My daughter Emma is the biggest bookworm I know. She loves to read and she is interested in blogging, so I asked her to put together a list of great books tween girls will love to share with my readers. Here are some to start you off – she kindly included some lesser-known middle grade fiction titles to give you plenty of inspiration!
Some links on this site are affiliate links and I may earn a small commission at no cost to you. Thank you! Learn more.
Chapter Books Your Tween Will Love
What You'll Find on This Page
No Talking by Andrew Clements
I really liked the book No Talking by Andrew Clements.
In the book No Talking, there is a fifth grade class that is so noisy the teachers call them The Unshushables. Dave who is one of the students, was writing a report on India and he really wanted to be like Mahatma Gandhi, who had for one day a week not spoken at all. Gandhi believed that this brought order to his mind, and Dave liked that, and Dave thought that he would bring MORE order to his mind by doing it for 2 days a week. But then this turns into a boy vs. girl contest when you were only allowed to say 3 words at a time. You were allowed to make other noises with your mouth, like singing.
I really liked that and I thought that would have been a fun communication challenge.
I like a lot of Andrew Clements’s books, like Lunch Money, The Report Card, and Extra Credit. A lot of his books are about school.
The Books Of Elsewhere: The Shadows by Jacqueline West
The Books Of Elsewhere: The Shadows by Jacqueline West is about a girl named Olive who moves into an old, kind of creepy mansion with her family. She finds out that the paintings can come alive and and that someone bad is trying to get her. Olive tries to unravel the mystery of the history of the house to confront the bad person.
What We Found Under The Sofa And How It Saved The World by Henry Clark
What We Found Under The Sofa And How It Saved The World by Henry Clark is about 3 kids who find a Zucchinni Crayon, put it on auction, and save the world from being taken over by Indorsians (like aliens). It was a very good book, and I think lots of kids would like it.
Wonder by R.J. Palacio
In the book Wonder by R.J Palacio, a boy named Auggie has a problem with his face. His face is deformed and lots of kids are scared of him because of it. His mother teaches him at home (homeschool) and finally, he goes to a real school in fifth grade and makes true friends. Together they have lots of adventures and Auggie’s friends begin to see the beauty in his deformed face.
This book teaches you about finding beauty in people, finding the good in people, and it shows the old saying of “don’t judge a book by it’s cover” in a different way; with people.
Emma is always looking for new books to read! Do you have any books for tweens she will love? Let us know in the comments!
Looking for a boy’s perspective? Check out these recommended books for boys age 10 from Homeschool Your Boys.
Share comments and feedback below, on my Facebook page, or by tagging me on Instagram. Sign up for my newsletter to receive book recommendations, crafts, activities, and parenting tips in your inbox every week.
MaryAnne is a craft loving educator, musician, photographer, and writer who lives in Silicon Valley with her husband Mike and their four children.
Stopping by from the Linky Hop to say hello and discover more good reads. Besides tweens, our adult-member book club actually read “Wonder” and loved it! The author’s kindness edition rocks. Thanks for sharing your list.
These are great choices for tweens, who sometimes seem to be a largely ignored group of readers. Thanks for sharing these on KidLitBlogHop
What a great book list! We loved Wonder too! Tell Emma thanks for sharing! I’ll share too!
I love this post for so many reasons…that Emma gave recommendations and that she wrote a blog post on why she recommends these books! So great! My Emma is currently reading Heidi and she loves it. She’s also into a series right now called Confectionately Yours. She likes it because it has recipes throughout the book.
Hi Emma!
I loved your list and your descriptions, the house book sounds interesting. I really enjoy the Dear America books, they are a historical fiction series written as diaries by tween or teen girls at different points in history.
I will have to look for those!
I actually just started reading the Dear America books! I love how they tell the day by day lives of young girls in American history. I just started reading one called A Light in the Storm. It is the civil war diary of Amelia Martin.
Great reviews, Emma! Both me and my 9 year old loved Wonder!
Hi Emma,
Thanks for your list! My name is Nara, and I just turned 13. I’ve written two middle school fantasy novels — would you be interested in reviewing them? If you think you’d enjoy them, I can send them to you.
Thank you!
Nara
Hi Nara,
I would love to review your books! I am always looking for new books to read, and with each new book I read it teaches me lessons and takes me to another world.
Emma
Mostly I read series at her age, like The Chronicles of Narnia and much less important books like The Babysitters Club and Sweet Valley High (which honestly I can’t recommend, but I did enjoy them). Single books I enjoyed included CS Lewis’ humorous but serious Screwtape Letters, and The Count of Monte Christo by Dumas (one of my favourite books of all time). There are so many incredible books available and loads of book lists online these days. A great place to start:
http://amongstlovelythings.com/favorite-booklists
I have read the first Chronicles of Narnia and thought it was good. I haven’t read the rest of the Narnia books yet, though. I have read some of the Babysitters Club books and enjoyed them.