Science fiction or fantasy recommendations for children
My apologies if there is already a thread about this. I did try searching and didn't turn anything up.
My daughter (9) is just about to finish the Harry Potter series. She saw Kim Stanley Robinson's Red Mars on the bookshelf and asked to read it next. It's been years since I read it, but I remember it being pretty complex and political. Much as I would enjoy discussing it with her, I think it might be a little bit ambitious for her first SF.
She read a Wrinkle in Time in school and has already listened to the Narnia books on audiobook.
I was thinking back to my own childhood reading, which was very eclectic because I was limited by what I could get at home or in my small town libraries. I remember Clarke, Asimov, Pohl, L'Engle, but also a healthy dose of Star Trek and Star Wars novels, and even the Death lands novels. It was mostly hard SF. I didn't really read much fantasy until grad school.
I feel like the landscape is pretty different now, with a lot more YA content in general and especially in the Fantasy/SF world. There are things with better representations and diversity as well. I spent an hour in the children's fiction section of our library, but I feel like it's difficult to separate the wheat from the chaff.
So Tilderinos, that are your recommendations or thoughts? I'm also interested in meta resources like book lists or reviewers that have been helpful to you. Much as I would like to read everything she reads, she has much more bandwidth than I do.
As I was writing this, my daughter came by and suggested I list some of her interests, which are: magic, dragons, wizards and witches, and being tired of having all happy endings. So while I'm not necessarily tied to SF and Fantasy only, that does seem like it will be the thin end of the wedge.
Edit:
I have compiled the recommendations from this thread into a spreadsheet listing each book or series with a short synopsis and other notes. I've also included the names of the books for most series. My apologies if I missed any.
Wow, as usual, the Tildes community comes through in a big way! Thank you all for taking the time to post your answers. I had an unfortunately busy week after posting the question, and wasn't able to engage individually on responses. After reading through everything, I think I have some reading of my own to do, as well as plenty of ideas for my daughter.
I have compiled the recommendations into a spreadsheet listing each book or series with a short synopsis and other notes. I've also included the names of the books for most series. My apologies if I missed any.
In the interest of completeness, compiling the list of recommendations reminded me of the Codex Alera series by Jim Butcher, which come about because he said he could write a good book about anything, so someone challenged him to use "A Lost Roman Legion" and "Pokemon".
Shout-out to the recommenders, mainly so you can have access to the spreadsheet you contributed to, if you want: @Macha, @turmacar, @ADwS, @CunningFatalist, @trobertson, @Jordan117, @DefinitelyNotAFae, @greyfire, @Dr_Amazing, @Protected, @PepperJackson, @OBLIVIATOR, @CannibalisticApple, @pallas, @Carrow, @moocow1452, @TMarkos, @Nemoder, @smiles134, @ChingShih, @Khue, @boxer_dogs_dance, @crialpaca, @kaleidoscope, @JRandomHacker, @NoPants, @archevel, @ruddyduck, @Amarok, @gadling, @GOTO10, @Auk, @sparksbet, @hungariantoast, @Grimmcartel, @Grayscail, @Tardigrade, @mr-strange, @tobii
Artemis Fowl might be a good option. No wizards, witches or dragons, but an underground society of fairies pits off against a teenage heir of a criminal empire.
She may also enjoy the YA discworld books? Specifically the Tiffany Aching subseries which starts with Wee Free Men. The main protagonist is a witch in training though with a fair chunk of the witchcraft in discworld being applied social understanding. Generally, they are good endings but not fantasy-perfect endings
There's also the Northern Lights trilogy which starts with The Golden Compass, broadly about the main character and her accompanying familiar uncovering a magical mystery, or the Bartimaeus Trilogy which starts with the Amulet of Samarkand and is about a magical ruling class who uses magically bound djinni to enforce their control and focuses on the main characters dealing with the consequences of the system.
The Hobbit is another option. Obviously the language is a little old and flowery by modern standards, but it was originally written to be a kids book.
Most of the Discworld books would probably be fine, just the interest might vary. Mostly since so much of the earlier ones lean especially hard on being satire of things she might not be familiar with.
Equal Rites also involves a young witch and the other "Witch" books are basically satire of Shakespeare and mythology/fables. Hogfather is always fun too.
