Girls Fiction Message Board

Hi all! I guess as the creator of the group, I should begin the messages.

I've developed a real interest in girls books over the last few years, and begun building on the collection begun as a child. A friend and I run a girls fiction community over at live journal called New Atalanta, so discussion and reviews are part of my Girls Fiction 'experience'. As a primary school teacher, I'm also interested in where they can be used for educational purposes.

My favourite Girls Fiction books would be Anne of Green Gables and Pastures of the Blue Crane.

The books on my librarything account are the 'new books' I've read this year - books I haven't read before. When the year is over, I'll be adding every book I read, so the girls fiction should jump up a bit. But good girls books I've read this year include Cherry Ames, Student Nurse and the Angel Unlimited series by Annie Dalton

So what are your favourites?

I've been reading the Samurai Girl series by Carrie Asai! Been waiting forever for book 7. There is NO website for the author on the internet with a bio, etc.
I read whatever my 14yo reads, so we can talk about it, and I know where she is when she's 'in her head'.

I've always loved girls' school stories specifically, and my current favourite series in the genre is Enid Blyton's Malory Towers series.

Well I loved the Chalet School, Mallory Towers and St Clare's series as a kid. I have not reread them as an adult though. Also the Anne of Green Gables books are an all time favourite.
I did just read Meg Cabot's Princess Diaries and enjoyed it. I also have to cast a vote for Ann Brashares Travelling Pants series. I think those have to be some of the best contemporary Teen fiction books for girls.

Princess Diaries & Traveling Pants series so much better then the Gossip Girl Series. I really thought it a bit (I hate to use the term-not my generation) fast for my 14yo and her friends. But G G was quick paced and full of shopping--jr chicklit.

I think there's a definite generation gap between the books I read as a teen and the Travelling Pants books. Her characters are faced with a lot of issues that teenage age girls deal with today - sex, divorce, blended families, fitting in etc. The only writer, that I came across as a teen, who dealt with anything like that was Judy Blume.

Well I really want to know what the real top 10 of your favorite books. I am really desperate for a young adult read for the summer! I want something that I can't put down! Thanks in advance! ashleyccox

Well I would have to say the traveling Pants series.
But have you also checked out the Read YA Lit. group? They might have some great suggestions for you.

Well like all right thinking people Mallory Towers and St Clare's are long time favourites, but can anything top the glory that is Elinor M Brent-Dyer's epic Chalet School series..? I don't think so! I've not quite got all sixty, but getting on for it, and I've read the lot from start to finish twice as an adult, when I've been both skint and needing escapism. It took me about two months both times, but glorious months they were, and incidentally they cured me of foul language and slouching.

HolyCow! For a minute I thought you were my sister but then you said you were cured of foul language and I knew it wasn't her!
She is a huge Chalet School fan and has been collecting them for a few years.
I loved them as a kid but have not reread them since.
I have reread several of Noel Streatfield's books lately.

I really enjoy the Mediator series by Meg Cabot.

Growing up I read all the Trixie Belden books, but could never get into the Nancy Drew books. Trixie was a tomboy, and Nancy always wore skirts. Just didn't appeal to me.

Growing up, I loved Sunfire Romance books, aka the "name" books. They were written by a variety of authors, all of them were historical. I also loved anything and everything by L.M. Montgomery. And I discovered Gone With The Wind by Margaret Mitchell in my teens as well, 12 to be exact. So that book had a huge impact on me then. Other "girl" books that I liked when I was younger were the Babysitter's Club of course. And I loved the Gymnasts series by Elizabeth Levy although I think I outgrew them by #10.

ashleyccox

Some great YA titles I'd recommend are:

I'd Tell You I Love You But Then I'd Have To Kill You by Ally Carter.
Twilight by Stephenie Meyer
Uglies by Scott Westerfeld
The Truth About Forever by Sarah Dessen (really any title by her would be great)
Angus, Thongs, and Full Frontal Snogging by Louise Rennison
The Year of Secret Assignments by Jaclyn Moriarty
Hope Was Here by Joan Bauer
Saving Francesca by Melina Marchetta
Dairy Queen by Catherine Murdock
What My Mother Doesn't Know by Sonya Sones
First Impressions by Marilyn Sachs
The Earth, My Butt, and Other Big Round Things by Carolyn Mackler

Over the past couple of years I've been going back over books that I read as a kid (and discovering newer books) thanks to a wonderful local secondhand bookshop. Luckily, the Chalet School books remain as wonderful as ever and I save the ones that I find for rainy afternoons so that I can bury myself properly in the world.

#12

I second the books:

The earth My Butt and Other Big Round Things
Twillight
Angus, Thoungs and Full Frontal Snogging

I read all of those this past year and they are good.

I am collecting the Chalet School books and the Abbey books at the moment as well as any random, well priced GO books that I come across.

I love this lullaby
the truth about forever
annie on my mind
a year in europe
The whole Twilight saga
and right now I am reading Just listen

I have found the most appropriate group for me on the web ever, I adore the Chalet School series by Elinor Brent Dyer, also the Abbey Girls series by Elsie J Oxenham. I agree with others above me in this list - it is pure escapism, however does anyone ever feel embarassed reading them when we are gone past the childhood stage, however I discovered if you mentioned the term Chalet School in relation to Austria to any girl, they will straightaway recognise them and say that they loved the books as kids and it generated their liking of anything to do with Austrian Tyrol or Switzerland.

I think the most girl book i know is of course 'divine secrets of the Ya Ya sisterhood' (duh it even says the word sisterhood)

Hello - noob here.
I'm primarily a Chalet fan, but I also love the 'Georgia Nicolson' series (by Louise Rennison, methinks), Tamora Pierce, and more recently I've started on Antonia Forrest.

Another Daisy here !
Like the creator, I absolutely love Anne of Green Gables.

Kindle deals for Malory Towers and St Clare's collections today (March 2021) on Amazon UK. £0.99 for books 4-6 in either series.