Gifted Issues Discussion homepage Forums Age or Ability Specific Forums Picking the right books

I agree, Jool. I think the reading level of the Magic Treehouse books is pretty simple, but the stories are compelling and the characters are well-written. It's certainly worth a try at least. There are so many of them, that if they're into it, it can keep them busy for a long, LONG while!

we are starting to go for biographys. ds7 is interested in einstien at the moment so we got him a biography,

Walter Farley has a lot of books you can look at.

http://www.theblackstallion.com/books_theseries_n.html

But as far as a central female character - L'Engle's "A Wrinkle in Time" is good.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A_Wrinkle_in_Time

All of her books have a GT undercurrent:

"Meg Murry is a teenage girl, regarded by her friends and teachers as a bad-tempered adolescent. Her family recognizes her problem as a lack of emotional maturity but also regards her as being capable of great things. The family includes her pretty scientist mother, her mysteriously missing scientist father, her five year-old brother Charles Wallace Murry �a nascent super-genius� and ten-year-old twins, athletic brothers Sandy and Dennys."

I'm glad to see so many great books here. It was a nice surprise to see Animal Ark listed, as my kids were rabid fans from around ages 3-6. They are very formulaic, but great for animal lovers, and both boys and girls, as the main character is a girl with a boy for a best friend.

Some really fun princess books are the Frog Princess books by ED Baker. They are probably 4th-5th grade level. The Royal Diaries are based on fact and have some nasty parts, but are very well done, as are Carolyn Meyer's Princess books.

Non fiction is a good way to go for kids who read way beyond their years. Soup mentioned biographies: there is a series titled, "Who was_________" written at a 3rd/4th grade level. We have Mozart and have checked out other versions such as Annie Oakley at the library. The print is large and the books are about 100 pages in length.

I just love book talk!

I just picked this up this morning.

Its fascinating.

The best part is that Galileo converted his findings into simple experiments that anyone could do that made a mockery of the convoluted explanations of his opponents for their opposing worldview. He sliced them up with Occam's Razor!!!! It has an Animal Farm feel to it.

http://www.amazon.com/Galileo-Very-Short-Introduction-Introductions/dp/0192854569

In a startling reinterpretation of Galileo's trial, Stillman Drake advances the hypothesis that Galileo's prosecution and condemnation by the Inquisition was caused not by his defiance of the Church but by the hostility of contemporary philosophers.

My DD8 sounds a lot like your daughter. I'm repeating some of what others have said, but couldn't resist chiming in since she sounds so similar to my daughter. My DD8 loved (and still does sometimes) reading the Barbie Princess books (Fairytopia, Island Princess, etc). She also has read the Little House series MANY times. There's a fantastic fancy book called "Fairytopia" that she begged for and poured over for at least a year. It has flaps to lift, a letter in an envelope, pixie dust, etc.

I also always recommend Usborne books - they are fabulous. I know they have some princess ones, but their non-fiction is actually best. If you aren't familiar with them, they are a home-based business (like Tupperware). Here is my consultant's website in case you don't have one: www.raisereaders.com.

Here are some other of her old favorites from age 5 or so:
--Animal Ark series
--Encyclopedia Brown series
--Disney Fairies series
--The Penderwick's (there are 2 books about them so far - not princess-like, but great wholesome story about a family's adventures) - one of her ALL-TIME favorites!
--Dear America series - historical fiction about America. They are written from the point of view of a young girl (have to watch the content though - she read some about the civil war where it mentioned slaves being beaten-not in graphic detail, but still).
Good luck!

Both of the Penderwicks books were hits here. We also enjoyed the All of a Kind Family series and are currently reading the Meg Mackintosh mysteries by Lucinda Landon.

We just had a big hit in "A Series of Unfortunate Events" with ds6 ... read each of the first two in about an hour and a half each, straight through. He loved them!

Good luck, it can be tricky!

This is amazing, I'm printing this thread and taking it with me to the bookstore, I knew there had to be things out there for a girl her age with her reading ability I just didn't know where to start. I had a feeling the parents in this forum would have the best information, you guys are great!

Another note about the Dear America series: My DD8 and I started a mother-daughter book club with their civil war series of 4 books. We invited 3 other pairs of girls/moms and each 'hosted' a discussion about their month's book. The Scholastic website has some great resources for hosting book clubs with Dear America books. They even have craft/menu/activity ideas for certain books. The last pair that hosted did charades with words from the Civil War time period, kids against moms - it was fun and got us talking about all the books again. And it happened to be right before the election, so we even discussed current events.

My DD8 loved the club and wanted to continue with another DA series. However, the other girls in the club, while gifted, aren't as big of readers, so by the fourth book their moms had trouble getting them to finish the books. We did buy a video based on one of the books though, so we may have a 'reunion' soon to all watch the video.

The original plan was for the mom/daughter pair to read each book together. I miss reading with DD8, so my motivation was mostly selfish ;-). As luck would have it, DD8 couldn't wait for me to be available, so she would 'sneak' the next month's book to her room and read it without me :-) Anyway, if you ever wanted to host a book club with your child, I recommend checking Scholastic's website for resources that make it easy.