I've been re-reading Artemis Fowl lately as an adult, and the books still hold up incredibly well. Would definitely recommend to any child who enjoys scifi or fantasy.
I’m sure this will sound “basic”, but The Hobbit might be a perfect next book if you’re trying to simply expose multiple genres and styles. It (personally) reads more sophisticated than The Narnia series, but is much easier to get into than the Lord of the Rings Trilogy. It’s a fantastic read if you keep in mind the idea that the point of the story is the journey itself. If there is interest in the world or style of writing, move onto the Trilogy that J.R.R. Tolkien wrote as a whole.
I mainly suggest this as someone who read it in early middle school and then read Lord of the Rings in late middle school and early high school. I am very biased, but also believe that The Hobbit specifically is a great way to be exposed to older styles of writing and more “generic” cliches as they have now become.
I read the Hobbit and LotR for the first time when I was 9, and I loved it. So I think it's a good recommendation.
I loved The Hobbit at about this age when I read it, but didn't get much enjoyment out of reading LotR at around 12 (though tbf I was barreling through bc my parents insisted I had to read the books before we could watch the movies).
I agree. I was about that age when I read it and loved it. I tried to read LotR shortly after but found it too much of a slog to get through till I was in Highschool.
Earthsea, by Ursula K. Le Guin.
I really loved Eoin Colfer's Artemis Fowl as a kid. It's set in a world where fairies and other fantasy creatures exist in a secret underground civilization; magic is real, but is predictable and measurable, and augmented by modern technology. Following the disappearance of his father, a coldly calculating child prodigy and criminal mastermind (Artemis) kidnaps an elven police officer named Holly Short in order to hold her ransom for magical treasure, to restore his family's wealth and status, while her colleagues attempt to mount a rescue mission. It's an offbeat mix of Harry Potter and James Bond, with good doses of comedy, action, and grit. Plus if she enjoys it there's a whole series of sequels and spin-offs. (Just avoid the movie, though, they completely butchered the characterization).
I am assuming she's read all of HP and was ok with the content in the later books but also that she's ok with middle grade books
So you want to be a Wizard series
Tamara Pierce's Circle of Magic, I think you could try her Alanna series too.
Amari and the Night Brothers - magic
Percy Jackson and the Olympians (and all its spinoffs.)
If she likes the Britishness of Narnia,
Diana Wynne Jones' Chrestomanci
Redwall
A Wizards Guide to Defensive Baking by T Kingfisher
Coraline
The Graveyard Book
Eragon
How to Train your Dragon
Maybe Hunger Games if she wants to branch out, mostly because the true horror of it is sort of lost when you're that young in favor of a heroine being awesome.
Also though, take her to the library and have a librarian help make some recommendations. 1. The librarians will love it. 2. She'll probably love the attention from another grown up taking her seriously. 3. They'll know stuff that is more current and will catch the YA stuff that's too adult from a sexually explicit or graphic violence angle
Specifically seconding So You Want to Be a Wizard - Diane Duane's a fantastic writer, and I credit the third book, High Wizardry, in some part for my ending up as a programmer. Her endings are often bittersweet and emotionally complex (in a good way).
Chrestomanci is actually Diana Wynne Jones. And delightful! Redwall and Tamara Pierce are also wonderful.
Other fun ones - Bruce Coville's Magic Shop books (I love Jeremy Thatcher, Dragon Hatcher, so, so much.) For culturally interesting, Lawrence Yep's dragon series (Dragon of the Lost Sea, Dragon Steel, Dragon Cauldron, and Dragon War).
100% seconding the recommendation of anything by Bruce Coville. The "My Teacher is an Alien" series was a favorite for me.
One thing that really stuck with me was a bully character who had a small part in the first two books. He doesn't do too much and he's mostly there to help establish the roles of the more central characters. But then he's the protagonist of the 3rd book and you see a few of those bullying scenes from his perspective.
As a nerdy child it was strange to suddenly find myself rooting for the bully and realizing that he had a lot of things worse than the characters I had been thinking of as the victims.
Ty for the edit, I was going back and forth and flubbed that!
Also I keep forgetting there were sequels to Coville's magic shop - I just had gotten the one with the little dragon in it and didn't know as a kid there were sequels. Every now and then, I get told about it and then promptly forget again
Those two Diane/Dianas fit in the same breath anyway--equally awesome writers.
