Raising Readers
Chapter Books for Girls
The Agony of Alice
Phyllis Reynolds Naylor
X Naylor
11-year-old, motherless Alice decides she needs a gorgeous role model who does everything right; and when placed in homely Mrs. Plotkins's class she is greatly disappointed until she discovers that it's what people are inside that counts.
Aquamarine
Alice Hoffman
X Hoffman
A love-struck mermaid named Aquamarine supplies adventure and insights to two 12-year-old girls, life-long friends who are spending their last summer together before one of them moves away.
The Ballad of Lucy Whipple
Karen Cushman
X Cushman
In 1849, a twelve-year-old girl who calls herself Lucy is
distraught when her mother moves the family from Massachusetts to a small
California mining town, where Lucy helps run a rough boarding house and looks
for comfort in books while trying to find a way to get "home."
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Beauty: a Retelling of the Story of
Beauty and the Beast
Robin McKinley
X McKinley
Kind Beauty grows to love the Beast at whose castle she is compelled to stay and through her love releases him from a spell which had turned him from a handsome prince into an ugly beast.
Island of the Blue Dolphins
Scott O'Dell
NB O'Dell
Left alone on a beautiful, but isolated island off the coast of California, a young Indian girl spends eighteen years, not only merely surviving through her enormous courage and self-reliance, but also finding a measure of happiness in her solitary life.
Julie of the Wolves
Jean Craighead George
NB George
While running away from home and an arranged marriage, 13-year-old Eskimo girl becomes lost on the North Slope of Alaska and is befriended by a wolf pack.
Junie B. Jones and the Stupid Smelly
Bus
Barbara Park
X Park
In her own words, a young girls describes her feelings about starting kindergarten and what she does when she decides not to ride the bus home.
Matilda
Roald Dahl
NB Dahl
Matilda applies her untapped mental powers to rid her school of the evil, child-hating headmistress & restore a nice teacher.
Pippi Longstocking
Astrid Lindgren
X Lindgren
Pippi Longstocking is a lucky little girl who lives with a horse and a monkey-but without any parents-at the edge of a Swedish village.
Ramona the Pest
Beverly Cleary
X Cleary
Ramona is entering kindergarten-a memorable event for all concerned! Whether Ramona is proving what a good rester she is by snoring delicately, or pulling classmate Susan's tempting curls, she makes her presence known.
Shabanu
Suzanne Fisher
NB Fisher
When 11-year-old Shabanu, the daughter of a nomad in the Cholistan Desert of contemporary Pakistan, is pledged in marriage to an older man whose money will bring prestige to the family, she must either accept the decision, as is the custom, or risk the consequences of defying her father's wishes.
The True Confessions of Charlotte
Doyle
Avi
NB Avi
As the lone "young lady" on a transatlantic voyage in 1832, Charlotte learns that the captain is murderous and the crew rebellious.
Walk Two Moons
Sharon Creech
NB Creech
After her mother leaves home suddenly, 13-year-old Sal and her grandparents take a car trip, retracing her mother's route. Along the way, Sal recounts the story of her friend Phoebe, whose mother also left.
Picture Books for Girls
A Chair for My Mother
Vera B. Williams
E/W
A girl, her mother, and her grandmother save dimes to buy a comfortable armchair after all their furniture is lost in a fire.
Daughter of a King
Rachel Ann Nunes
E/N
In this allegorical tale, Katie's parents, who are poor farmers, tell her that she is really a princess and must learn to be kind and moral so that one day she will return to her father, the king, in his Crystal Palace..
Fancy Nancy
Jane O'Connor
E/O
A young girl who loves fancy things helps her family to be fancy for one special night.
Lilly's Purple Plastic Purse
Kevin Henkes
E/H
Lilly loves everything about school, especially her teacher, but when he asks her to wait a while before showing him her new purse, she does something she is very sorry for afterwards. Read more about Lilly in Chester's Way and Julius, Baby of the World.
The Little Old Lady Who Wasn't Afraid of
Anything
Linda Williams
HOL W
A little old lady who is not afraid of anything must deal with spooky objects that follow her through the dark woods trying to scare her.
Madeline
Ludwig Bemelmans
E/B
Spunky heroine Madeline is the smallest and naughtiest of the twelve girls who live with Miss Clavel. The first book in this classic series.
Mirette on the High Wire
Emily McCully
E/M
Mirette learns tightrope walking from Monsieur Bellini, a guest in her mother's boarding house, not knowing he is a famous tightrope artist who has withdrawn from performing because of fear.
Miss Rumphius
by Barbara Cooney
E/C
As a child, Alice Rumphius resolved that when she grew up, she would go to faraway places, live by the sea in her old age, and do something to make the world more beautiful-and she does those things, the last being the most difficult of all.
Young Guinevere
Robert San Souci
jf San Souci
Presents the life of Guinevere from her girlhood to her betrothal to King Arthur.