Books for my 11 yr old daughter more than 300 pages

My daughter is 11 yrs old (6th grade), but she reads @ a 12.4 grade level. I am having difficulty finding her new books to read. She averages reading about 300 pages/day. She enjoyed the Leven Thumps, Inheritance, Harry Potter, InkSpell, Twilight, Percy Jackson series'. However since she reads so fast she has gone through pretty much all the books that interest her in our small local library, also she has no interest in reading books less than 300 pages (she wants books that will take at least a day to read). Does anyone have any suggestions on books that are similar that she might enjoy.

Hi mousey, welcome to LibraryThing. For reading suggestions for your precocious young daughter, try this group for Young Adult readers. Lots of threads there.

(Site talk is supposed to be for talk about the site. Don't panic, it's a common mistake. You just are not likely to get much in the way of answers here.)

ps. There's also this group about the Julia Eccleshare and Quentin Blake 1001 Children's Books You Must Read Before You Grow Up.

when I was her age, I read at about the same level and almost as fast! I'd recommend any of the Redwall books, possibly the Pern books (though those might wait til 8th grade or so, unless you'd like to read one first and see? I'd say read them in publication order rather than chronological order).

Tamora Pierce is wonderful for YA readers - it's fantasy with strong characters and brave, very human heroines.

Garth Nix's Abhorsen series was also one of my favorites.

If it helps, here is my collection of books I've deemed "young adult" (it leans heavily towards fantasy and urban fantasy). =)

I ditto Abhorsen trilogy, but eleven might be a smidge young for the dark themes that pop up (especially in the last one).

Has she read the "classics" yet? She might like the L.M.Montgomery books (Anne of Green Gables and so on), they're pretty thick and because of the small type, take a while to get through.

She might the Pellinor series that begins with The Naming by Alison Croggon - they're quite long and positive (one thing I liked, and this might seem silly, is that bodily functions aren't ignored, like in so many fantasy books - for example, the heroine begins menstruating in the first one, and Croggon thereafter uses it as a way to mark time as well as to show a bit of realism).

I think eleven is old enough to face a good bit of adult literature, certainly Shakespeare, Dickens, Twain...

Robert

Both Anne McCaffreys Pern books (start with Dragonflight and Mercedes Lackey Valdemar books (Arrow of the Queen for starters - the touchstone has come up with an Omnibus) will work if she is willing to count a trilogy as one long book. BUT both are written with adults at least partly in mind, and have sexual references that you might want her to wait a few years for. Read one yourself first.

Hobbit and Lord of the Rings of course.

I loved Jane Eyre at that age, and that and also the Jane Austen books might appeal. And Gone with the Wind. If she likes those she might also enjoy Georgette Heyer (almost 300 pages, and adult books so smaller print.) or Norah Lofts. These are not much like the things you mentioned, but would get her into a new groove. (Pity my parents - we were living in India, and although the school libraries were good, during the holidays we only had our own books. I went through most of their Morris West at that age.)

So You Want To Be A Wizard is about 400 pages I think, and is about a 13 year old girl. Best of all, its the beginning of a good eight book series ;D

Hey, you know what I said in #2 about not getting a lot of answers here? Never mind. ;)

I think here may even work better than Young Adults, because this is about a girl who needs stuff that is beyond a lot of YA readers.

>8 justjim:
Goodness, how could a post on a bibliophile site asking for recommendations not get a bunch responses?!

I want to echo the Jane Eyre, too. I'd forgotten that I first read that when I was 11 and it became one of my favorite books. I also read Sense and Sensibility back then, but the social commentary was a bit beyond me, though I know other kids that age read Austen and enjoy it.

hmmm...I was once that girl! I second the recommendations for Arrows of the Queen, Anne of Green Gables, Tamora Pierce and Jane Eyre (though I hated it at that age). I also loved To Kill a Mockingbird, Gone With the Wind, The Dragonriders of Pern series. If she likes fantasy, you might also try Patricia Kennealy (touchstone not working) or Guy Gavril Kay as these are quite dense. That was also the age where I devoured Agatha Christie and Josephine Tey mysteries. Ooh, and David Eddings has a couple of long series that will fill some time. and the Redwall series is also a nice set of books.

