The first three books on my list are great for leadership building in young girls; the last is a favorite from my children's lists. I'm currently working on a children's book version of Paving the Way for Madam President.
Hillary Rodham Clinton: Dreams Taking Flight by Kathleen Krull and Amy June Bates
Sonia Sotomayor: A Judge Grows in the Bronx / La juez que crecio en el Bronx by Jonah Winter by Jonah Winter and Edel Rodriguez
Lives of Extraordinary Women: Rulers, Rebels (and What the Neighbors Thought) by Kathleen Krull and Kathryn Hewitt (Hardcover - Sep 1, 2000)
I Spy: A Christmas Book of Picture Riddles
My two youngest granddaughters are with me and they suggest for little ones:
Llama, llama Red Pajama; Brown Bear, Brown Bear
And I'm adding, Emily McCully's
Mirette on the High Wire
For older children, The Secret Footprints by Julia Alvarez
The Boxcar Children by Gertrude Chandler Warner
The Percy Jackson Series by Rick Riordan
The Amber Brown Series by Paula Danziger
And I'd like to include my own book,
Belva Lockwood: Equal Rights Pioneer (Trailblazer Biographies)
Classics:
A.A. Milne, Winnie The Pooh; The House At Pooh Corner; When We Were Very Young; Now We Are Six. Read aloud, to the very young; independent reader, ages 7-10
P.L. Travers, all of the Mary Poppins books; Ages 10-12
Johanna Spyri, Heidi; Cornelli, Ages 8-12
Frances Hodgson Burnett, The Secret Garden, Ages 10 and up
Thornton Burgess, just about any of his books, which are amazingly timeless, Ages 7-12, or read-aloud to younger children
Katherine Paterson,
Bridge to Terabithia
C.S. Lewis & Pauline Baynes, The Chronicles of Narnia
Anything by J.R.R. Tolkien, starting with Ages 10-12 for The Hobbit; 14-adult for The Lord of the Rings trilogy. Other Tolkien books probably need to be left to the reader’s choice after the above-mentioned books. Things like The Silmarillion require a true Tolkien devotee.
Not new, but not yet classics, either:
Rick Riordan, The Heroes of Olympus series. This comes with a caveat, because unless a youngster has had exposure to classical Greek and Roman mythology, this will be confusing. The premise of the ancient gods and goddesses being alive and well and living among us isn’t an easy sell for me, and the lighthearted (and occasionally off-the-wall) treatment had me grumbling like the old coot I am. Ages 9-12. Note: Riordan is quoted as saying he wrote the books in order to get his ADHD son to read. I’m not sure this will work for others, but it may be worth a try.
The Lost Hero (Heroes of Olympus, Book 1) by Rick Riordan
Kate DiCamillo, Because of Winn-Dixie: A tale of a young girl moving to a new town and finding friends thanks to her delightful dog. There’s a subtext of missing mother and clerical father that seemed a bit over emphasized, but the dog and child are quite lovely.
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