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Original poster

15 year old intellectually, definitely only 9 emotionally - book help?

35 replies

Kuriusoranj · 27/12/2015 00:43

My older daughter is a prolific reader and is intellectually about 15 years old. However, she is just 9, and emotionally very much her real age - if that old, to be honest. She has very low tolerance for even mild peril, but her particular challenge is rule-breaking or naughtiness of any kind. To give an example - we had to turn off the DVD "Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs" after about 10 minutes when one character wouldn't let another pass on the pavement! She's slightly better with written descriptions than visuals, but not much, to be honest.

She's also not into anything about boys, makeup, giggly pre-teen stuff. I also find myself clutching my pearls a bit at those themes. I have to emphasise - she's a very young 9 year old in many ways.

So far we've had success with:

  • older classics - I find the language is complex enough to engage her, but the concepts and themes are 'safe'. So - The Secret Garden, Little Women that kind of thing, but also Helen Cresswell when we can find them. She actually mentioned Oliver Twist yesterday, but if I remember correctly that's a bit harrowing.
  • all the Enid Blyton school stuff, plus Secret 7 and Famous 5, all a couple of years ago. I think she's left that stuff behind now.
  • Percy Jackson and all variations. These are probably her favourites and have sparked a real interest in mythology of all kinds. Rick Riordan cannot write fast enough to satisfy her.

So - I'm sure I'm not the only one in this predicament. What we seem to need is challenging vocabulary used in stories with very little tension, no love interest and no antagonists! Easy right? Hmm

We talked about Artemis Fowl last night and she's downloaded that onto her Kindle - think she'll like it? I've never read them. If anyone knows of any good myth-based stories, or non-fiction that might suit, that's be great too. Other than than, any suggestions?

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BabyGanoush · 04/01/2016 17:20

A that age I really loved all the Laura Ingalls Wilder books (Little House on the prairie series). The first two may be a bit "young for her" but the older ones would be perfect IMO

Laura is a strong personality, It is very much about values, I loved her (still do Blush)

merlinalison · 04/01/2016 17:16

Joan Aiken - particularly the short story collections (though NOT a fit of shivers or one foot in the grave)

Personally I found The Dark is Rising terrifying as a child although I love it now.

Hilary McKay, particularly the Exiles series and the Casson Family series.

I'd second the suggestion of Dianna Wynne Jones Chrestomanci series and Lucy Boston's Green Knowe series. also A traveller in time by Alison Uttley.

AS a child I was very similar and worked my way through Margery Allingham and Dorothy L Sayers at 8 or 9 (although with hindsight quite a lot went over my head).

Antonia Forest?

I'm quite jealous now that she has so many wonderful books to discover!

throwingpebbles · 30/12/2015 22:52

I had this problem! Agree with all the suggestions plus also non-fiction books as well.

Themodernuriahheep · 30/12/2015 22:39

If you look on chat there's a thread on what stands out from your childhood books ( yes I posted on it).

Some excellent suggestions there. Can I recommend the Kate Seredys? Esp The Good Master. Only one slightly scary chapter. And The Phantom Tolbooth, amazing thinking in a surrealist fashion. Also anything by Eric Kastner.

BathshebaDarkstone · 30/12/2015 18:45

DD 8 has a reading age of 12, she loves Roald Dahl, Terry Pratchett, Cressida Cowell, also anything related to Minecraft, a book called What's Where in the World and non-fiction about natural history. What are your DD's interests?

Themodernuriahheep · 30/12/2015 18:38

Def Noel Streatfeild. The painted Garden is a sort of sequel to both Ballet Shoes and the secret Garden.

Avoid little house on the prairie. Pa is very nearly eaten by wolves and they are nearly massacred .

Avoid an enemy at green Knowe. V scary witch. Actually most of the green Knowe stories are a bit scary. Beautifully written and you can go to see where the house is.

Kipling. Get her to read the jungle book, puck of pooks hill, rewards and fairies, Kim, and the Indian stories. Stalky too. V little that is scary, masses of information, views into others minds, well written.

Antonia Forrest, the school ones. The non school all have scary bits in them.

Agree with EG spear, never met anyone before who know The a Bronze Bow!

Re telling if the great stories. Roger Lancelyn Green, tales of the Norsemen, tales of Greece and Rome.

Nathantial Hawthorne, Tanglewood Tales. More Greece and Rome.

