Books for 9 year olds

[MDefarge]

Understood Betsy
Half Magic
A Tree Grows in Brooklyn (might be too mature for 9)
Trixie Belden (they have recently been re-issued)

Unfortunately the Babysitters Club books are no longer in print - they would have been perfect.

[DottyG]

Oooh, I've got to delurk for this one ...  I'd recommend anything by Beverly Cleary or Judy Blume (the kid-friendly stuff, of course!).  There is also a new series with a girl who discovers she is actually a mermaid. The first book is The Tail of Emily Windsnap.  Just as an aside, my daughter is 7 and in second grade and she and most of her friends have already outgrown Junie B and are on their way out of Magic Treehouse.  A 9 year old (especially if she is an avid reader) may find those books too young for them.  They are moving in Judy Moody and Amber Brown series which are at a little higher reading level.

Slinking back into lurking ... 

Lisa

Alexerin-WELCOME!  I feel honored that this thread brought you out of hiding!  Thanks so much for your suggestions and please post again soon.

[kareng57]

Oooh, I've got to delurk for this one ...  I'd recommend anything by Beverly Cleary or Judy Blume (the kid-friendly stuff, of course!).  There is also a new series with a girl who discovers she is actually a mermaid. The first book is The Tail of Emily Windsnap.  Just as an aside, my daughter is 7 and in second grade and she and most of her friends have already outgrown Junie B and are on their way out of Magic Treehouse.  A 9 year old (especially if she is an avid reader) may find those books too young for them.  They are moving in Judy Moody and Amber Brown series which are at a little higher reading level.

Slinking back into lurking ... 

Lisa

The classics are great of course - and I too loved the Little Women books and the What Katy Did series.  I think these really are timeless.  But I liked your mention of Beverley Cleary.  Apparently it was when she was a childrens' librarian in the 1950s and 60s and for the most part, the childrens' section had only the classic-stuff.  Young children and adolescents kept asking her "aren't there any stories about kids like us?"
There weren't, so Cleary decided that she'd better start writing some.  40 years later I still remember her stories about Henry Huggins, Ellen Tebbits, Beatrice and Ramona etc. - and she wrote quite a few stories geared towards older teenagers, besides.

What really grinds-my-gears is that many teachers assert that if kids are not reading the "classics" , then they are not really reading.  Who's to say?  My boys loved reading the Goosebumps series about 10 years ago, when they were about 9 and 10.  I could have gotten all anal about it an insisted that they read Jules Verne instead (which they both did later on anyway) - but the main thing is - get them reading!  If it's The Babysitter's Club rather than the Chronicles of Narnia - who cares for now?  Nothing will turn a kid off reading faster than a teacher or parent insisting  that he/she is not reading the "right" stuff.

[mddg4]

Don't forget the Phantom Tollbooth!

[DottyG]

Wanted to clarify a bit - I consider things by Blume and Cleary as part of the "classics" I was asking for!   To me, they fit that criteria!

[Brentwood]

Fairy books are very popular now - there are any number to be found in bookstores.

You might also consider one of my personal favorites: From The Mixed Up Files Of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler

[Sandi Papaya]

Just as an aside, my daughter is 7 and in second grade and she and most of her friends have already outgrown Junie B and are on their way out of Magic Treehouse.  A 9 year old (especially if she is an avid reader) may find those books too young for them.

Yeah, I was gonna say. Junie B. Jones is WAY young for a 9-year-old. I would have been reading those books in kindergarten - but I wouldn't go by my reading level, because I was reading in 2 languages by the age of 4 and at a college level by the age of 9.

I wouldn't recommend "Are You There, God? It's Me, Margaret" for a girl of 9 - it's a bit more "mature" (albeit dated) than she might be able to handle. At age 9, I could read the book well enough, but the subject matter would have been way beyond my grasp. I'd stick with more kid-friendly Judy Blume titles - "Blubber," "Tales of a Fourth Grade Nothing" (and the whole rest of the Fudge series), and "Otherwise Known as Sheila the Great."

As far as I can recall, even though the books were a bit below my reading level, I still enjoyed Beverly Cleary, particularly Ramona and the Henry Huggins books, at that age. I worked my way painstakingly through every single volume of the Little House books, fiction and nonfiction, including a biography of the real Laura Ingalls Wilder, which is very different from the account of life given in her books, though no less interesting.

I remember reading (and really loving) "The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe," "The Phantom Tollbooth," "The Borrowers," "The Witch of Blackbird Pond," "Island of the Blue Dolphins" and "Bedknobs and Broomsticks." I also loved the "Mrs. Piggle-Wiggle" series by Betty McDonald, although I'm not sure how easy those books would be to find these days. Other favorites were "The Egypt Game" by Zilpha Keatley Snyder, the "Anastasia Krupnik" series by Lois Lowry, and the very oddball "Jennifer, Hecate, Macbeth, William McKinley, and Me, Elizabeth," by E.L. Konigsburg, as well as a fairly creepy book which I'm not sure is in print anymore, called "Behind the Attic Wall" (not sure of the author) and "The Indian in the Cupboard," by Lynne Reid Banks.

A lot of the books I've mentioned are really, really dated, but hopefully she'd devour them anyway. I did.

[nolechica]

Baby Sitters Club and Saddle Club books are what I read at that age, but a random must read for that age is Sideways Stories from Wayside School by Louis Sacher. And if she's in 4th grade, Tales of a Fourth Grade Nothing is hilarious.

[snoopygirl]

When I was in fourth grade my friends and I loved the book Number the Stars by Lois Lowry. It is about a tough time in history ( World War Two and the Holocaust) but it is a lovely story and very well written.  But almost every girl in my fourth grade class who read seemed to have read that book. We had a best book contest and that book came second in the grade behind Sideways Stories of Wayside School which I also recomend.

