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cahnMy niece (D's sister's daughter) is turning 12 soon, and I would like to give her some books (probably 2-3) as a present. (This isn't mandatory -- something crafty and interesting could work too.)
Any books I give her must not contain sex, should not be overly dark (no teenage dystopias yet), and probably should have no gay relationships, especially front and center, although I might be able to get away with subtext. (I know. It is what it is. In a couple of years I may be able to push that line.) She is not particularly precocious or geeky, but is willing to read fantasy; her favorite book about six months ago was Keeper of the Lost Cities, which I haven't read very much of, but at least the part I read has a Very Special Heroine who is the Chosen One of Faerie. (Part of my Duty as an Aunt, of course, is to encourage this -- several years ago I had what I felt was a terrifying conversation with her mom, who was like "what's the point of this fantasy stuff anyway and why should my child be reading this??" and who was perhaps not expecting my impassioned defense of same -- but I also am open to non-SFF suggestions). I have previously given her Summer in Orcus, various Diana Wynne Jones, Dealing with Dragons, The Book of Three, The Goose Girl, Wrinkle in Time, Princess Academy, and So You Want to Be a Wizard. (All of these except Orcus, and maybe Wizard, are probably too young for her now.) I also thought about Wizard of Earthsea or Tombs (which I read at just about this age) but I don't think she would like them that much. (She's read Narnia.) I thought of a couple of things she might like with male protagonists (The Thief, Ender's Game, Hobbit) but I'd rather like to give her at least one book with a female protagonist.
These should also be books that I like, or at least don't feel weird about giving as a gift even if I haven't read it :P
I feel like this shouldn't be hard! It's partially because I've given her a lot of my favorites already, lol, and partially because E reads on about a 9-year-old-boy level (by which I mean, she doesn't like girly books and doesn't care about books with female protagonists at all) so my 12-year-old girl book knowledge is extremely dated (and when I was that age, I was reading... a lot of stuff, much of which didn't fall into 12-year-old Girl Book territory anyway). Also I feel more pressure than I normally would to give her something she'd like, for perhaps obvious reasons. It doesn't need to be a book she will love but it does need to be something she will like enough to finish.
Help?
(Also... I am miffed because I figured out the perfect book, Perilous Gard -- but it is out of print. How can it be out of print?? Hmmph.)
Any books I give her must not contain sex, should not be overly dark (no teenage dystopias yet), and probably should have no gay relationships, especially front and center, although I might be able to get away with subtext. (I know. It is what it is. In a couple of years I may be able to push that line.) She is not particularly precocious or geeky, but is willing to read fantasy; her favorite book about six months ago was Keeper of the Lost Cities, which I haven't read very much of, but at least the part I read has a Very Special Heroine who is the Chosen One of Faerie. (Part of my Duty as an Aunt, of course, is to encourage this -- several years ago I had what I felt was a terrifying conversation with her mom, who was like "what's the point of this fantasy stuff anyway and why should my child be reading this??" and who was perhaps not expecting my impassioned defense of same -- but I also am open to non-SFF suggestions). I have previously given her Summer in Orcus, various Diana Wynne Jones, Dealing with Dragons, The Book of Three, The Goose Girl, Wrinkle in Time, Princess Academy, and So You Want to Be a Wizard. (All of these except Orcus, and maybe Wizard, are probably too young for her now.) I also thought about Wizard of Earthsea or Tombs (which I read at just about this age) but I don't think she would like them that much. (She's read Narnia.) I thought of a couple of things she might like with male protagonists (The Thief, Ender's Game, Hobbit) but I'd rather like to give her at least one book with a female protagonist.
These should also be books that I like, or at least don't feel weird about giving as a gift even if I haven't read it :P
I feel like this shouldn't be hard! It's partially because I've given her a lot of my favorites already, lol, and partially because E reads on about a 9-year-old-boy level (by which I mean, she doesn't like girly books and doesn't care about books with female protagonists at all) so my 12-year-old girl book knowledge is extremely dated (and when I was that age, I was reading... a lot of stuff, much of which didn't fall into 12-year-old Girl Book territory anyway). Also I feel more pressure than I normally would to give her something she'd like, for perhaps obvious reasons. It doesn't need to be a book she will love but it does need to be something she will like enough to finish.
