Reading Lists
Great Fiction for Girls Ages 8-12
**All titles are JUV Fiction.
Babbitt, Natalie
Tuck Everlasting
The Tuck family is confronted with an agonizing situation
when they discover that a ten-year-old
girl and a malicious stranger now share their secret about a spring
whose water prevents one from ever growing any older.
Carroll, Lewis
Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland
A little girl falls down a rabbit hole and discovers a world
of nonsensical and amusing characters.
Cleary, Beverly
Ramona Forever
Ramona's year in third grade is highlighted by the arrival of
Howie's rich uncle, a change in her after-school situation, a surprise
wedding, a death and a new arrival in the family, and her father's
getting a job.
Cleary, Beverly
Ramona Quimby, Age 8
The further adventures of the Quimby family as Ramona enters the
third grade.
Cottonwood, Joe
Quake!
With their parents away at the 1989 World Series, fourteen-year-old
Franny, her younger brother, and their cousin try to cope with the
frightening events following an earthquake that destroys their
home on Loma Prieta mountain.
Dorris, Michael
Morning Girl
Morning Girl, who loves the day, and her younger brother Star
Boy, who loves the night, take turns describing their life on an island
in pre-Columbian
Ephron, Delia
The Girl Who Changed the World
Fed up with the injustices she suffers at the hands of her
older brother, Violet organizes the younger siblings of the neighborhood
into a formidable army to demand retribution and a change in the status
quo.
Erdrich, Louise
Birchbark House
Omakayas, a seven-year-old Native American girl of the Ojibwa
tribe, lives through the joys of summer and the perils of winter on
an island in Lake Superior in 1847.
Fitzhugh, Louise
Harriet the Spy
Harriet jots down her thoughts about people, places and things
in preparation for a writing career.
She has many problems when her classmates discover the notes.
George, Jean Craighead
The Talking Earth
Billie Wind ventures out alone into the Florida Everglades
to test the legends of her Indian
ancestors and learns the importance of listening to the earth's vital
messages.
Konigsburg, E.L.
From the Mixed-up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler
When Claudia and her brother Jamie run away from home, they
stay in an art museum. There they find a beautiful, mysterious statue
and try to discover its secret.
MacLachlan, Patricia
Sarah
When their father invites a mail-order bride to come live
with them in their prairie home, Caleb and Anna are captivated by
their new mother and hope that she will stay.
Morgenstern, Susie Hoch
Secret Letters from 0 to 10
Ten-year-old Ernest lives a boring existence in Paris
with his grandmother until a lively girl named
Victory enters his class at school.
O’Dell, Scott
Island of the Blue Dolphins
Left alone on a beautiful but isolated island off the coast
of
Paton Walsh, Jill
Birdy and the Ghosties
Birdy helps her father, a ferryman, row passengers across the
river to a nearby island. When three ghosties, her father cannot see,
want to be rowed to an unknown island, Birdy is able to see them.
Peck, Richard
Blossom Culp and the Sleep of Death
Blossom, high-school freshman and possessor of "second sight,"
helps an Egyptian princess, dead for 3500 years, to regain her tomb,
and in addition saves suffragette school teacher from losing her job
in 1914.
Rodda, Emily
Pigs are Flying!
After complaining that her life is uninteresting, Rachel finds
herself transported to a place where periodic storms occur which affect
the inhabitants in strange ways and cause pigs to float in the air.
Rylant, Cynthia
Van Gogh Café
The Van Gogh Cafe, located in Flowers,
Shub, Elizabeth
White Stallion
Carried away from her wagon
train in
Taylor, Theodore
The Trouble with Tuck
A young girl trains
her blind dog to follow and trust a seeing-eye companion dog.
White, E.B.
Charlotte’s Web
This story of the little girl Fern, the pig Wilbur, and the
spider Charlotte is a
fable on friendship.