Yeah, Coville's got a bunch. Monster's Ring is another favorite!
Just chiming in to say I recommend everything by Diana Wynne Jones for OP's daughter.
There are some great recommendations in here. I'm trying to recall some of the books I really liked from that time in my life, but I can't promise they are perfect for a 9 year old. Maybe check into it to see if they are a good fit before picking them up.
Edit: thinking of some more maybe more towards 9 years old
In my opinion as a fan of these books, 9 is likely too early for them.
Bartimaeus on the other hand... If she can get through them (the narration can be a little dense with snark - good snark, but still), perfect recommendation!
I agree, I specifically remember reading them in 6th grade, which is probably a few years away from the OPs daughter!
My school had a class set of the first book so I used them as a novel study for my grade 9 class. Biggest hurdle was that there's a lot of unexplained words and phrases that you have to figure out mostly from context.
Enders game and it's series are some of my favorite
From what I remember of the first book, it is probably not appropriate for a 9 year old, maybe she's in Middle School (Junior High). From what I remember there are some crude humor, but it has been a few years since I read it.
I also don't recommend the author anymore. His views do come out in his work and it's unfortunately not subtle as you go on in the series.
It's interesting that you say that. I haven't read the entire series, but my interpretation of the first two Ender novels (Ender's Game and Speaker for the Dead) is quite at odds with Orson Scott Card's publicly stated beliefs.
Thematic spoilers:
Ender's Game is an anti-war novel. It asks the reader to question the progagonist's 'side' and empathise with the 'enemy'. Speaker for the Dead is about accepting people for who they are (or were), including those we may find unlikeable. It's also about an endeavour to understand, co-exist with, and integrate with a (very) foreign culture, overcoming fundamentally different values and ways of perceiving the world.
By my reading, the overarching message is one of empathy, conciliation, and acceptance of differences between people. In real life, the author... does not appear to follow that philosophy.
Card very consistently inserts characters who do not wish to have children or get married, particularly women and gay men But also for example Ender himself Their plot points will almost always be resolved by them, getting heterosexually married and very happily having children. Because it's what their biology demands He gets very explicit about this In one of the Shadow series books, but it goes throughout. I do think that ender's Game as a book has those messages in it, but supporting a author who is still alive and actively using his money to finance hate, because he is now espousing very racist reactionary opinions that he backs with his money, it's just not something I would recommend in general.
But in particular because those views do come out in his works I wouldn't go out of my way to introduce his stories to a child of today when you can find similar messages from other authors
I also don't know that I agree that it's actually anti-war. I don't think despite how much Ender himself blames himself for his actions, that the narrative actually condemns them. Or that there is an alternative path available that went untaken other than humanities inevitable demise.
These things are largely irrelevant*. You can't live your life avoiding everything and everyone that disagrees with you politically. The death of the author has to be taken into account, as well as considering someone does not have prior knowledge of the author's opinions (or perhaps even agrees with them).
There's also the angle where it's good to engage with opinions you don't share so you learn from or about them.
Additionally, by attributing the negatives to the recommendation I feel that you're by extension attributing them to the person recommending the books. You've also perhaps tainted someone's past experience. I wouldn't feel comfortable with that. I've had that happen with a series I loved and it still sort of stings.
Art can, and should, when possible, be separated from the creator. If you really still don't feel comfortable supporting them financially, borrow the book from a library.
*Irrelevance meaning within the framework of books. Not regarding LGBTQ+ and their societal position.
Death of the author is a literary theory, not a mandate. It is one way to view an author's work and does not have to be considered. But as I noted the things Card believes come through in his work - it's more reactionary in his later work but it's absolutely present in his older works. I primarily focused on his work in fact because I didn't feel like going into his non-fiction writing and political activism more deeply.
If someone agrees with the author they'll find all this a positive for the book and maybe read it.
Sure, for me though it changes the recs I would make for a 9 year old kid today. Just like I've raised a few thoughts on other older books for content.
I think this is a ridiculous claim. If I said anything about the person that recommended the books then I'd be attributing things to that person. I provided my reason why I wouldn't recommend the books today given the living author's external actions and the messages he's embedded in his work. I didn't say anything about the person recommending them. Many people don't follow authors and some of the awful things they do. Many people draw their personal line differently. I shared why I wouldn't recommend the novels written by the authors.