Help?
(Also... I am miffed because I figured out the perfect book, Perilous Gard -- but it is out of print. How can it be out of print?? Hmmph.)
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Date: 2020-04-07 06:05 am (UTC)I asked L and she said Percy Jackson (and its gazillion sequels), but male protagonist, and the Pseudonymous Bosch books. ETA: If spy stuff is of interest, L also recommends Ally Carter's Gallagher Girls series (I haven't read them myself, but L says she doesn't think therewas sex in it or gay relationship).
Would the Pratchett Tiffany Aching books be too young at his point? I enjoyed them as an adult, but could see a preteen being turned off.
Both I and O enjoyed Scott Westerfeld's Leviathan and sequels (there are boy and girl-dressed-as-boy co-protagonists), and I think they'd work for a 12-year-old OK?
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Date: 2020-04-08 03:58 am (UTC)E likes Percy Jackson! And I feel like I've read the first Gallagher Girls book and liked it, hmm. That actually might be good for E, because she'd like the spy stuff and it might convince her to read a book that had actual girls in it :P
Oh, Tiffany Aching is an excellent idea. I think she's too young now, but I definitely want to remember to keep that in my back pocket for a couple of years hence.
I haven't read Leviathan, but I've read bits of the Uglies trilogy. Hmm. I will have to check this out :)
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Date: 2020-04-07 06:24 am (UTC)Michael Ende: The Neverending Story. Male protagonist, but still one of my most dearly beloved stories ever. (Also: different from the movie, which is based on the first half and upset the author a lot.)
Michael Ende: Momo. Female protagonist. I love it a lot as well. Our heroine saves the world with the help of a turtle.
Astrid Lindgren: Anything, really, but surely Pippi Longstocking is the ultimate non-girly girl?
Erich Kästner: Emil and the Detectives. Was as I see illustrated by none other than Maurice Sendak in the English edition. (Lots of boys, only one girl, but there's a reason why this is one of the most beloved books in Germany from 1929 (when Kästner published it) to this day, why even the Nazis who put everything else Kästner had written into the fire in 1933 waited till 1936 with Emil, and why Kästner was for years the only German author being pubished in Isreal despite not having left Germany during the Third Reich.)
Emil Kästner: The Flying Classroom. This one I personally like even more than Emil, and not just because one of the many film versions was shot in my hometown. Again, mostly boys, but it's a great friendship story while also making the point that sometimes you have to stand up not to your enemies but to your friends. Excellent hurt/comfort, too.
Ottfried Preussler: The Little Witch. Preussler is another author whom I could rec almost the entire ouevre of, but here I'm limiting myself to two again. This one has a rebellious heroine and a glorious moment of table turning on the big witches ostracizing her for a showdown.
Ottfried Preussler: Krabat. Best Preussler ever. They who don't love Krabat do not exist, I declare. This one is fairy tale style dark - our hero gets contracted to a wizard in a Faustian pact, after all - but not in a dystopian way, and the happy ending is earned.
(I read a lot of books with female protagonists at age 12, but these do not fit your criteria; they were mostly historical novels, and there was some sex in them. Nothing explicit, but there was sex.)
ETA: Just recalled something more recent, both by Neil Gaiman: "Coraline" (female hero and female villain plus a cool cat; like Krabat it gets fairy-tale dark but not dystopic), and "The Graveyard Book" (male main character, but plenty of interesting female characters, and among so many other things, it's a clever homage to The Jungle Book. (Human baby ends up with ghosts, vampires, werevolves instead of animals in the jungle, gets raised by same, has to deal with predator arch nemesis still wanting him dead, outwits same but also has to deal with being between two worlds as he grows up).
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Date: 2020-04-07 09:54 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2020-04-07 10:49 am (UTC)'d recommend Tanith Lee's Unicorn Trilogy. Female protagonist, no sex, and a good combination of whimsy and insight. First book involves our heroine striking out on her own and coming to terms with difficult relationships with her separated parents; second book is a little darker, dealing with war, but not grimdark; third book is much fluffier again. But the first book stands alone pretty well.