Lamb, Tales from Shakespeare. One if the best introductions.
Lamb, essays if Elia. Witty, wise, readable at any point. Choose the essay yourself first.

Pollyanna and sequels
Anne of Green Gables plus sequels, plus Emily if New Moon plus sequels
Little Lord Fauntleroy
Rebecca of Sunny Brook Farm
What Katy did and interminable sequels all available free on Kindle.
A Girl if the limberlost, and others by the same author,ditto free.

Heidi and sequels.

I don't like them ( and he was a child molester) but William Mayne.

Andrew Lang's collection if fairy tales from round the world, eg the blue fairy book, the red fairy book etc.

Pippi Longstocking

Professor Branestawm.

Molesworth, how to be Topp. ( really searle)

The Pullein-Thompson pony books, masses of them.

The sword in the stone, but not the rest of the once and future king as scary and into masochism.

Def the Nesbits, Ransome. Durrell. Sutcliff

Elizabeth Goudge. The little white horse. City if Bells, henriettas house, smokey house.

Some too young, but generally funny if so.

Charlotte sometimes

Start her off dealing with fear by short stories. The canterville ghost Oscar Wilde, you reading it to her, is a good one. Some of the Agatha Christie and DL Sayers ones are good.

I started Hardy, the woodlanders, georgette Heyer, powder and patch, at about this age.

Try her on biography and travel too. Churchill's early years, with how useless he was at school, is quite good. Durrell is funny, Dervla Murphy perceptive.

PolkadotsAndMoonbeams · 30/12/2015 18:07

Murder Most Unladylike are good fun too (I enjoyed those ones!).

Cataline · 29/12/2015 17:52

Has she read the new Magnus Chase book by Rick Riordan?
DS is 8 and can also not get enough of his books!
I'd second Anne of Green Gables and also suggest Little Women then Good Wives, Jo's Boys and Little Men.
The Garth Nix Keys to the Kingdom series is excellent -starting with Mister Monday. He's written a number of series which are all pretty good.

PolkadotsAndMoonbeams · 29/12/2015 17:42

The House on Falling Star Hill by Michael Molloy. His Witch Trade series too - similar in peril levels to Rick Riordan I would say.

The Girls in the Velvet Frame - Adele Geras (that's a nice one, a family of sisters in Israel have their photograph published in an American newspaper to try to find their brother who moved to America).

If she likes school books, maybe try the Charlie Bone series (Jenny Nimmo).

You could also try The Fire Within, but I probably wouldn't let her read the later ones - they go a bit weird, but the first one's really nice as a standalone book.

schmalex · 29/12/2015 17:30

I second Katherine Rundell (Rooftoppers and Wolf Wilder) and Eva Ibbotson.
How about Hilary McKay - Saffy's Angel, etc?

Meeep · 28/12/2015 21:08

Yes fantasy might be good. How about Dealing with Dragons?
Oh or Terry Pratchett!

Scrowy · 28/12/2015 20:47

100% any Noel Streatfeild. I loved them at her age and was an avid reader.

All of the Shoe books (ballet shoes/white boots etc)

Other favourites were

Thursday's Child
Caldicott Place
The Painted Garden (read after the Shoe books as it references some of the same characters)

The Gemma series.

The themes in the books can often be around displaced children so not great if that is a sensitive subject.

I also loved the Mallory Towers / St Claire's series by Endid Blyton but they contain a fair bit of rule breaking!

I liked Micheal Morpurgo at that age too but found some of them a bit too difficult to read and listened to them on tape instead.

mrsmortis · 28/12/2015 20:36

How good is her separation of fantasy from reality? I was in her situation and Mum drowned me in good quality fantasy. Because it was so definitely 'not real' I had less issue with the levels of peril.

I completed Lord of the Rings at 9 for the first time (It was about my 3rd attempt). I also read all the David Eddings that was published at that point. Anne McCaffrey's Pern books were a hit (avoid Refugee and the Freedom books). Stephen Lawhead's In the hall of the Dragon King is good if you don't mind the blatently Christian undertones. And Pratchett, at 9 she might not get all the jokes but she'll get enough of them. I'd start her with Wee Free Men as Tiffany is a role model for all girls (My 7 year old and I have been reading it as a bedside story). Oh and I was given Hitchhikers Guide for the first time at 9. Yes it involves earth being destroyed but it's not threatening which is weird.

