of tea if she visits www.worldweaversweb.com (there are excerpts)

Ooh, Maggie Stiefvater! I've read Lament, not Shiver, but I highly recommend as well. Lament is about a "clover hands"--a girl who can attract the Fae with music. I love music, especially when a character is a musician, so I loved this. It's very well-written. Maggie's blog is interesting too, if the_child is at all interested in reading what writers have to say. :P

Nesbit's THE ENCHANTED CASTLE.

Most of the books I would have recommended have already been mentioned except for this one:

The True Meaning of SmekDay by Adam Rex. It's the story of an 11-year old girl in a world taken over by aliens and how she defeats them with a help of one of the aliens. Humor, adventure and charming illustrations. Loads of fun.

Shaun Tan's The Arrival. Just pics, no words, but a powerful immigrant story.

Oh, yes, The Arrival is *amazing*.

I skipped right past the young adult section and went straight from childrens books (which I outgrew by the time I was about 6) to the adult section.

I had a steady diet of Terry Pratchett when I was growing up too. I was lucky, the Colour of Magic (the first one) came out the year I was born, so by the time I started reading them I only had a couple to catch up on and I pretty much grew with the series.

The Wizard of Earthsea books by LeGuin - it's a world that I'm still convinced is real, out there somewhere, after reading it at about the same age.

(n)th-ing Heinlein's YA and early shorts; Citizen of the Galaxy and The Moon is a Harsh Mistress, and of course Podkayne - one of the editions with both endings.

My own novel is YA, contemporary SF: Gathering Grace, published in 2008. It's about a superhero and her arch-nemesis - both women in their 60s - and the granddaughter they have in common. It got positive reviews, though not early or often enough to get any buzz. I know a lot more about the biz for the next one...

"Podkayne - one of the editions with both endings. "
*Both* endings?? that means...oh my gosh, Heinlein I haven't read!! I wonder if the version I just bought from Amazon for the Kindle App has both endings...Otherwise, Ima hit the bookstore tomorrow :)

Oh, when I was about 12 I did love Piers Anthony books. I read them now and wonder what the hell I was thinking, but they might appeal to younger readers.

The Pern books by Anne Mccafrey! I loved those too.

This is reminding me of heaps of stuff I haven't even thought about in ages.

There is a book called "The Tree That Sat Down" by Beverly Nichols that I loved so much I still have it. I read it when I was pretty young, but it's probably a young adult book.

The ones I really got into for Piers Anthony were the Incarnations of Immortality series. I enjoyed those greatly as a kid.

seperating into two posts, because LJ says it's too long (sticks out tongue at LJ)

First, I'm going to list the authors/books that I'm mostly just chiming in a "I agree!" on -

Tamora Pierce
I would agree that the Circle of Magic universe is appropriate for a slightly younger age group than the Tortal universe.
There are currently 10 books in the CoM series - two sets of four, and two more stand-alone books. the second set of four is much less tied together than the first set - picking up the 2nd-4th book of Circle of Magic wouldn't make a ton of sense, but you can read the books of The Circle Opens in pretty much any order. CoM is a historic fantasy universe in that there doesn't seem to be a lot in the way of technology, and people live in a sort of middle-ages type lifestyle.
The Tortal universe starts with Song of the Lioness (quartet), and continues through The Immortals (quartet), Protector of the Small (quartet), the Trickster duo, and the current series (set in the past, before SotL) Beka Cooper (supposed to be a quartet, currently two published). Tortal is a fairly standard historic fantasy - knights and sorcerers and gods and such. A note - there is sex in SotL and the Immortals (and possibly Trickster, though i'm not sure about those), though it's mostly just 'hey, it happened'. absolutely nothing is spelled out, and i would not find it inappropriate for any child that has had any sort of sex ed, which for me started in 4th grade. PotS doesn't have any sex, though it is talked about and contemplated (by the now 16-ish protagonist)
the Tortal books are much more 'hero stands alone' books, though the heros in question do have a support system, and the heroes all happen to be girls. The CoM books are much more group-oriented.

Madeline L'Engel - A Wrinkle in Time
I loved this book, as well as a couple of the companion books (especially Many Waters). They look at the universe in a very different way. I personally would describe these as a crossover between sci-fi and fantasy - especially when you get into the other books. WiT is almost pure sci-fi, but Many Waters has elements that most would say take it to fantasy (namely, unicorns).