Not a female protagonist, obviously, but would it be a good age for The Dark Is Rising? Or is it too dark? Similarly, how about The Darkangel Trilogy? (I'm trying to remember if that had any overt sex - get a second opinion).
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Date: 2020-04-07 03:42 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2020-04-08 04:03 am (UTC)Pippi Longstocking!! This will be perfect for her sister, whose birthday is next month :)
I have not read either Kästner or Preussler, clearly I shall have to get these for my birthday :P :D
Coraline kind of freaks me out a little :P :) I haven't read Graveyard Book!
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Date: 2020-04-07 06:35 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2020-04-08 04:03 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2020-04-07 08:14 am (UTC)Robin Stevens - The Wells & Wong series. Murder Most Unladylike is the first one. Girls' school stories with solving crime. But Daisy has a crush on a girl in book 7 so...
Chris Ridell - The Ottoline series (which is for slightly younger readers) and the Goth Girl series.
Katherine Woodfine - The Mystery of the Clockwork Sparrow (and others)
Joan Aiken - The Wolves of Willoughby Chase and series. None of mine have liked these but I did.
Hilary McKay - The Casson family series starting with Saffy's Angel but they might be meant for slightly older. The later ones about Rose skew younger oddly. Not mysteries, chaotic family story. Her Binny series is good too. In the first one of those it is clear to the adult reader that the older sister has just had (happy, loving) sex for the first time but Binny herself is oblivious.
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Date: 2020-04-08 04:05 am (UTC)I do not know any of these and they sound brilliant, thank you! Crush on a girl in book 7 is fine, as long as book 1 doesn't have it :P :)
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Date: 2020-04-08 09:39 am (UTC)(no subject)
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Date: 2020-04-07 08:24 am (UTC)https://zdenka.dreamwidth.org/tag/ya+lit
Some things I remember liking:
-Enchantress from the Stars by Sylvia Louise Engdahl
-Sorcery and Cecilia by Wrede and Stevermer
-something by Eva Ibbotson (I've read a few books by her and they're generally charming, though some of them have darker historical stuff in the background)
Caveat that I don't have a good sense of what's appropriate for kids of what age, so please filter through your own judgement.
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Date: 2020-04-07 10:51 am (UTC)(no subject)
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Date: 2020-04-07 08:58 am (UTC)A lot of focus on the kind of heavy lifting it takes to live in a community where people don't always agree with each other and how you make that work anyway. (Sounds like that might be useful to your niece down the road, maybe?) They're well-plotted, easy to read, and don't pull punches regarding the work it takes to be a decent person. (Plus, funny!)
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Date: 2020-04-08 04:10 am (UTC)YES. I AM PRETTY SURE.
I am definitely flagging these to give to her for sure at some point. I was thinking it was a bit higher reading level than Orcus but maybe I'm misremembering -- I will go check that out again. Thanks!
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Date: 2020-04-07 11:50 am (UTC)On the non-fantasy (and I am a big fantasy reader!) side, I just realized that three of my all-time favorite YA books could be summarized as "on being welcoming to immigrants who are not exactly like you" and "the comfort of family and food in difficult times." There is dark stuff happening off page in two of them, and on page in the first half of one of them, but I reread them endlessly for the loving descriptions of food and family and putting a positive face on hardship and overcoming it. None of them are like Hunger Games dark, and I even think they're less dark than, say, The Giver or Number the Stars (though YMMV on how different things affect you). All of them, I would say are characterized by eucatastrophe.
1) Letters from Rifka: about a Jewish family fleeing Russia and emigrating to the US. The book opens with them successfully escaping and is about their journey and immigrant experiences in Poland, Belgium, and the US. Most of the really dark stuff is implied and off page, i.e. "why it sucked to be a Jew in Russia," but the stuff that actually happens to our protagonists is not nearly that bad, since they successfully escape. Based on the real-life experiences of the author's great-aunt around the turn of the twentieth century. Our protagonist does kiss a boy once, but that's as far as it goes.