Now there is a whole world of good quality young adult fiction and it isn't all as violent as The Hunger Games. You could have a look at Tamora Pierce which is full of really strong female leads (the only one that mentions sex is in the Song of the Lioness Quartet so you might want to skip that). Anything by Garth Nix is also good. I'd suggest starting with Sabriel.

Gruach · 28/12/2015 15:58

Xmas Grin Did I ever tell you about the Easter holiday I spent in my university room, terrified of the curtains and checking under the bed after I bought a job lot of Agatha Christie for entertainment?

I've never been quite the same since.

(They are fab though.)

Meeep · 28/12/2015 15:47

How about Agatha Christie too?

Meeep · 28/12/2015 15:46

Wolves of Willoughby Chase!

educatingarti · 27/12/2015 12:59

Yy to Noel Stretfeild, Arthur Ransome, and also historical fiction by Rosemary Sutcliffe and Geoffrey Treece. There are a couple of books by Elizabeth George Spears that are also good (The Witch of Blackbird Pond and The Bronze Bow). I was very like your daughter 40 odd years ago and loved the above!

Annarose2014 · 27/12/2015 12:59

Check out the Sunday times "best children's books of all time" list. David Walliams did a programme on it last night and I checked out the list after and it's an incredible resource just to remind yourself of books you'd completely forgotten.

Chopz · 27/12/2015 12:50

The 13 lives of captain blue beard. It's like a children's book for adults. Complex language, fun line drawn visuals, bear with crazy adventures, highly rated and there's a whole series to read.

Original poster
Kuriusoranj · 27/12/2015 10:53

Thanks everyone, some really good suggestions and lots I hadn't thought of. We're reading Narnia, Harry Potter and Tolkien together so they're covered. I bought Coraline a couple of years ago but luckily read it myself (I'm a huge Neil Gaiman fangirl) before I tried her. There's just no way she'll get through that one!

Never thought of John Wyndam, though, or Wodehouse - both of which are intriguingly left-field in the way I was really hoping for, thank you for those in particular. I had thought about Austen, but I hated her as a child - she's an adult love of mine. Maybe the offspring will be different - have to keep reminding myself she's not me!

Re Artemis Fowl - yeah, I know - but she's very enthusiastic about the precis. I've convinced her to start with the first and see how she goes. I totally agree with pushing her tolerance up - she's so much better than she was, but it's a long and slow process. I'd hate to push her too far too fast and have it backfire. The fear of rule-breaking is the biggest problem for me, it's a symptom of her general perfectionism and rigidity - there is a right way and a wrong way to do everything, and why bother if you're not going to get it right? She puts enormous pressure on herself and we're working with her to tone that down. (I agree with letting her read what she fancies by the way, but there's a world out there and she wanted some suggestions).

I've told her about this thread and she's very excited, we're going to start at the top and work down Grin. Please keep 'em coming.

OP posts:
GinIsABreakfastFood · 27/12/2015 10:47

Definitely Noel Streatfeild & Susan Cooper.

Also, try the Chronicles of Ancient Darkness by Michelle Paver.

Has she read the Narnia books?

You mentioned Helen Cresswell - if she liked 'Moondial', then she will LOVE the Green Knowe books by Lucy M Boston. I was quite precocious as a child and they were my favourites :)

SuiGeneris · 27/12/2015 10:44

How about Jules Verne and Stevenson? So Robinson Crusoe, Voyage to the centre of the Earth, Treasure Island, 20,000 leagues under the sea... I was v similar to your daughter in being a very good but extremely sensitive reader (still am- sensitive, that is) and remember loving them at a similar age

zoemaguire · 27/12/2015 10:39

Gah, definitely not coraline! I found that freaky, let alone a sensitive 9yo. A child who doesn't like mild peril is very unlikely to enjoy a story involving disembodied hands and evil mothers who threaten to sew buttons on your eyes!!!

Some other good suggestions though. I have a similarly advanced-reading peril-averse nearly 8yo, so taking notes!

momb · 27/12/2015 10:36

John Wyndham: pick your titles though: Some are for children and some aren't. Chocky is an excellent start.

PirateSmile · 27/12/2015 10:32

Ds2 reading level was assessed as being 14 years 3 months when he was 9 and a half. To be honest, I'm just letting him read what he fancies. That seems to have stood him in good stead up to now.