The context of this thread is recommendations for a child. It's perfectly reasonable to suggest why something might not be a good fit. I have also had this happen with multiple series that I loved, Ender included. I don't agree that I shouldn't speak of it because of that. I'm a queer person that read both JKR and OSC, not finding out how awful authors are is not a privilege I get to have. But also this implies zero criticism is ever allowed of art.
It stings even more to be 3 books into a series and realize the author is pretty awful - Piers Anthony and Terry Goodkind were another two who I experienced that with. Am I not allowed to say that because it'll ruin someone's childhood with Xanth or Sword of Truth?
Once again that's one literary perspective and ignores that the homophobia I discussed is in the books. Your opinion on this particular literary point of view is not universally held.
Also borrowing books for the library does financially support an author, I recommend buying them second hand instead for anyone wondering.
But as I don't appreciate being told what to do, and I believe my responses regarding Card up until now to have been polite and well within the Tildes community standards, I will not be taking your advice which by the way comes off incredibly patronizing if you weren't aware.
Which is nice if you're not LGBTQ I guess or if the content of the books doesn't contain the homophobia, but as noted previously it does.
You're correct, but these books were written a while ago and he wasn't as bad then as he became later.
For what it’s worth I read it in 8th grade and it’s what kickstarted me into reading. Granted that is older than 9, although a section of the book I read in elementary.
In general it’s a lot of judgement calls on a kids reading
Enders game has been recommended for children for as long as I remember! The rest of the series can be a lot more intense, but if the kid was close to reading "Red Mars" I wouldn't say it's out of scope.
I never finished the series, but The Children of the Lamp series might appeal to her. It's a contemporary fantasy series about djinn (genies), so lots of magic involved. And of the books I read, there were some less-than-happy endings involved.
Edit: One more series popped into my head, the Guardians of Ga'Hoole. It's lighter on magic, but it's about a society of owls and I'd categorize it as fantasy. There's a spin-off series called the Wolves of the Beyond, too, which I think delves into magic a bit more.
Oh my gosh, I haven't thought about the Children of the Lamp books in a very long time. What a fun series of books.
If I might suggest: if she's interested in trying to read Red Mars, why not let her try reading it? Yes, it's complex and political, and yes, there are aspects and nuances that she might have trouble understanding. But a reader can enjoy, and find meaning, in a book, without understanding all aspects of it. Looking back at my reading that age, I know there is much that I missed in the books I read. But I can say the same for books I read in my early twenties. I will likely say the same of books I'm reading now. Appreciating works in new ways when coming back to them, finding new meaning as one matures, is a benefit, not risk, of reading. Ambition in reading has little risk; the worst that would happen is that she would lose interest, and move to reading some other book, while she could alternatively thoroughly enjoy reading it even without understanding everything, and be inspired at the potential of the nuance and complexity. There are books that might simply not be enjoyable without understanding some portions of them, but I think that situation is less common than many adults might expect, and I think holding or losing interest in a book means that a child will simply move away from those.
As a child of that age, I specifically disliked the idea of withholding books based on age, or encouraging books seen as suited to a particular age; the entire concept of YA as an explicit genre seemed largely patronizing, and still seems that way to me. I had the advantage of enormous access; I practically grew up on university campuses, and some of my earliest memories are of carrels in the vast stacks of university libraries. My partner, growing up in a far more restrictive environment, and with different interests, had the same feelings, in her case, fighting against a school library that outright labelled and restricted borrowing of every book by their view of the age best suited for reading it, with color-coded stickers on the spines.
On my part, for science fiction, I largely started reading older classics. The first novel I read as a child (I was likely seven or so?) was War of the Worlds, which I enjoyed, and which encouraged my interest in classic science fiction, even though I know there were vast aspects I didn't understand at all, especially the implied commentaries on imperialism. I read Wells, Verne, Clarke, Asimov, Bradbury, Heinlein (not that I'd necessarily recommend him) and so on; thinking back, I would have probably enjoyed Lem's short stories, especially The Cyberiad, which is a combination of science fiction and fantasy, and is conceptual while being light-hearted, some sort of meaningful easy reading; I would have also enjoyed some Vernor Vinge. While not science fiction, as an example of not enjoying something from not understanding it well, I tried reading The Name of the Rose at some point and largely lost interest, but that did not keep me from being very fond of Eco's works now. I expect something similar would have happened had I tried to read Borges.