[Brentwood]

Just as an aside, my daughter is 7 and in second grade and she and most of her friends have already outgrown Junie B and are on their way out of Magic Treehouse.  A 9 year old (especially if she is an avid reader) may find those books too young for them.

Yeah, I was gonna say. Junie B. Jones is WAY young for a 9-year-old. I would have been reading those books in kindergarten - but I wouldn't go by my reading level, because I was reading in 2 languages by the age of 4 and at a college level by the age of 9.

I agree. My son is in kindergarten and reading Junie B. My daughter is in 2nd grade and has read all of her Junie B. books several times and has moved past them now. I just gave her a stack of my old Nancy Drew books, which are more challenging for her (not only for their outdated language, but also just because of bigger words she needs to learn from context). I love seeing her read those books as avidly as I did.

[jais]

Just as an aside, my daughter is 7 and in second grade and she and most of her friends have already outgrown Junie B and are on their way out of Magic Treehouse.  A 9 year old (especially if she is an avid reader) may find those books too young for them.

Yeah, I was gonna say. Junie B. Jones is WAY young for a 9-year-old. I would have been reading those books in kindergarten - but I wouldn't go by my reading level, because I was reading in 2 languages by the age of 4 and at a college level by the age of 9.

I agree. My son is in kindergarten and reading Junie B. My daughter is in 2nd grade and has read all of her Junie B. books several times and has moved past them now. I just gave her a stack of my old Nancy Drew books, which are more challenging for her (not only for their outdated language, but also just because of bigger words she needs to learn from context). I love seeing her read those books as avidly as I did.

I'm starting to feel a little bad about teh Junie B books now.  DD loved them and read all she had several times.  She reads other books, too, and is at a high school reading level.  Perhaps children like the occasion bit of 'fluff' too?  Popular didn't mean best option.    Forgive me.

[Brentwood]

Just as an aside, my daughter is 7 and in second grade and she and most of her friends have already outgrown Junie B and are on their way out of Magic Treehouse.  A 9 year old (especially if she is an avid reader) may find those books too young for them.

Yeah, I was gonna say. Junie B. Jones is WAY young for a 9-year-old. I would have been reading those books in kindergarten - but I wouldn't go by my reading level, because I was reading in 2 languages by the age of 4 and at a college level by the age of 9.

I agree. My son is in kindergarten and reading Junie B. My daughter is in 2nd grade and has read all of her Junie B. books several times and has moved past them now. I just gave her a stack of my old Nancy Drew books, which are more challenging for her (not only for their outdated language, but also just because of bigger words she needs to learn from context). I love seeing her read those books as avidly as I did.

I'm starting to feel a little bad about teh Junie B books now.  DD loved them and read all she had several times.  She reads other books, too, and is at a high school reading level.  Perhaps children like the occasion bit of 'fluff' too?  Popular didn't mean best option.    Forgive me.

Oh, jais. I'm sorry. I didn't mean to hurt your feelings. Junie B. is very funny and authentic, and I think a lot of kids can relate to her. I didn't mean to imply that I thought it was a bad suggestion.

[jais]

Just as an aside, my daughter is 7 and in second grade and she and most of her friends have already outgrown Junie B and are on their way out of Magic Treehouse.  A 9 year old (especially if she is an avid reader) may find those books too young for them.

Yeah, I was gonna say. Junie B. Jones is WAY young for a 9-year-old. I would have been reading those books in kindergarten - but I wouldn't go by my reading level, because I was reading in 2 languages by the age of 4 and at a college level by the age of 9.

I agree. My son is in kindergarten and reading Junie B. My daughter is in 2nd grade and has read all of her Junie B. books several times and has moved past them now. I just gave her a stack of my old Nancy Drew books, which are more challenging for her (not only for their outdated language, but also just because of bigger words she needs to learn from context). I love seeing her read those books as avidly as I did.

I'm starting to feel a little bad about teh Junie B books now.  DD loved them and read all she had several times.  She reads other books, too, and is at a high school reading level.  Perhaps children like the occasion bit of 'fluff' too?  Popular didn't mean best option.    Forgive me.

Oh, jais. I'm sorry. I didn't mean to hurt your feelings. Junie B. is very funny and authentic, and I think a lot of kids can relate to her. I didn't mean to imply that I thought it was a bad suggestion.

Oh no! I just meant that I didn't think they were at the level, but they had been very popular.  DD is becoming like me and reads what she can get her hands on.  I looked at her reading the Junie B books like when I pick up a trashy gossip mag or read a silly romance book.  It's for fun.  There's nothing wrong with reading for the sole purpose of fun.

I just didn't want anybody to think "poor jais, her daughter doesn't read well". 

[Sandi Papaya]

Oh no! I just meant that I didn't think they were at the level, but they had been very popular.  DD is becoming like me and reads what she can get her hands on.  I looked at her reading the Junie B books like when I pick up a trashy gossip mag or read a silly romance book.  It's for fun.  There's nothing wrong with reading for the sole purpose of fun.

I just didn't want anybody to think "poor jais, her daughter doesn't read well". 

Oh, there's nothing wrong with reading "fluff" at all!! I read trashy romance novels, gossip rags, even the backs of cereal boxes when I get desperate and there's nothing else to read. I just think the Junie B. Jones books skew a little young for a 9-year-old, but again, it's hard for me to judge because I was always a scarily advanced reader.

[Twik]

When I was that age, I adored the "Black Stallion" series, but perhaps that is too dated now.

If there's a horse (better yet, a wild horse) in it, most girls will love it.