Children’s books for the early teen years, not yet young adults, but no longer little ones
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.
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