2) Ditto When Hitler Stole Pink Rabbit, about a Jewish family that manages to get out of Germany on day one in 1933, and their hardships are like, learning how to speak French, learning how to cook, and worrying about people back home who didn't make it out in time. Reminds me a great deal of the Little House books. Also based on the author's experiences.
3) Bread and Roses, Too. This is the one with the most on-page dark stuff, but it's also my favorite, so even if you don't give it to her, you should read it yourself so we can discuss. :P It's set during the Bread and Roses strike in Massachusetts in 1912, where mill workers living in extreme poverty went on strike for better working conditions. The two POV characters are one native-born American boy and one Italian immigrant girl. Both are living hand to mouth in the first half of the book. The boy has an abusive alcoholic father, the girl has a loving family but has to deal with xenophobia. The second half of the book is about how everybody gets a happy ending. Trigger warnings coming out of its ears, but very hopeful messages about empathy, helping strangers, and the effectiveness of activism.
This is one where, if I gave it to a child, I would have a quick convo about the difference between characters being xenophobic and the book saying xenophobia is okay, because I'm old enough and aware enough to think the book is amazing, but it's just subtle enough that it would depend on the child whether they would pick up on the difference. I'm thinking particularly of the use of the word "wop," where I think the book assumes you know it's an epithet and that's that what governs who considers it acceptable and who doesn't.
(This is a different convo from the Little House convo I recommend having with young readers, which is called "good book, not your role model for race relations.")
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Date: 2020-04-08 04:14 am (UTC)Hmmmmm. These all sound great. Oh, I've read Bread and Roses! I remember liking it, and that it was about mill workers, but literally nothing else (my terrible long-term memory strikes again). I read it because it was by Katherine Paterson, whom basically I read everything by after reading Bridge to Terabithia -- man, all her books have all the trigger warnings, geez, have you read her Japan stuff? One of them involves everyone the protagonist loves dying of a plague!
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Date: 2020-04-07 11:56 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2020-04-07 11:57 am (UTC)(no subject)
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Date: 2020-04-07 11:56 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2020-04-08 04:18 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2020-04-07 12:31 pm (UTC)There is a same-sex relationship in the background, though (Owen's aunt and her partner).
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Date: 2020-04-08 04:19 am (UTC)Background I think is fine :)
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Date: 2020-04-07 03:20 pm (UTC)1. Stand on the Sky by Erin Bow
2. anything by Merrie Haskell but especially The Princess Curse
3. Rosemary Sutcliff writes books that are technically classified as children's books but have a deliberately elevated-archaic writing style that some kids might find challenging so I don't know how they'd work for your niece. Also some of them are really depressing so you might have to be careful if you want to avoid dark. The Eagle of the Ninth is a classic though, and for a reason, and that one does have a happy ending.
4. I'd second the people reccing Frances Hardinge!
5. I don't know if your niece is a horse girl but if she is, The Scorpio Races by Maggie Stiefvater is a great slightly-older fantasy-genre update of the kinds of things that are great about horse books
6. I'd also second the people reccing Robin McKinley! Especially The Blue Sword. If you're perusing McKinley's catalogue, though, avoid Deerskin for her, that one's really a lot.
7. The Pagan Chronicles by Catherine Jinks. There's one minor background character who's gay, not sure if that's enough prominence to be a dealbreaker.
8. If she likes books about A Very Special Heroine Who Is The Chosen One of Faerie, she might enjoy An Echantment of Ravens, by Margaret Rogerson. I didn't love everything about this book but the things that didn't work for me might be things that really work for her.
9. The Snow Queen, by Eileen Kernaghan
(EDIT: just fyi the Sutcliffs are pretty dude-focused, no female leads, and in The Pagan Chronicles only the fourth book has a female lead. The Scorpio Races has two leads, one each of boy and girl. The rest are all definitively girl books.)