Seconding (thirding?) Tamora Pierce and Mercedes Lackey; also Patrica Wrede, especially the Dragons series (Talking to Dragons, etc). If she's interested in SF, Janet Kagan is great (though she doesn't have all that many books, unfortunately). Doranna Durgin has some good ones, though you might want to read them first, some of the themes can be rather adult. Patricia Briggs' early books - not the werewolves ones (probably), but the Hurog and Raven and Hob books. Lois McMaster Bujold has some excellent fantasy - the Chalion books and the Sharing Knife ones, though again you might want to check them for adult themes. She might also lure your daughter into SF - her Vorkosigan books are amazing. Christopher Stasheff writes stuff that's sort of fantasy SF - it's on another planet, but as far as the people there are concerned the stuff they do is magic... (talking about the Warlock series, starting with The Warlock In Spite of Himself, here).

I've never really been clear on the distinction between YA and adult SF/Fantasy - a lot of my favorite authors (many mentioned above) are often shelved in YA or even Independent Reader/MG. I always check all three sections of the store - just finished reading Patricia Wrede's Thirteenth Child, which is great, and I found that on the YA shelves.

Terry Pratchett comes to mind. He has a number of books aimed at that age, and his Discworld novels which are mostly adult novels (although there are a few YA ones in there) but little different in tone and material.

Shoot, I read Moby Dick in the seventh grade (for fun), along with all of Ian Fleming and John LeCarre. If it's in print, she can give it a go.

Get her Philip Pullman's His Dark Materials trilogy. Not only are they great books, wonderfully written, but the protagonist is a girl about your daughter's age (12 at the start of the series).

The dark is rising quintet. Still wonderful.

I read Thackeray and Dickens from about age 10; Robinson Crusoe, Treasure Island, Ivanhoe if she hasn't already read them.

Lots of the late-Victorian may well appeal too - Little Women, Girl of the Limberlost, stuff like that.

The Bartimaeus Trilogy was excellent Artemis Fowl series is enjoyable, 13th Reality is a lot of fun. I also enjoy Alcatraz Smedry series as well. All excellent YA books.

I once gave an advanced 6th grader The Paradise Snare by A. C. Crispin to read and he loved it. It's 300+ pages of small print and is about Han Solo growing up, a long time before he became a smuggler. It's also the first in a trilogy that ends with him walking across a bar to meet Obi-Wan and Luke Skywalker.

Tad Williams Otherland series is good and hefty - essentially one LONG work divided up into 4 HEFTY books.

Hmmm - 6th grade - the fattest books I remember from that age were Tolkien's Lord of the Rings, Stephen King's The Stand, Betty Smith's A Tree Grows in Brookln/Maggie-Now. My mom's favorite for that age is Dodie Smith's I Capture the Castle. My copy of Robin Hood is about 3 inches thick...(I also read Gone with the Wind in 6th grade - it was the fattest book in the house, wasn't impressed..)

Even if the books themselves are not that thick I think that you can fudge that with some of the series that have been mentioned (just read the series straight through) - LM Montgomery's Emily Series, also the Little Women/Little Men/Jo's Boys LM Alcott set. - I remember burning through 3-4 volumes a day of some series - the Hardy Boys, Cherry Ames, etc.

Orson Scott Card wrote some that might be appropriate - Ender's Game (sci-fi), for more fantasy his Alvin Maker series.

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Some of these may depend on her tastes and maturity and how much she has been exposed to - you may want to pre-read to determine if there are things that she would be disturbed by so you can preface them for her.

For instance there is a scene in A Tree Grows in Brooklyn where the girl is accosted by a man who exposes himself to her and his "thing" (I believe is how they put it in the book) touches her leg before she gets away - taken unawares this could be disturbing to some girls but would be an excellent starting point for a great discussion about how not everyone is trustworthy and what to do if you find yourself in a scary situation.

Historical fiction - but I recommend it Stop the Train! by Geraldine Mccaughrean.

It's great to have a reader.

Well,if your daughter has a love for thick fantasies, like me, I would recommend The Cry of the Icemark (note: this book is good, but my friends did not find it a good book, so I don't know if your daughter will like it), and the Great Tree of Avalon trilogy. But before she reads the Avalon books, your daughter should read the Lost Years of Merlin series (I think that's what it's called), if you can't find it just look up the author, T.A. Barron, he's written many fantasy YA and children's books that your daughter might like.