apartment therapy changing the world, one room at a time

These might skew a bit younger, but as a kid I loved E. B. White's books - Stuart Little, Trumpet of the Swan, and Charlotte's Web. Mr. Popper’s Penguins, by Richard Atwater had me redesigning my room to house pet penguins. I also recently rediscovered From the Mixed-Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler by E. L. Konigsburg – a favorite that made me want to live in the Metropolitan Museum of Art. I think these are all classics that would delight today's readers.

A few weeks ago, I actually wrote out a list of books that I read as a tweenager and really helped to shape me, and my independent thought. I will forever be giving these as gifts to my neices and eventually daughters, etc. (They are appropriate for all genders, but there's a rather large feminine influence to this list)

Anne of Green Gables (the series) by LM Montgomery
A Little Princess by Frances Hodgson Burnett
The Secret Garden by Frances Hodgson Burnett
Chronicles of Narnia by C.S. Lewis
An Old Fashioned Girl by Louisa May Alcott
Little Women by Louisa May Alcott
A Woman Named Damaris by Janette Oke

The last is rather obscure, but it spoke to me as a growing girl, and I read it at least ten times.

The Madeleine L'Engle "Wrinkle in Time" series (quartet) -- A Wrinkle in Time won the Newberry award in 1963

and

The Wizard of Earthsea series by Ursula K. Le Guin, another award-winning quartet from the 1960s.

Nadnuk, my list is amazingly like yours...

The All-of-a-Kind Family series (Sydney Taylor) is great. The books are set in the Lower East Side at the turn of the century and feature an observant Jewish family with 5 daughters. My daughter (almost 7) loves this series. They work well as read-alone or read-aloud books, but be aware that they contain a few scenes that could be scary for more sensitive kids, e.g., the polio epidemic.

For others with happy readers in the 6-9 age range, her other current fave classic series are the Beverly Cleary books (Ramona, Beezus, and Henry Huggins) and Ursula Leguin's small (4-book) Catwings series.

Shabil, Mr. Popper's Penguins IS a treasure! We loved every word.

What about rest of Roald Dahl's books? The BFG, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, James and the Gaint Peach, and Matilda were my sister's favorite books growing up. Depending on the age, I was very into the Borrowers series by Mary Norton.

Hells yeah to everything by LeGuin and Dahl! Although I feel like I read the Dahl books at a much younger age... and then just re-read and re-read them even through adulthood. I first read LeGuin's earthsea series as a tween, but have read them a couple times as an adult and they still blow me away with their beauty and depth. She also wrote some non-fantasy for young adults that was excellent (titles escape me). Scott O'Dell wrote a lot of historical fiction for young adults, all with kickass heroines. "Island of the Blue Dolphins" is a good one; there are several others I think. Also check out Laurence Yep's historical fiction and fantasy; it was wonderful for me, as an Asian American child, to read stories about Asian people that were not based on Hollywood stereotypes. Which reminds me Yoshido Uchida wrote a series of books about Japanese American internment camps; I read these when I was 11 or 12 and they had a profound affect on me.