For various reasons, in part in reading the accepted classical canon at the time, my science fiction reading was also decidedly not diverse in authors; I read A Wrinkle in Time, it being recommended to me, but largely found it less interesting and didn't continue with it; I do enjoy Octavia Butler's short stories as an adult. Classics also have an advantage of time acting as a filter, if an imperfect one, for quality.
I know that there were many things I missed in reading those; there's actually a certain enjoyment in rereading the works I read at the time, seeing the things I didn't see then, and the things I did in a different light.
In some sense, to a child, I think I'd particularly recommend suggesting short stories, and perhaps anthologies, as being a good way of gathering a sense of different authors' styles and themes, trying them out quickly, and finding authors whose works they might want to seek out. Then, from there, they can read both the short stories and novels of the authors they enjoy.
I agree with this sentiment. I lived next door to a small town library growing up and ended up really expanding my reading interests because the librarians had so much fun suggesting new books to me. "Up a Road Slowly" was the first one after they found out I liked the "Anne of Green Gables" books.
When I started ordering Star Trek books from the exchange they began recommending authors like Diane Duane, Peter David (who I followed into comics), Greg Bear, and David Gerrold. I don't remember them suggesting any books I didn't like.
I also read some stuff that was way over my head or that people (not librarians) said would be way over my head. This is when I started discovering that there can be things I enjoy even in books that I overall find boring, or get frustrated with because I had to haul out a dictionary to understand the first few pages (Dickens). I didn't regret trying any of them, nothing felt like a waste of my time because I had the whole future in front of me.
I agree that he should let her read it, but it's fair to give some warning that she probably won't enjoy it. Sort of a "no shame if you end up not finishing it" type message.
I read it decades ago when I was in highschool and I dont remember a ton of the plot, but I absolutely remember finding a lot of it kind of boring and just muddling through to the end. I'm also pretty sure there's some sexual content a parent might not want to give to a 9 year old.
Redwall series by Brian Jacques was one of my favorites growing up. In the same vein as Watership Down.
This was my first thought. Interestingly I think you could have that same discussion people have about Staw Wars regarding whether they should be read in chronological order or by publishing date. I read them mostly as they came out and which had me jumping all over the timeline.
There was also a pretty good animated show that stayed quite true to the books.
Witch Hat Atelier is a pretty cute coming-of-age magic manga series, I highly recommend it. The art is beautiful and the world is well developed. It isn't done yet, but I wouldn't say it is all "happy endings".
I enjoyed the Chronicles of Prydain, known for the second book's Disney adaptation, Black Cauldron. It all felt very storybook fantasy world in a good way? Though I'll note perhaps review a synopsis before passing on the last book or two, I recall there being a war and a good deal of death. I'd call the ultimate ending happy, but it didn't feel cheap.
As far as scifi goes, that's a bit more difficult to think of good stories for a kid that young though. Maybe not Red Mars, but it may be worthwhile letting her try to tackle one you like, maybe some Asimov short stories are accessible enough, she may be more motivated knowing it's something you like?
Seconding Diane Duane's Young Wizards series. It's a lot of what works with Harry Potter but instead of a school, it's young kids on quests and finding themselves in this entirely new world that has opened up to them
and I believe there are still new installments regularly.(Edit: Last book in 2016, my bad.)If she wants sci-fi with no such thing as a happily ever after, I picked up Animorphs at her age and it spends a lot of time with tough decisions and the mental turmoil of you and your friends being the first and last defense against a secret alien invasion that anyone could be a part of and you have to live a normal life on top of that.
If she's into comic books, she also might like Bone. Very much a fable with an epic quest and incredible magics, but with a very wry sense of humor that makes it read like a epic tale depicted as a Sunday newspaper comic. Very recommended.
If she's interested in more complex SF (or you're looking for a gauge on how she does with it) then A Fire Upon the Deep by Vernor Vinge might be an interesting experiment. It is very much a big, beefy SF book, and quite long, but it does not lean into technical or political aspects as much as the RGB Mars series. There are two major plot arcs - one with a mixed crew of humans and aliens on a spaceship, and another with a couple of children stranded on a medieval world populated by intelligent doglike creatures. I feel like there's nothing much in there that would be a reach for a previous reader of Narnia or Wrinkle in Time (indeed, WiT is probably more conceptually challenging than most!) and it has some excellent funny, endearing and/or hateable characters in it. The subject matter is rather dark at times, if that's a problem; there is "offscreen" death of entire planets and a little bit of up-close violence here and there. On the whole, though, I think it would be a very engaging book for someone young to go through.
