Children's Books to Inspire Reading and Foster Imagination
Children’s books for the early teen years, not yet young adults, but no longer little ones
Published: 2012
Theme: Coming of Age
Best for: 11 and up
“Will Sparrow was a liar and a thief, and hungry, so when he saw the chance to steal a cold rabbit pie from the inn’s kitchen and blame it on the dog, he took it – both the chance and the pie…” First and foremost, this is a beautifully written piece of children’s historical fiction literature. The fact that the story and characters are interesting as well is icing on the cake..
Published: 2013
Theme: Robin Hood
Best for: 10 and up
“Killing wolves is supposed to teach me to be a great lord of men? Aren’t there any books on the subject?” This children’s book is full of action. While it’s not written as a historical fiction, it gives a good view of the class disparity, and why one would rob the rich and give to the poor.
Published: 1998
Theme: Science Fiction
Best for: 11 and up
“Be quiet! You know the words of Arnold Bros. (est. 1905)! Everything Under One Roof. Everything! Therefore, there can be no Outside. Therefore you’re from some other part of the Store. Corsetry. Or Young Fashions…” The first children’s book in The Bromeliad Trilogy is filled with humor, puns, social commentary, and a clever plot. I admit to laughing out loud …
Published: 2005
Theme: Coming of Age
Best for: 12 and up
‘Tiffany had never been able to find out much about the librarians. They were a bit like the wandering priests and teachers who went even into the smallest, loneliest villages…It was said they could tell what book you needed just by looking at you…” The mastery of this children’s book is the way everything is woven artfully into one exquisite whole, even while each part, each character, stands out clearly…
Published: 1975
Theme: Historical Fiction
Best for: 12 to 14
“Why, people ask, why did Leonardo da Vinci choose to paint the portrait of the second wife of an unimportant Florentine merchant when dukes and duchesses all over Italy and the King of France as well, were all begging for a portrait by his hand? Why, they ask, why?” This is quite a lovely way to introduce older children to the world of Leonardo da Vinci, and his painting of the Mona Lisa, and history of the Renaissance.
Published: 2000
Theme: Social Justice
Best for: 9 and up
“Abuelita smiled, reached over, and pulled the yarn, unraveling all of Esperanza’s rows. “Do not be afraid to start over,” she said.” What better way for children to become true citizens of the world than by reading honestly written books about serious issues, in this case the treatment of Mexican immigrant farmworkers during the depression…
Published: 2015
Theme: Power of Music
Best for: ages 10 and up
“Have you ever considered that one person might play the mouth harp and pass along her strength and vision and knowledge? So that the next musician who plays it might feel the same? It is true…” The thread that weaves the three main characters together is the power of music to redeem even the darkest of situations…
Published: 2010
Theme: Live your dream
Best for: 8 and up
“He peeked out… and saw that the wind had also possessed his mittens. They looked like ghostly hands waving good-bye in the Chilean sky. Where were they headed? Whose hands would they cover next? ..’Where is the storehouse of lost and found?'” As I put this exquisite children’s book down, I wiped my eyes, and marveled at the quick journey I had just taken into the heart and mind of Pablo Neruda…
Published: 2005
Theme: Genuine Sacrifice
Best for: 10 and up
“In so loud a voice I was sure her words carried over the hills, Nai Nai said, “Send us a boy to care for us in our old age and not another worthless girl.” I, Chu Ju, was that worthless girl. Nai Nia’s harsh words made my eyes sting with tears.” In another beautifully written children’s book of historical fiction, Whelan brings alive a foreign culture and foreign era, making us live and breathe with it.
Published: 2015
Theme: Imagination
Best for: 9 and up
“In those days, possibilities fell to the ground like rain. Each one was a brilliant bit of light, etched with a message. ‘It’s a possibility,’ people would say whenever they found one and, if they liked what it said, they’d pop it into their mouths and chew on it.” In this allegorical children’s book, similar to The Phantom Tollbooth, we journey to an imaginative land, The Land of Possibilities, which is now in a sorry state.
Published: 2014
Theme: Prejudice
Best for: 11 and up
“It struck Tomi then that Mom had changed a little just in the months since Pop was arrested. She had always done what everyone else wanted. Now for the first time in her life, she was in charge.” More and more, I’m struck with the power of literature to educate children about injustice, and this book is a great example…
Published: 2008
Theme: Hope over Despair
Best for: 12 and up
“The nostalgia suffocates me… I am but six miles from Jerusalem and I am not allowed to enter it. Never again will I see the place where I was born, nor the home I entered as a bride. My olive trees, Hayaat. Oh, how I miss them!” I’ve barely finished wiping the tears from my eyes as I head to the computer to review this stunning, heartbreaking, honest, account of life in occupied Palestine…
Published: 2011
Theme: Beyond Illusions
Best for: 12 and up
“My mother was widowed by a real estate agent some years ago, and I never finished the encyclopedia..(When) we asked, ‘Why do we not have a Papa?’ she said, ‘Your Papa is the Library, and he loves you and will care for you…'” If you can accept a Wyvern (who looks like a dragon but is only a remote cousin) that has a Library as a father, then you will not only be able to read this children’s book, you will get the humor in the above quote…
Published: 2011
Theme: Family
Best for: 12- 14
“Everything changes, child,” Grandmama observed calmly. “Me, you, the world… Who knows what the future will bring? The one thing that doesn’t change is the family. It always comes first. Keep everyone in it safe. Keep them happy.” Laurence Yep is a fabulous chronicler of Chinese culture and Chinese American culture This particular children’s book includes both, as it traces a family from 1835 in China to 2011 in America…
Published: 1976
Theme: Myths and Magic
Best for: 9 and up
