School books for 10 year old girls

[redhappy]

I volunteer at a school and one of the other volunteers has asked me for any suggestions for books for 10 year old girls.

Mixed ability levels, what really she wants is something that's going to really grab them!

My 11 year old DD loves Roman Mysteries by Caroline Lawrence. Also Skulduggery Pleasant. She also liked Swallows and Amazons, Spy dog, Artemis Fowl and a Series of Unfortunate Events. DSs liked Hiccup the Viking, Captain UNderpants, Jake CAke, Redwall, SPiderwicke Chronicles, Edge Chronicles, Mortal Engines. They all liked things like Stig of the dump, Charlottes Web, the Waterhorse, Peter and the Starcatchers, Peter Pan and Peter pan in scarlet.

dd (9) likes swallows and amazons, Famous five, Anne of green gables, hiccup, Mr Gum, The pendlewicks, The mysterious benedict society, The demon headmaster, the children of green knowe, Anne Fine books. Judy BLume (some are not appropriate), the time travelling cat

ooh thanks for all these. I was also thinking The Turbulent Term of Tyke Tyler.

The school's in an area where not many of the parents read with the children so she's been finding it hard to get them excited! Possibly worth starting with the more modern ones, they seem to get put off by the language of the older ones.

redhappy - are you after school stories?

Plus all the ones recommended on the current thread about books for a 10yo boy. generally speaking, girls are happy to read books where the protagonists are boys, though it is not so true in reverse.

That said, my DS read (an abridged version of) Wuthering Heights recently and thoroughly enjoyed it.
There are also lots of brilliant Micheal Morpurgo stories covering a wide range of abilities, stuff like The Last Wolf, The Wreck of the Zanzibar etc. (you can get them in a pack from the Book People)

I picked up a bookpeople leaflet yesterday, lots of ideas on there too.

madamehooch I don't know if it's the same for all schools, but they have a reading book and reading record right up to year6. The stories don't have to be about school, but they need books they can read as part of their schoolday.

Myself and the other volunteer go in to listen to children read. Lots of the older children can read, but claim it's boring, so really looking for something they will think is exciting!

I've been trying to remember what I was reading at that point, but I was fairly advanced reader by that point and had moved onto adult fiction I think.

Lots of great suggestions here, thankyou to you all. I will make a list to take in after halfterm.

I came across a similar situation recently when I was teaching in quite a deprived area. As you say, often children are not read to by parents and they don't associate story reading with that warm, safe, "reading before bed" feeling that children who are lucky enough to be read to every night know well.
I would suggest as a possibility the Clarice Bean books. They're not too taxing in terms of reading age and I have found them to be very popular with 10 year old girls generally. If you wanted any more ideas, you could have a look on my site,www.hummingbirdbooks.co.uk which lists books that children themselves have recommended. If you have children who are not great readers, I'd go down in age category to find the easier books.

David walliams!

They are so funny - and also if some of the parents don't read, they might be encouraged by the fact that he wrote funny grown up stuff they are familiar with.

His 3 childrens books are brilliant - well written, clever and subversive - I should be his agent, I seem to be recommending him so often on here!

And roald dal, of course.

Lionboy trilogy,inkheart,Percy jackson,millions,framed, anything by Diana wynne Jones.Dd10 has really enjoyed these books.