Some great fantasy books from my childhood:
The Last Unicorn - Peter S. Beagle
A Spell for Chameleon - Piers Anthony
Terry Pratchett - Equal Rites
For Sci-fi I did enjoy Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy and especially the excellent BBC radio drama.
I just listened to the archive.org audiobook of Equal Rites. The reader was wonderful and it's a really fun book.
Highly recommend Cornelia Funke's books, as well as Nancy Farmer's. Two of my favorite writers growing up who I continually re-read.
Funke wrote the Inkheart series, and Dragon Rider (which looks like there are some recent sequels). I must have read Inkheart 10 or 15 times as a kid.
Farmer wrote The House of the Scorpion which is a great sci fi novel, and also the Sea of Trolls trilogy (among other books that I'm not familiar with).
I'll throw in some authors! Patricia Wrede has the Enchanted Forest Chronicles (dragons); Gail Carson Levine has written about a million princess/magic/fairytale books; Erin Hunter's Warriors series (books from the perspective of feral cats). For unicorns, Unicorns of Balinor and Bruce Coville's unicorn chronicle series are options. I started reading all of Tamara Pierce's Song of the Lioness / Tortall books at 10 and they were okay for my reading level but there were some dynamics in character relationships that my young brain didn't fully interpret. Lots of magic and is set in a fantasy world.
I'm pretty sure that I was around 9 when I finished reading KSR's Mars trilogy for the first time. While I think that to an extent there will always be socio-political stuff that goes over people's heads, KSR's writing can be a little weird at times and the reader should be aware of how establish context of those situations and to distance themselves from that weirdness if appropriate. I don't recall how often there are references to sex or instances of sex between characters throughout the books, but I'm pretty sure there's also a mildly graphic orgy in Blue Mars. Something to be aware of.
I think people have already given a lot of great suggestions, so I'll briefly add that a lot of the OG Star Wars books, especially the Timothy Zahn stuff, are real good and IIRC they're all clean. Despite it being below my reading level at the time, I also enjoyed the Young Jedi Knight series by Anderson, which is for kids.
I think there's at least two orgy scenes in Red Mars. Or at least a scene where a character mentions it in passing.
The last of the Really Great Whangdoodles,
Enchantress From the Stars by Engdahl,
Chronicles of Prydain,
Podkayne of Mars,
Pip and flinx series by Allan Dean Foster
The Belgariad is one I haven't seen mentioned yet, a reasonably long series but I think it's a good series to get into fantasy and I wouldn't have been much older when I first read it.
Maybe a little off target due to lack of magic and dragons but for a detour into more military sci fi the Honor Harrington series is good. I definitely liked the age of sail type of books (Hornblower being most the notable one) that inspired this series when I was a kid.
I'll second the mentions of Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy, Discworld, Dragon riders of Pern, Mistborn, the Tortall books, and the Hobbit.
A good series might be the Skyward series by Brandon Sanderson. It's a SF YA novel. It has Sanderson's usual approach to storytelling, but in a more YA format. Far future, distant planet where humanity is fighting for it's survival. Protagonist is a young girl determined to make it as a pilot.
Added!
I can't judge your daughter's maturity/tolerance for adult themes, but with that caveat I'll give a massive recommendation for Animorphs, even though they might be a bit tricky to track down nowadays.
On one hand, Animorphs is a story about teenagers being able to personally experience some of the incredible things about the animals of Earth in order to stand up for humanity and the planet. On the other hand, it's about child soldiers fighting a guerilla war against an enemy that prevents them from being able to trust anyone, even their families. Animorphs can be funny, heartwarming, bleak, grotesque, hopeful, and so many other things. It features a great cast of characters with a wide spread of perspectives and narrative voices (and also some really good diversity representation for today, much less for the 90s when it was published).
I really like this books.
Animorphs was really a one of a kind series. Growing up I only read a handful of them. I liked them, but I found them a little short. I didn't like spending my limited book money on something I'd finish reading in a few days.