David Eddings - Belgariad/Malloreon
OMG, yes. I am so upset that I didn't discover these books until my mid-20s. Huge, epic fantasy with real, approachable characters that make sense. A little dark at times.

Anne McCaffrey - Harper Hall
Again, agreed - though make note that there is some sex taking place in the third book. (completely non-descriptive) based on the history of the world, i would define these as sci-fi. I also think the Dolphins book in the same world is excellent. I've never gotten into the rest of that world, though.

Diane Duane - Young Wizards series
yes, yes, yes! the characters start out in the pre-teen range, and grow up through the books. basically, you've got a couple of outcasts that discover magic - well, magic picks them would be a better phrase - and they have lots of adventures. scary, dangerous adventures, but adventures. The books definitely get older as the characters do. They also touch on some hard topics - in one of them, the main female character's mom ends up in the hospital with cancer, and the girl has to face possibly loosing her. In another one, the main addition for that book is autistic. definitely fantasy, though with touches of sci-fi

Willo Davis Roberts - The Girl with Silver Eyes
OMG yes! it has such an interesting way of looking at a child that is dealing with being different from everyone else she's ever encountered. mostly modern sci-fi, or maybe fantasy (depending on how you see psychic stuff)

Zenna Henderson - various
yes, yes, yes. Henderson has a very different voice than most authors i've come across. I love all 'the People' stories, and the individual stories are very interesting as well (though a couple of them, like the one about the noise eater, are kind of scary).

Other stuff that I'm listing for the first time:

Paula Hendrich - The Girl who Slipped Through Time
another sci-fi. Girl is in a semi-post-apocalyptic high-tech world (basically what all the eco-crazies are clamoring we're going to do to the planet ANY DAY NOW) and suddenly finds herself in 1930s Kansas.

Kate Gilmore - Enter Three Witches
Bret lives on the upper west side of Manhatten. He lives with his mother (a witch), her mother (a witch), the voodoo priestess downstairs, and a has-been Opera soprano upstairs. Now he's falling in love with a girl at school - who's playing one of the three witches in the school's production of Macbeth. I really like that all the characters are well-fleshed-out and definitely their own unique person. (school library journal suggests it for grades 7-12)

Robert Asprin - Myth Adventures
High fantasy, full of puns, huge amounts of comedy. Not entirely certain if all of it is appropriate for pre-teen, but i would have absolutely no problems handing it to a freshman (or probably even middleschooler)
Skeeve is a fairly hapless magician's apprentice that somehow finds himself in all sorts of trouble.

Bruce Coville - My Teacher is an Alien and The Magic Shop books
Bruce Coville may be a little young for her - he's really in the 7-11 range for the most part. However, the books are very very enjoyable, and he writes both science fiction and fantasy for children. recommend starting Magic Shop with Jeremy Thatcher, Dragon Hatcher



anyway, that's what i've got at the moment. i'm sure i'll think of a dozen more while i'm trying to get to sleep tonight.

I second Garth Nix. The Abhorsen trilogy (of which Sabriel is the first) is excellent, as are the other series' I've tried by him--Keys to the Kingdom, which is still being written, starts with Mister Monday; The Seventh Tower (I think it's called?) series. Both fantasy. Seventh Tower features a kind of caste system with magic. Don't remember details too well, but I loved it. Keys to the Kingdom: our world is one of many. The central one that controls everything is the House, to which the protagonist is made Heir and has to collect the seven pieces of the Will of the Architect. Complicated to explain, but fun to read.

Ah geez how could I forget the Lord Of The Rings. I read that about 5 times.

That’s how I got my start in F&SF: my mother read The Hobbit to me as a bedtime story when I was in kindergarten, and I liked it so much we went on to The Fellowship of the Ring, and then I started reading it on my own because I didn’t want to wait for bedtime. At that point, I had a library card and knew how to use the children’s library, and there went all her plans for introducing me to classic children’s literature...

