My children, DD6 and DD8, just finished

Aquamarine by Alice Hoffman.

I read it too to make sure it was appropriate for my sensitive DD and it was not scary at all. The writing was very good (no surprise given the author), especially for a J book. I found the book a little on the girly side, but my DS said "Mom, are there any more books like this?"

This is not an animal or picture book, but good if you need safe well written novels for your precocious 6 year old.