Decades later, my girlfriend at the time mentioned she had pretty much all of them as a kid and they were still in a box somewhere. The next time we visited her folks, I grabbed the box and took it back home.
Even as an adult they read quite well. They hit some pretty mature themes from an angle that makes sense to kids. Continuity is a little haphazard. Overall they tell an ongoing story, but a lot of content is episodic in a way that doesn't always make sense. There's also some side stories involving time travel and wars between alien gods that gets a little out there, but overall definitely recommended for a young Sci-fi fan
Everyone has great recommendations, but the following are more age appropriate
Wings of Fire (dragons)
Percy Jackson (magic, kind of)
Some of Sandersons books might be nice:
My oldest daughter (13 now) got into the Warriors series of books which is essentially about wild cats (there are a lot of books in the series)!
It’s sci-fi (and not the space ships and aliens kind), but Rebecca Stead’s When You Reach Me is a great book that I also recommend to adults. A Wrinkle in Time is woven into it so your daughter’s familiarity there would be a plus.
It’s really clever. I do dad/kid book club readings with my 8 year old (a big Harry Potter fan too) and I’m saving it til he’s 9 or 10 because I think he’ll better appreciate it then.
I’m gonna throw a hail mary and suggest The Goblin Emperor purely because:
I haven’t finished the book yet, so I can’t tell you if it has any content that you might find unsuitable for your kid, but I’m going to guess it does not, considering how far along I am in the book and that I haven’t encountered any examples so far. Also, because of the setting and who the main character is (the emperor), most of the writing is in a formal high society style that would never permit someone to say “fuck” in polite company.
The writing is probably advanced for a nine year old though, but that’s actually why I would recommend it.
As for what the book is about, I’ll just say it’s about a half-elf half-goblin who was fourth in line to inherit the throne and decidedly not part of the royal family proper.
So of course things happen and day one in the book he becomes emperor of his father’s empire. That’s it, that is what the book is about. This guy, who is as much of just-a-guy as you can get while being an emperor’s son, is suddenly the emperor, and now must do emperor things, which turns out to not be nearly as fun, safe, or exciting as one might imagine.
I actually discovered this book when I read a review of it on another Tildes user’s (@RheingoldRiver’s) website:
https://river.me/fantasy/goblin-emperor/
aww this makes me so happy to read!!! I am thinking I should start reviewing books again, maybe not everything I read like I was before but at least the ones I like a lot
I'm so glad you love The Goblin Emperor!! I'm not sure I'd give this to a 9 y/o to read themselves but I would def read it out loud to a 9 y/o, I think it would be a lovely family reading time book.
The spinoffs are not so age appropriate though, they deal with some pretty heavy themes and I was uncomfortable reading the 2nd one as an adult
I'd agree it would work well as a read-aloud book. Every 9 year old is different, but even as one that read Tolkien, (while skipping through the Frodo and Sam "boring" parts of Books 2 and 3) I was doing a lot of skimming and such. Plus if the names get too confusing you can do some nicknames. But they might not too!
extremely relatable, I think I was the same age (Hobbit in 3rd grade and LotR in 4th) and I did the same thing!
Look Aragorn and Legolas and Gimli and Merry and Pippin and the horselords and the Ents and all were so much more interesting than this sad slog to Mordor.
Obviously now I feel differently but I still enjoy those parts more.
Anne McCaffrey is the obvious choice. Dragonriders of Pern is one of the all time greats, and a lot of it is in smaller, bite-sized books. If she can handle C. S. Lewis she's ready for Anne. Plowing through two dozen books might give her confidence. The series masquerades as fantasy until the hard scifi finish, which is a nice surprise. She might like it as a bridge between genres. Only lacking requirement is no magic, but teleportation and telepathy are in and it's got a lot of dragons.
Melanie Rawn is good choice. Dragon Prince ticks all of those boxes, with a female protagonist, action, romance, and political intrigue at about a third the density of Game of Thrones. Most of the drama comes from the majority of the characters being deeply flawed people just like GoT. Six books and I'd put the ending at bittersweet rather than happy. These books are a step up in depth and complexity that are topically more suited to teenagers, but the prose won't get in her way, it's an easy read. Fun too.
Dragonriders of Pern has a good amount of sexual assault in it. It's very of its time that way (Lackey and Bujold did too) but it's worth noting. The Menoly books might be better but it's been too long for me to recall.
