Avid readers go through a couple of awkward stages in their youth. First comes the blossoming of reading in the preschool or early elementary years, when young children who can read long chapter books yearn for more books that are appropriate to their emotional level. See Info 101: Book list for young gifted readers.
Then comes another awkward stage. By the age of ten or eleven, these children are apt to be more sensitive and demanding readers than their peers. They've already read everything on the last book list. What will satisfy their hunger for complex, lively stories without teen-focused relationship issues that come up in so many modern novels for teen readers?
Below is a list of books recommended by parents and teachers of kids in this age range. Books with asterisks are ones that might be scary for sensitive readers. Please feel free to leave your suggestions below.
- Alcott, Louisa May: Little Women series
- Barry, Dave: Peter and the Starcatchers
- Birney, Betty G.: The Seven Wonders of Sassafras Springs
- Brinley, Bertrand R.: The Mad Scientists' Club
- Brock, Betty: No Flying in the House
- Burnett, Frances Hodgson: A Little Princess
- Card, Orson Scott: Ender's Game series*
- Clements, Andrew: Frindle
- Colfer, Eoin: Artemis Fowl series*
- Coville, Bruce: The Unicorn Chronicles series (starts with Into the Land of the Unicorns)
- Duane, Diane: Young Wizards series* (starts with So You Want to be a Wizard)
- Enright, Elizabeth: The Melendy Quartet (starts with Saturdays)
- Funke, Cornelia: The Princess Knight
- Estes, Eleanor: The Witch Family
- Farley, Walter: The Black Stallion series
- Flanagan, John: Ranger's Apprentice series
- Hawking, Stephen: George’s Secret Key to the Universe
- Herge, The Adventures of Tintin*
- Herriot, James: All Creatures Great and Small
- Hiaason, Carl: Hoot, Flush
- Jacques, Brian: Redwall series* (starts with Redwall)
- Kelly, Jacqueline: The Evolution of Calpurnia Tate
- Klages, Ellen: The Green Glass Sea
- Konigsburg, E.L.: The View From Saturday
- Law, Ingrid: Savvy
- Lawrence, Caroline: Roman Mysteries series (starts with The Thieves of Ostia)
- Le Guin, Ursula: Earthsea series (the 4th in the series, Tehanu, is very dark)
- L’Engle, Madeleine: Austin Family Chronicles series (starts with Meet the Austins), A Wrinkle in Time*
- Lord, Cynthia: Rules
- McKinley, Robin: The Hero and the Crown and The Blue Sword
- Michener, James: Various historical novels including Chesapeake, Centennial, Texas (may contain historical violence and some sexual content)
- Montgomery, L.M.: Anne of Green Gables series
- Nesbit, E.: The Railway Children books plus others
- Nimmo, Jenny: The Children of the Red King series (starts with Midnight for Charlie Bone)
- Nix, Garth: Keys to the Kingdom series (starts with Mister Monday)
- Oppel, Kenneth: Airborn (the rest of the series features more violence)
- Paolini, Christopher: Eragon*
- Paulsen, Gary: Hatchet
- Paver, Michelle: Chronicles of Ancient Darkness series (Wolf Brother is first)
- Pearson, Barry: Peter and the Starcatchers
- Pinwater, Daniel: read about his books
- Pratchett, Terry: Tiffany Aching series (The Wee Free Men, etc.), The Bromeliad Trilogy (Truckers; Diggers; Wings)
- Ransome, Arthur: Swallows and Amazons series
- Riordan, Rick: Percy Jackson series
- Rowling, J.K.: Harry Potter series
- Sacher, Louis: The Wayside School series
- Snyder, Laurel: Any Which Wall, Penny Dreadful
- Spinelli, Jerry: Stargirl
- Stead, Rebecca: When You Reach Me
- Stevenson, Robert Louis: Treasure Island
- Stewart, Trenton Lee: The Mysterious Benedict Society series
- Tolkein, J.R.R.: The Hobbit*
- Ursu, Anne: The Cronus Chronicles series (starts with The Shadow Thieves)*
- Verne, Jules: Around the World in 80 Days, Journey to the Center of the Earth
- Wyss, Johann D.: The Swiss Family Robinson
- Yee, Lisa: Millicent Min, Girl Genius [read review]
- Yolen, Jane: Young Merlin trilogy
Resources:
- Child Lit WIKI
- KidsReads
- Hoagies' Gifted
- Ambleside Online
- CommonSense Media
- J.K. Rowling's Amazon.com book list page
- Some of My Best Friends Are Books: Guiding Gifted Readers from Pre-School to High School
- Wikipedia List of Classic Children's Books
- Using Bibliotherapy with Gifted Children
- Tamora Pierce's Gifted Eight-Year-Old Booklist
If you have other suggestions, please leave them below -- Enjoy!
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