The pre-teen/tween years differ greatly from girl to girl, and finding books for girls in your life can be difficult. It's hard to tell if a book will be considered childish or dull, and it can be challenging to find age-appropriate books for advanced readers.
This guide, written by a voracious reader who spent a great deal of her pre-teen years reading, will help break down the various books available for girls ages 8 - 12, and will help you select a book that is right for your daughter, grand-daughter, student, niece, cousin, or friend!
For The History Fan:
The Royal Diaries Series and The Dear America / Dear Canada Series are a great choice for pre-teen girls. Both series are written by a variety of young adult authors and are written in diary format. Bringing history to life for even the most modern of readers, these series illustrate the lives of famous young women and fictional young women living in fascinating historical times. Although the Royal Diaries stories are fictional, the women are real, and there are interesting historical details provided at the end of each story. In the Dear America/Dear Canada novels, there is also a section at the end that explains the source material for the story.
The Royal Diaries series covers a wide variety of young female royals. It covers traditional European monarchs as well as non-Western, non-traditional royal women. The Dear America/Dear Canada series, on the other hand, covers real historical situations through the lives of fictional young women.
These are by far the best historical novels for this age group - American Girl novels are too juvenile for many pre-teen girls. Other good novels include the series written by Karen Cushman (The Midwife's Apprentice, Catherine Called Birdy, and Matilda Bone), all of which discuss young women in the middle ages; and Carolyn Meyers' Young Royals series about the Tudor Queens/Princesses.
For The Fantasy Fan:
Philip Pullman's His Dark Materials Trilogy (which includes The Golden Compass, The Subtle Knife, and The Amber Spyglass) is an absolute fantastic choice for a pre-teen girl. The series covers the adventures of a young girl named Lyra Belacqua (later, Silvertongue), an orphaned girl who lives at Jordan College, Oxford in an alternate world that is similar to, but different from our own. She lives in a world where all people are accompanied by an animal manifestation of their spirit, called a daemon.
Children's daemons shift shapes at will, but become fixed at puberty. Lyra is given an item that she calls a Golden Compass (actually an aleitheometer), which allows her to see into the future and tell the truth. Children are being kidnapped all around her by mysterious people called "Snatchers", and it is up to Lyra and her friends to discover who is behind these sinister disappearances. The novels are wonderful, captivating, and sweeping in scope - a must-read for anyone of any age, but especially excellent for preteen girls.
Gail Carson Levine's Ella Enchanted is a good choice for the less advanced reader. It isn't too overwhelming for a preteen girl who isn't the strongest of readers, but it isn't at all juvenile. Carson Levine's clever retelling of the classic Cinderella story will appeal to preteen girls, who will appreciate Ella's spunk and intelligence; older readers will appreciate Carson Levine's elegant prose.
For The Adventure/Mystery Fan
Wendelin van Draanen's Sammy Keyes Series chronicles 12/13-year-old Sammy's life as an amateur sleuth. Sammy is a girl, and lives with her grandmother. She's spunky, sporty, and a little bit rebellious. There are 20 books in the series, and the first, Sammy Keyes and the Hotel Thief, is a great starting place for any mystery fan.
Louis Sachar's Holes is a very funny account of an intriguing mystery. Featuring a male protagonist, Holes explores the story of a boy who is wrongly accused of a crime, and sent to an unusual prison camp in the desert, dedicated to digging holes. Once there, he begins to unravel both the mystery of his conviction and of his family curse.
For The Humour Fan
Everyone enjoys a good laugh, and a pre-teen girl is no exception.
Louise Rennison's Georgia Nicholson series (starting with Angus, Thongs, and Full-Frontal Snogging), although better suited to older pre-teens, is a hysterically, laugh-out-loud funny diary account of a young British girl's life. Cutting, sarcastic, and often completely nonsensical, Georgia's diary details her struggles with her "mad" family (including a little sister who seems like part cat, part human), her problems at school, her close friendships, and her attempts to win the attention of Robbie the Sex God. The book is filled with British slang and Georgia's personal slang, so it's important to read the glossary at the end to make sure you are going to understand! It's so funny, you won't want to miss a thing.
Classic Must-Reads:
No preteen reading list would be complete without Judy Blume's seminal Are You There, God? It's Me, Margaret. This book is perfect for a young preteen girl: it discusses friends, boys, changing bodies, and family life in a natural, relatable way - it's just as relevant now as it was when it was first published in 1970.
The Harry Potter Series are an incredible read for anyone of any age, and if a preteen girl in your life has yet to be exposed to them, you will be doing her a huge favour by opening her up to this set of phenomenal reads.
There are many, many books that would appeal to a preteen girl - these are ones that, in my personal experience, appeal to a wide variety of audiences, and usually meet with positive reviews. Good luck finding a good read!
Caroline Garrod - Caroline is currently working on her Bachelor of Arts (Honours) in History from Queen's University in Kingston, ON. An avid reader and ...
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