Preteens

Fortunately, for Caddie, her father did approve.

This book won the Newbery Medal in 1936.

The main character of the book is Ender (Andrew) Wiggin, who must conquer other children as well as the computer programs to win the war. The pace is intense and there is a fair amount of violence, but it never seems gratuitous.

The ending is extremely surprising and makes it a necessity that this book be read before its newer companion book, Ender's Shadow.

Although this is a science fiction book, it has ended up on school reading lists near here.

There are three other books in the direct Ender series, but they are much more philosophical.

Bean is first shown as a starving two year old on the streets of Amsterdam. He survives because of his intelligence and finally makes it to Battle School where his help is decisive in Ender's winning the war.

They are caught in a serious storm, and the sailing is described in great detail. The chapters alternate between Sophie's journal and that of her cousin Cody. There are a number of mysteries about Sophie and her dead parents, which add intrigue to the book.

In this book, Elizabeth Ann, a frail, scaredy-kid,who is an orphan, is being brought up by her Great Aunt and her Great Aunt's daughter, whom she calls Aunt Frances.

Aunt Frances is thin and frail and scared of dogs and so on. Elizabeth Ann has been so cosseted that she has never had a real thought of her own, nor has she even ever dressed herself.

Almost overnight, due to her Great Aunt's sickness, Elizabeth Ann's life is turned upside down and she is on a train to the loathed Putney, Vermont relatives.

Once there, Elizabeth Ann becomes Betsy and learns to think for herself and take care of herself and finds real happiness.

When her classmates find her notebook and read her painfully blunt comments about them, Harriet finds herself a lonely outcast. Fitzhugh's writing is astonishingly vivid, real and engaging, and Harriet, by no means a typical, loveable heroine, is one of literature's most unforgettable characters."

This is an enthralling story of love, evil, magic, and four children in 1912 in England.

While their father is away in Egypt they come to live with their batchelor uncle and his houseman in a town that has evil magic woven through it. The children by their goodness and high spirits, with the help of golden bees and the houseman, manage to conquer the black magic and set all to rights. This sounds trite, but it is a wonderful story to read aloud, and everyone will want to keep going and find out what happens next.

It is set in 13th century Scotland, and the heroine begins the book as a nine-year old and grows up. She ends up being forced to fight against her older sister, whom she worships, who is a powerful witch.

Nevertheless, there is hope in this book, and it provides a picture of its time and place.

The Little Colonel Series by Annie Fellows Johnston
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There are many sad events in Veron, the heroine's, life, but she continues to persevere and finally makes it to America. It is not too horrible for younger children to read or have it read to them.

This book describes events that many of us here in the US are completely unaware of.

It is also Jackie Robinson's first major league season and the year of the Boar in the Chinese calendar.

Arriving in Brooklyn speaking no English, Shirley slowly makes friends and learns to love baseball.

The children are desperate for her to stay, but she misses Maine so much, there on the prairie, that the story is full of fears of her deciding not to stay.

Based on a true story, this tells of a young Indian girl who ends up being alone on a deserted island for many years. She builds herself shelter, feeds herself, fends off the wild dogs and remains optimistic.

She finds that she is very different from the Puritans there. She has never worked, she knows how to read, she understands how to enjoy life, and she ends up being unhppy.

She befriends an outcast, the Widow Tupper, who lives near the Pond and is called a witch by some in the town. Events move rapidly and Kit herself is accused of witchcraft.

This book, a Newbery Medal winner and ALA Notable Children's Book, is also a quiet romance, which ends with three happy marriages.

It is a wonderful story about a girl, Penelope, who visits her aunt and uncle at the family's ancestral home and finds that she is able to move back and forth between her own time and 300 years earlier in the family.

The family of 300 years earlier is caught up in a doomed plan to free Mary Queen of Scots, and Penelope gets involved as well. Because she looks very much like other members of the family, she is accepted and loved in the old times. Many times, she is more interested in her "other" life than in her current one.

The story does not race along, but it is interesting and informative and holds the reader's attention.

The Mitchells Series by Hilda van Stockum
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Weston is a "Dear Abby"-type columnist for Girl's Life and the questions she is answering are real questions from real girls.

This book answers questions for girls, but it also tells parents what kinds of questions their daughters might be having.