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dd1 wants a book featuring "two sisters, and no brothers"...

31 replies

CharlotteBronteSaurus · 12/09/2012 12:01

...narcissist that she is.
any ideas? she is 5.6, and doesn't mind if it's a picture book/early reader, or a longer book for me to read to her.

OP posts:
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CaseyShraeger · 12/09/2012 19:10

Oh, there's that Lotte and Lisa (or some variant spellings of those namez) book that was the inspiration for The Parent Trap. Two sisters in that.

CharlotteBronteSaurus · 12/09/2012 17:40

well spotted nickel - that was dd1's complaint as well, that the default setting is a boy/girl pair.

OP posts:
nickelcognito · 12/09/2012 16:21

(half past one)

nickelcognito · 12/09/2012 16:21

blimey! there's not a lot!

Every bloomin' book with siblings in, they're always boy-girl siblings - even twins!

I have found:
magic molly witch's kitten
penny dreadful (it's a series too)
jessica and jewel

all are in my confident readers' section.
can't find any picturebooks at all.

God, sorry, I've just turned to this tab and seen that I haven't posted!
I've been to a hospital appt in the meantime - I started this post at about half pas t ! Blush

Themumsnot · 12/09/2012 16:16

I hope you got Naughty Little Sister. They are the best, especially with the Shirley Hughes illustrations.

Takver · 12/09/2012 16:12

She'd be the perfect age for Little House in the Big Woods (Laura gains another two sisters over the course of the series).

TheOriginalSteamingNit · 12/09/2012 13:50

I loved Ramona too - brilliantly observed, I think. Lots of things stick, like having to go to the granny's house after school, who sticks up for her own grandchild over visitors (the unfairness!); the new pink eraser at school; 'please pass the tommytoes' - and when they go out to Whopperburger at the end of Ramona Quimby Age 8 - makes me well up now, though it didn't at the time!

CharlotteBronteSaurus · 12/09/2012 13:44

these are all brilliant
i will get a couple for now, and lay down a couple of the ones for older readers. i think my sister possibly even still has my old Ramona books, which I gave to her DD about 15 years ago....

OP posts:
Minty82 · 12/09/2012 13:36

Ooh, it was reprinted in 2000, apparently, so stick it on the list, OP!

Minty82 · 12/09/2012 13:33

Yes, who'd been stuck there for years I think...
You're right though, the early parts are much better, I don't remember the second half nearly so vividly. Oh yes, bursting them like balloons! And the useless wispy mother.

TheOriginalSteamingNit · 12/09/2012 13:26

Minty were there two annoying little men in the mine/prison, or am I hopelessly confused?

There were so many lovely little details in the early parts, and so much happens that it's always odd to think it's all one book - little snippets I remember like them ruining father's packing, or getting pins stuck in them when they decide to get fat... nasty grocer's daughter, wasn't it?

jeee · 12/09/2012 13:25

Malory Towers. Darrell Rivers and little sister Felicity?

TalTangerine · 12/09/2012 13:23

Oh Ramona! I loved those books!

CailinDana · 12/09/2012 13:23

Is what your DD is destined to be like in years to come OP? Grin (except female of course!).

claraschu · 12/09/2012 13:22

Ramona books by Beverly Cleary are fantastic. All of my children (boys and girl) loved them.
Laura Ingalls Wilder books are wonderful.

Minty82 · 12/09/2012 13:20

Yes, the plot gets a bit convoluted, but the governess bits are brilliant. And turning into kangaroos, for the totally practical reason that they're the only animals with pockets!

TheOriginalSteamingNit · 12/09/2012 13:18

I just wanted to make dens in the back of a furniture van!

I loved the beginning bits, when they're naughty, and when they escape with the puma, and are wandering about that sumptuous house, but invariably got completely lost once they were down that mine or whatever it was!

Minty82 · 12/09/2012 13:16

Oh wow...didn't think anyone else knew The Wind on The Moon - hasn't it been out of print for decades? My dad read it to me as a child and it's one of those books which has lived in my head all my life. Almost wanted to call DD Dinah because of it, but I didn't get very far as DH didn't get the reference. (Not so tempted by Dorinda!)

TheOriginalSteamingNit · 12/09/2012 13:14

The Wind on The Moon, but it might be a bit much for a five year old. There's a lovely bit about one resenting the fact that the other will always, always be older, and the older one says 'but when I am an old old lady of 88, you'll still be 86 and going to parties' or something like that.

Minty82 · 12/09/2012 13:12

I was going to say My Naughty Little Sister, but Ramona's a brilliant suggestion too, I loved those. Oh, and I'd forgotten about Big Sister, Little Sister! We had a gorgeous book called Alice, about a pre-school child wanting to do everything her school-age sister gets up to but I can't for the life of me remember who it's by...

TheOriginalSteamingNit · 12/09/2012 13:02

Little House books and Tottie?

elliejjtiny · 12/09/2012 13:01

I was going to say my naughty little sister.

nickelcognito · 12/09/2012 12:59

Snow White and Rose Red?
(here)
i love that story (it's a Grimm one).

there must be more - I'll just search the shelves. :)

Kendodd · 12/09/2012 12:58

Big sister, little sister. Lovely book.

SuperLemonCrush · 12/09/2012 12:56

Beverley Clearly's "Ramona the Pest" books are great, also love Rumer Godden's "Miss Happiness and Miss Flower". Probably the right age of girls, but might be better "reading aloud" books?