cahn | (no subject)

Oh hey it's December now, which means I should get presents for D's nieces. (D's nephews have now all graduated high school, and so they either get gift cards or we might try to figure out a family gift.) Which means I am asking you for help! Nieces are senior in high school and freshman in high school. The freshman isn't as much of a reader. The senior loves to read, so finding something good for her is more important. Senior!Niece also loves fantasy.

Last time I asked for recs, years ago, someone recommended Tiffany Aching, which the nieces were too young for at the time, but now may be the time (if I haven't passed it already). I just started Wee Free Men and am enjoying it a lot so far, and that may be part of the present. (I guess Tiffany is 9? so maybe technically too young for Senior!niece? But the book does read to me as more of a high-school reading level than a 9-year-old reading level.)

Other things: D's sister and brother-in-law are extremely devout and conservatively evangelical Christians and don't read fantasy at all (though they have come to accept their kid reading it). I don't think I could give her anything at this time that, say, has explicit sex scenes, or a gay or trans main character, and I'd also be a bit wary of too much violence/horror-themes. So, for example, Some Desperate Glory, which I already gave to D's nephews, is out.

Extra points for subtext of "here's how you grow up" and "here's how you deal with a flawed parent." (My sense -- which could of course be mistaken -- is that D's sister is an incredible parent that anyone would be lucky to have, and brother-in-law is less so. I do not think that there's anything particularly bad going on (I'm sure I have at least my share of flaws as a parent too), just that I remember at that age books being a helpful way to work through figuring out independence and becoming a different person than my parents.)

Threaded | Top-Level Comments Only

From:

ambyr

Ursula Vernon/T Kingfisher? Summer in Orcus comes to mind for flawed parent stories.

From:

shewhostaples

Oh, what a fun question (for us - I realise it must be more fraught for you)! I can't think of any fantasy off the top of my head (maybe Eva Ibbotson, but her witch/monster books are aimed at younger readers) but a lot of mid-century British children's lit runs on "our parents made poor choices and this is why we live in an interesting premise". I'm thinking particularly of Noel Streatfeild's Apple Bough, where the parents make the whole family trail around the world after the child prodigy who isn't really enjoying it much himself. I Capture The Castle is probably the classic in that vein. More recently, Hilary McKay is very good at that chaotic family vibe - there's the Exiles series and the Casson family series. They're marketed at younger readers but they are absolutely glorious.

Whether any of them are obtainable where you are is, of course, a very different question...

From:

hamsterwoman

Ooh good call!

From:

hamsterwoman

Frances Hardinge I think tends to be similar age-feel to the Tiffany books, where they could be mid grade but also work well for sophisticated readers (I discovered them as an adult and am a fan). The Lie Tree is my favorite and I think the least horror-adjacent of the ones I’ve read and liked

On a different vibe, is either of them into STEM? Andy Weir’s The Martian I’ve seen enjoyed by middle schoolers and I think it’s pretty unobjectionable as far as books for adults go.

From:

landofnowhere

Diana Wynne Jones seems like the classic fantasy author for "here's how you deal with a flawed parent", though I'm not sure specifically which one to recommend.

From:

landofnowhere

It occurs to me that Till We Have Faces is a "growing up with a flawed parent" book by an author that the parents likely approve of.

From:

cenozoicsynapsid

Lloyd Alexander's Prydain books are around the 9-year-old level and contain nothing offensive; *Taran Wanderer* in particular is an excellent "how you grow up" narrative.

From:

thistleingrey

Tagging on--Chrestomanci perhaps more than Dalemark for resonance, but Dalemark might be parent-friendlier (it's almost historical, low on the fantasy). I'd skip Fire and Hemlock, though I'm fond of it myself, because of its alt-hell issues.

And Dalemark reminds me, perhaps Patricia McKillip's Riddlemaster books, which a friend's mom loaned me in ninth grade. Of McKillip's relatively more recent stuff (I haven't read past 2005), Ombria in Shadow and Alphabet of Thorn are the two I remember as distinct, amid her general folktale feel; Ombria is probably the more accessible of the two.

From:

thistleingrey

I mean, ultimately, the nearer in time we go with copyright dates, the likelier things are to resonate for your nieces. Stuff that worked for general-us (DW folks) may seem horribly outdated or irrelevant to current teens, unless they like dipping into other times (not only places). :)

From:

antisoppist

Seconding Hilary McKay's Cassons series. Reading as an adult there is clear adultery but it went over the younger readers' heads. Start with Saffy's Angel, but Indigo's Star has an actual American in it. The Exiles are more of a normal family but very funny about sisters.

I'd say Robin Stevens' Murder Most Unladylike but there is a bit about Daisy realising she fancies girls about halfway through.

For the older one, Jane Gardam Bilgewater or A Long Way from Verona?

Judith Kerr's When Hitler Stole Pink Rabbit is excellent for resilience.

If it helps at all, there was this thread where I asked for recs for Eldest when she was 12
https://antisoppist.dreamwidth.org/252312.html

From:

cahn

ahahaha, great minds think alike! I have already given her Summer in Orcus! But maybe I'll look into other Kingfishers. I feel like the ones I've read recently have all been extremely depressing.

From:

cahn

Haha, it's a fun question for me too! I mean, as you say, the actual execution is a bit fraught for me, but I love getting book recs :D Speaking of which... I have read none of these. Including I Capture the Castle, which I know is a classic and I should have read it! Right, gonna go to the library this weekend! Thank you!