This is first what I remember getting hooked on. Does not mean highest quality:

- The Norby Series, by Issac & Janet Asimov: A silly fun robot trip series. YA Marketed.
- Dealing With Dragons, by Patricia C. Wrede: First book of a series, and my favorite of the set. I still go back & re-read. Great story of a Princess who does what she wants, rather than what she's told. Appealed to my young adult feminist side. Marketed as YA
- Dragon's Blood, by Jane Yolen: First book of a series, young boy who steals a dragon egg and the hope it brings him. Marketed as YA
- Dragonflight, by Anne McCaffrey (really the whole of the Pern series): I read this at around age 13 or so. It was post-Dealing with Dragon and my father read the first book to me. It was his trick to get me like SF/F as I'd had a bad experience with a YA SF novel and he was devastated that I 'hated SF and F' even tho I adored Star Trek. So he started me with Strong Females & Dragons. I read ahead of his read aloud to me about half way through. Still a fave, just re-read.
- The Talents Series, the Ship Who series, the Planet series, etc. by McCaffrey. I went on a McCaffrey kick from about age 14-18 and read almost everything I could get my hands on. During this time I was also introduced to Andre Norton (tho I missed Witchworld), Jodi Lynn Nye, Maragret Bell, and Mercades Lackey.
- Valdemar Series (I started with Magic's Pawn, other recommend Queen's Own) by Mercedes Lackey. This is significantly more mature than the McCaffrey content in terms of violence and depression and other life thing, but I wasn't told I should be afraid so I wasn't. I read about Vanyel being shay'a'chern (gay), attempting suicide, murdering, and saving the world around age fourteen and a half. I think my mother would have been horrified. The Oathbound/Oathbreakers duology is the most mature, I would say, in terms of starting point.
- The Belgariad/The Malleroen, by David Eddings. Not high quality fiction, per se, but one of the better epics that has stayed with me and gives me a touchpoint with other fantasy fans. Most of my friends read in their teen years, which I think leads to greater enjoyment than reading later when the tropes are more easily seen for what they are.
- The Dragonlance novels (original 3 with the Twins series as well), by Margaret Weis & Tracey Hickman. Again, not high quality fiction so much as a touchpoint, a centering, a batispm of fantasy. Best enjoyed as a young adult, rather than an adult with knowledge. I fear re-reading these.
- The Xanth series by Peirs Anthony. While I've heard much poor about the man, and these are repetitive bubblegum, I enjoyed them greatly as a teen. Quick to read, fun with words, contained stories. The first 3 were significantly better than the last 3 of the 20 odd I read, but I enjoyed the first 10-15 very much.
- The above lead me to the Apprentice Adept series, which is more SF/F blend, but slightly more mature (NAKED ALERT) as well as the Incarnations of Immortality. I enjoyed these as well, but they are very different from the carefree nature of Xanth.
- The Star Wars novels. Specifically the Jedi Academy by Timothy Zhan, but I enjoyed almost all that I could get my hands on in the 90s. This was my main SF ingestion as a teen.

I very much veered toward Fantasy, and High Fantasy at that. I adored retold fairy tales (tho not nearly as dark as most of the ones by Tanith Lee, though I did enjoy some). I preferred strong female lead characters. I self-selected from the authors who I knew played into that.

My father also required me to read the Hobbit and I didn't care for it and have not read Lord of the Rings as a result. I enjoy the movies, but I don't care for Tolkien's writing style.

I'm going to go against the grain here and note that I hated A Wrinkle in Time and it almost turned me off the genre. Again. =/

Sabrille by Nix is something I've had rec'd to me a lot.

2nd the Dark is Rising Series (ignore the movie, gah bleh)

I enjoyed the Myth series, but I read them in my 20s.

I will also note that I read a lot about sex without realizing during this time. I was amused when one day my mother caught me reading a book called Elvenblood and freaked out that the name of the book had 'blood' in title (it was the 2nd in a series as I recall, first was Elvenbane, and the blood was reference to mixed race). I was 16 or so. Given her response I neglected to inform of all the wars, sex, drugs, religious, political and other references in the books I was reading at that age.

I suspect you are more world wise to fiction than my mother, as my father did just know that your daughter is smart enough and trusting enough to come to you with questions that you will respond to maturely, rather than with aghast parental censorship. It help me a lot to know that I could safely explore without a fear of the taboo.

Too young for her, I am sure, but my favorite read over and over book as a kid was The Wonderful Flight to the Mushroom Planet.

I just found out that I missed the last book in the series. When I finally learned to read, I about read my copies to death.

Leaning in to the dark side ... I enjoyed all the Alfred Hitchcock anthologies. Some of the stories are really, really creepy/scary so it just depends on whether or not she likes to be scared. I sure did! There are some fine writers represented in those.