Agreed, it's a solid PG-13 but nothing graphic. I thought Anne handled that stuff with a wonderfully feminine touch, far better than most of her contemporaries did at the time. I think she was gently chiding them. :)
I don't have that vibe personally that she was chiding. I don't think any of the authors at the time that I've read were more explicit. But I recall a decent amount of homophobia/sexual assault/sexism (even from other women based on how they thought the other female riders of the queens should behave). I do think Lackey was more explicit with Vanyel but Bujold has, at least in the first few Vorkosigan books, been more circumspect.
As a kid that grew up during the Dungeons and Dragons craze in the 80s, I can't recommend Dragonlance novels enough. There are currently more than a hundred of them available, written by different authors but all set in the same universe. They are easy to digest, fun reads and some of them do get darker from time to time. In fact, there is a sister series called Ravenloft available that pretty much dispenses with the whole, good guy always wins theme, and focuses instead on the darker side of the universe.
Bone by Jeff Smith
Oh! I got an obscure but fun fav of mine:
Villains by Necessity
Hopefully you can use a kindle or a library, as it's unfortunately hard to find in print right now.
But I thought of it because you said she was tired of happy endings. Here is a short synopsis I saw:
Maybe read some reviews with her and see if it's something she'd be interested in.
My take is that It reads like a satirical sequel to the Lord of the rings. It has a little heart without taking itself too seriously, its quite funny, with a Princess Bride vibe(which is also a great fantasy book to read with your kids, I have!)
Princess Bride the book was so confusing to me as a kid, I was not aware of the joke and I was just mad at it!
Maybe you were reading the S Morgenstern version? I heard that one is kind of boring ;)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Neverending_Story ? No ending doesn't qualify as a happy one, right?
I'd recommend most of Phillip Reeves work. They do occasionally touch on more difficult topics of loss but in very age appropriate ways. The Larklight series, Railhead trilogy, and Mortal Engines quartet are all good in probably that order for age appropriateness. I read some of them at that age (give or take a year or two) myself and read them recently enjoying them all.
Looking back on what I liked reading at that age, most of it's covered. The only thing I have to add is that my favorite author when I was her age (and your description of her reminds me of a lot of me at that age) was Gail Carson Levine. She seems like a pretty precocious reader, so they'll be pretty easy reads for her. They have largely happy endings, but the plots are interesting and they have well-written female protagonists without being overly focused on romance like a lot of the books aimed slightly over are. I still enjoy a nostalgic re-read of them, and I'm in my late 20s now.
Off the topic of my head after skimming the comments I'll echo the following recommendations: Mortal Engines, the Inheritance Cycle, Percy Jackson (and the other related books), maybe Hunger Games.
I remember really liking the Eragon books.
And they have a bittersweet ending, if that helps
I loved reading Andre Norton when I was a child. Try Catseye, or The Zero Stone the for starters.
When I was around 11, on Christmas my dad gifted me a book from the Ranger's Apprentice series by John Flanagan (I think the first one, Ruins of Gorlan). It's medieval, and it has some fantasy elements. At your daughters age I absolutely loved the HP books, when I got a new HP book I'd stay up all night reading it and finish it. The Ranger's apprentice series kinda filled the same niche of underdog adventurers in a fantasy world full of interesting stories and characters.
I know I'm late to the party but I have some recommendations I don't see here. Books that are great for 9-year olds and meet her preferences about magic and not all happy endings--
The Halloween Tree by Ray Bradbury. I loved this book even though it is completely boy centered. The ending has a moral dilemma that got me thinking quite a lot, when I read it in 4th grade.
The Great Good Thing by Roderick Townley is a modern book, great for her age group, with a great female protagonist. It's sort of postmodernist fantasy, for kids who love books. The ending is satisfying but not gooey happy. I came across it as a teacher, I think the reading level is about 6th grade but totally appropriate for a 4th or 5th grader who reads.
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Nation by Terry Pratchett is still missing from the excel, that's got to be required reading sooner or later! Maybe in a couple years.
Don't forget the other Diana Wynne Jones books, Dalemark Quartet is very good as is the Howl's Moving Castle trilogy, Deep Secret/The Merlin Conspiracy, etc.
Also in a couple years, The Giver?
Tamora Pierce is a strong rec for a girl, watch out, you have it misspelled as "Tamara".
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