From:

cahn

Ohhhh, I have seen When Hitler Stole Pink Rabbit around but never read it! I shall put all of these on my list.

And thank you for the thread! I got a few ideas from that as well :D

From:

cahn

Ooh. I was going to say, the Hardinge I've read (and I do love her books) are a bit too horror-adjacent for it to really work for Niece, but I haven't read The Lie Tree, I will have to do that, thank you!

Nieces are not really STEM-y, but thank you for the rec as I DO happen to have an in-house STEM child who I think would LOVE Andy Weir and whom I also have to figure out Christmas presents for! Excellent!

From:

cahn

Ha, true! I have actually previously gifted the nieces a couple of the Chrestomanci books, so we are on the same wavelength here :D

From:

cahn

...this is BRILLIANT! Thank you, this is almost certainly going in the present!

From:

cahn

I've given them Chrestomanci already! :) Yeah, I kind of feel like the Dalemark books are less teenage-friendly? Fire and Hemlock is, hm. I really like it too, but I feel like its weirdness quotient is perhaps too high for these particular kids -- though I'd be happy to have my own kids read it. I will think on it. Maybe the Derkholm books?

Ohhhhh the Riddlemaster books!! I love those so much. I haven't really read her past 2005 either.

From:

cahn

Yeah, this is a good reminder -- older niece as well as my older one have humored me a bit more in reading older stuff, but my younger one especially (and I get the sense younger niece as well) is not interested in reading the kinds of things I think he should be! :)

(Although what I really ought to do is bribe his friends to tell him to read the books I want him to read. He was dead set against Harry Potter and Rick Riordan until one of his friends got into each series, and then he devoured them!)

From:

cahn

Ooh! So I think I was misleading in the post (nieces are actually 17 and 14, but I can see how the post makes it sound like I was looking for 9-year-old books) BUT I have an in-house 10-year-old who really ought to read the Prydain books, yes thank you!

From:

thistleingrey

There's hmm, general media literacy (including books but not only), and then there's fun, and I think teens should get some fun as well! Enough assigned stuff in school as it is. :)

(Glad he enjoyed the Rick Riordan books!)

From:

hamsterwoman

I’ve only read a little bit of Hardinge and not sure of our overlap - I have read Cuckoo Song, which I find the creepiest, and A Skinful of Shadows, which was also fairly intense, and has ghosts and things, and then parts of Deeplight and A Face Like Glass but don’t feel like I got far enough to judge horror-adjacency. A Lie Tree is less horror/creepy than either of the other two though, imo. (And also very strong on the growing up with a flawed parent thing )

And yay re: Andy Weir for closer to home haha

From:

cenozoicsynapsid

Of course, *Tiffany* is 9, not your nieces. It's what I get for posting hurriedly before work. Some better suggestions:
The Curse of Chalion: world is explicitly polytheistic, there are some gay characters in the background, but I think Cazaril is really a model of self-sacrificial Christian virtue (who ends up happily hetero-married)
Sir Gawain and the Green Knight (get Tolkien's translation): for people who already love LoTR and are starting to be Medieval-curious. Short, engagingly written, obviously very Christian
Mistborn: Sanderson is Mormon, so nothing scandalous; Elend's father is a terrible person, so fits your criterion there
Sabriel: probably a YA classic nowadays, right on age for 14
Cart and Cwidder, etc: More people should read Diana Wynne Jones than actually do these days; Dalemark is one of her less disorganized series

From:

rachelmanija

For the senior: Have you already given them the Tillerman Cycle?

From:

mildred_of_midgard

It's one of my favorite books!

ETA: Though be aware it's middle grade.

Edited Date: 2025-12-06 03:21 pm (UTC)

From:

cahn

I think I've only read Deeplight (which I loved, but is definitely horror-adjacent) and Unraveller, which is somewhat horror-adjacent. I will check out A Lie Tree, thanks!

From:

cahn

It's true! Plus which the local teen has so much stuff going on in general that it's hard to get her any time to read at all. Last year she had a teacher who would give them some reading time in class to read a book of their choice, which I actually really liked.

From:

cahn

Curse of Chalion is a great book, thank you for reminding me! I think I might start her on Vorkosigan first, her parents are less likely to get upset with that than a polytheistic world... :)
Not sure she is Medieval-pointy enough for Gawain yet, but I will keep that in mind in case she turns out to be. Ooh, Mistborn and Sabriel are both favorites of the teenagers I happen to know, I don't know why those didn't occur to me, thank you!
I always felt like Dalemark was a bit harder to get into than Chrestomanci, but while that's probably reasonably true I had forgotten until you mentioned it that Cart and Cwidder is actually very easy to get into and I think my entire perception of the series is a bit off due to Spellcoats (which I think really is harder to get into, although by that time you are three books in so it doesn't really matter).

From:

cahn

!! No! That is a terrible oversight of mine and should be corrected! :D

From:

zdenka

I recently read a book which I loved and which happened to be YA(?) (I think? I'm not good at sorting books by age of intended reader, but it was a finalist in the National Book Awards in the category for Young People's Literature, so I will leave the exact age of the Young People to you.)

The Way Back by Gavriel Savit. Two Jewish children tangle with demons, declare war on Death, and go on a long journey.