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Date: 2020-04-08 04:20 am (UTC)Minor background gay character shoooould be fine, at least I hope so :P
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Date: 2020-04-07 04:07 pm (UTC)I also liked Baker's Magic by Diane Zahler, about an orphan girl in a medieval-ish kingdom who becomes a baker's apprentice and discovers that she has a sort of magic, in that her emotions while mixing the dough transfer to the person eating the breads and pastries she makes. Zero sex, middle-grade level, fascinating worldbuilding (for example, the kingdom has no trees, which is something that is gradually and very subtly revealed), adventure. Wonderful characters, including a lady pirate. Might be a little too young for her, though.
The Bloody Jack series by LA Meyer is great historical humor/adventure. Orphaned Mary "Jacky" Faber runs away to sea dressed as a boy. It's a little grim at first, because she's escaping a miserable life on the London streets, but it's a rollicking tale, Jacky Faber is spirited and determined, and although she doesn't think herself brave, she carries off her varied exploits with a great deal of aplomb and self-possession. There is one bit with a sailor intent on sodomy (that she thwarts easily) which may be pushing your content line? She falls in love but there's not so much as a kiss, I think.
I second the Hardinge suggestions, and The Eagle of the Ninth.
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Date: 2020-04-08 04:24 am (UTC)I will check out Baker's Magic -- if it's too young for her it might fit her younger sister, whom I also have to get books for :D
Bloody Jack also sounds awesomely fun.
Thank you! :D
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Date: 2020-04-07 06:37 pm (UTC)no subject
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Date: 2020-04-08 01:48 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2020-04-08 04:29 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2020-04-08 09:42 am (UTC)On a lighter note, perhaps Noel Streatfeild? There are very subtle lesbians in Ballet Shoes but it really took me until adulthood to go "Hang on, why do the two lady doctors live together?" so it won't ping the radar of anyone who isn't looking very closely for it.
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Date: 2020-04-10 04:29 am (UTC)And actually I gave Ballet Shoes to her little sister :) I also reread it last year and it wasn't until then (I hadn't reread it since I was a kid, I think) that the penny dropped for me about the lady doctors either :D
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Date: 2020-04-08 04:00 pm (UTC)Classics that might work for a kid: various Dumas books, Jules Verne, Cooper, Karl May, Don Quijote
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Date: 2020-04-10 04:43 am (UTC)Haha, yeah, I was either 12 or 13 when I first encountered the Brick. (An abridged version, but still.)
In case this is still helpful . . .
Date: 2020-04-17 03:38 pm (UTC)As for Lloyd Alexander, I prefer his Westmark trilogy, but that does get awfully dark, so you might want to wait on it.
Regarding "The Perilous Guard": Pope's "The Sherwood Ring" is awfully good too.
I can't recommend more highly Patricia A. McKillip's "Riddle-Master," which was originally published for teens. My review here: https://duskpeterson.dreamwidth.org/273236.html
If your niece likes fantasy, she should definitely try E. Nesbit and Edward Eager, even though their protagonists are younger than her.
Non-SFF:
Eleanor Cameron's "A Room Made of Windows" is inspired by her own childhood and is set, as I recall, in the San Francisco area in the 1920s, though I didn't guess that as a kid. I read the novel over and over. There are sequels that I haven't read yet.
Alice Dalgiesh's "The Silver Pencil" is based on her own childhood and early adulthood in the early twentieth century, following her journey from Trinidad to Britain to the U.S. My review here: https://duskpeterson.dreamwidth.org/279793.html
Christie Harris wrote four fictionalized accounts of members of her family growing up in mid-twentieth-century Canada. My reviews of the first two novels are here: https://duskpeterson.dreamwidth.org/283130.html#cutid2 https://duskpeterson.dreamwidth.org/284090.html#cutid2
Norma Johnston's Keeping Days series may have too many boyfriend passages to interest your niece at this stage, but it's a series to keep in mind for the future. It's set at the beginning of the twentieth century, based on family stories that Johnston grew up with; the primary focus is on the protagonist's family and community.
One disadvantage of my taste in books is that they're usually out of print. :) However, may I recommend ThriftBooks for inexpensive used copies?
Re: In case this is still helpful . . .
Date: 2020-04-18 05:17 am (UTC)These sound really cool, thank you!