“Something was coming, Peter knew it, and he was pretty sure he was going to be involved in it. Against his skin the Key felt hot. There was no vibration as yet but… Peter was afraid and yet he couldn’t take it off.. he was drawn to it.” This is a challenging book to read, but it is worth putting the effort in, as it takes us into the myths and magic of the Welsh people, traveling back in time, and merging with the present…
Published: 2011
Theme: Friendship
Best for: 11 and up
“Essence was not physical matter, Po knew. No one could touch it. No one could destroy it either… People could push and pull at you, and poke you, and probe as deep as they could go… But at the heart and root and soul of you, something would remain untouched.” This creative children’s book weaves a drama that almost feels Shakespearean, as many characters with their own mission all collide in the same place and same time…
Published: 1996
Theme: Self-discovery
Best for: 12 and up
“She was not much in the habit of thinking, only of howling her bitter, lonely anger at her exile from all she knew and understood- her homeland, the Folk, and their paths crisscrossing the moor.” Neither the human world nor the fairy world is perfect; in this profound book, you get to see both their flaws, and their glory…
Published: 2009
Theme: Time and Time-travel
Best for: 10 and up
“It’s the jumping, from one diamond to the next, that we call time, but like I said, time doesn’t really exist. All the diamonds on the ring are happening at the same time….All the diamonds exist at once.” Here’s a children’s book that attempts to bring the question of Time to a child’s mind, simply to evoke profound inquiry, and, have some fun…
Published: 2008
Theme: Finding yourself
Best for: 11 and up
“The big deal is that we’ll be living in the middle of nowhere! There will be NOTHING around us for miles and miles. No people. No restaurants. No stores. No movie theaters. NOTHING. Who lives like that?” In this very thoughtful children’s book, we watch two teen girls, and a teen boy, go through terrific transformation, discovering who they really are…
Published: 2014
Theme: Overcoming obstacles
Best for: 12 and up
“Many coins. To take them would be stealing. But if it’s a troll’s treasure? Is it a sin to steal what’s already stolen? Stolen Thrice: once from humans by trolls, then from the trolls by the goatman. And finally– Stolen from the goatman by me.” Weaving together a number of Norwegian and universal fairy tales, this is a tale you could imagine written by the Grimms…
Published: 2013
Theme: Acceptance, Transformation
Best for: 11 and up
“I’ve got some toddler memories, but my first sequence recall is kindergarten… My parents said the place was going to be all kinds of fun. It wasn’t. It was here that I first committed the crime of questioning the system.” A fabulous children’s book, told through the first person character of a genius who also may have autism. Her very presence brings out kindness in others.
Published: 1975
Theme: Value of Life
Best for: 12 and up
“I”m not exactly sure what I’d do, you know, but something interesting- something that’s all mine. Something that would make some kind of difference in the world.” This book leads the reader to a fairly sophisticated understanding of moral choices, set in a magical story.
Published: 2010
Theme: Bravery
Best for: ages 11 and up
“Mattie felt a sudden dizziness. Just for a second or two, it was almost as if she herself were tumbling through the air. And once again the boundaries that separated human beings from birds seemed to dissolve.” A wonderful creative look at the early life of Robin Hood and Maid Marian, with lots of equality for women thrown in…
Published: 2012
Theme: Dealing with change
Best for: 9 – 12
“We didn’t think we were tragic…All any of us wanted was for somebody to care about us, and if we couldn’t have that, then at least somebody who wouldn’t be too mean and who would feed us from time to time.” In this book, the children’s reality merges with the reality of spirit, and it’s hard to tell one from the other in the end.
Published: 2013
Theme: Coming of age FairyTale
Best for: Girls 12 and up
“So her days and nights passed and rolled into weeks and months, and she lived in the enchanted palace with the bear. Each afternoon she would turn from whatever she was doing to see the bear standing, watching her…” With beautiful descriptive language of the landscape and the characters, this retelling of the classic fairy tale has a surprising ending…
Published: 1988
Theme: Survival
Best for: boys 11 and up
“…he learned the most important rule about survival, which was that feeling sorry for yourself didn’t work… the self-pity had accomplished nothing.” About a third of the way through the book, when it became clear this was really about survival in it’s truest sense, I was hooked on the mesmerizing story.
Published: 1999
Theme: Resilience
Best for: 9 and up
“We were all standing in line waiting for breakfast when one of the caseworkers came in and tap-tap-tapped down the line. Uh-oh, this meant bad news, either they’d found a foster home for somebody or somebody was about to get paddled.” Humor, pathos, drama, history, and emotion create an intensely beautiful and impactful piece of children’s literature…
Published: 1995
Theme: Family
Best for: 11 and up
“”Lona, what you teach these babies up North? Don’t they know how to give no one a proper hug?” Grandma Sands reached up over Byron’s head. “A little short on hair but we gonna get on just fine, what you think, By?” Country kids meet city kids. Northern kids meet life in the South, circa 1963. Sibling rivalry. Delinquency. Parental decisions. The ground this book covers is astounding…
Published: 2007
Theme: Freedom and Slavery
Best for: 12 and up
“I’d started with ten fish and now I was down to six, and even though I ain’t particular worthy at my schooling, it’d take a whole lot of doggone humbug algebra and trickaration geometry to make ten percent of ten come out to four.” In this skillfully written historical fiction children’s book, we see the world through the eyes of a freeborn child, whose parents had been slaves.
Published: 2003
Theme: Protecting the Environment
Best for: 11 and up
“Mrs. Stark’s classroom was an unlikely place to meet a rebel. So when we opened our literature books to a new chapter on Monday I was shocked to see a person who actually looked interesting. Henry David Thoreau was standing at the bottom of the page…” For anyone who loves the transcendentalists, and especially teaching children about them, this children’s book is a treasure.