SF/Fantasy books to read to a 9 y.o. girl

[alchemist]

Don't know if it's been mentioned, but the Skullduggery Pleasant series by Derek Landy? My nine-year-old boy is currently engrossed in it (we have to make sure he's turned his light off an hour after he's gone to bed). Although most of the appeal may stem from "everybody at school is reading it"!

 

[ribolleda]

When I was that age I could not stop reading The Hobbit, and I recommend it to kinds constantly

 

[AE35Unit]

When I was that age I could not stop reading The Hobbit, and I recommend it to kinds constantly

Yea my 9 y/o daughter read it last year. Although she insists on telling me 'Yes Dad but that was last year, when I was 8!'

 

[millymollymo]

I'd suggest Robin Jarvis. Deptford Mice Series, Tales from the Wyrd Museum and Whitby Witches Series. My 8 and now 9 year old enjoyed them and I did too.
Mr Jarvis is both a YA and Childrens Author. Robin Jarvis Homepage

 

[The Bluestocking]

This might be a bit old school but my 8-year-old niece loves Enid Blyton's "Magic Faraway Tree" series.

Diana Wynne-Jones is also a good bet - perhaps "Howl's Moving Castle" if she hasn't seen Studio Ghibli's adaptation yet?

 

[SleepyDormouse]

My 8 yr old is reading "Howl's moving castle" at the moment. Seems to be enjoying it.

She has also loved the Stardust Spirits and My Secret Unicorn series by Linda Chapman, they are slightly younger reads, but are lovely gentle fantasy's (if a little repetitive after the first few)

 

[antiloquax]

Diana Wynne-Jones is also a good bet - perhaps "Howl's Moving Castle" if she hasn't seen Studio Ghibli's adaptation yet?

I enjoyed that film adaptation, and I intend to read it at some point.

Since this thread is a few years old now , maybe I can mention that my 12yr old daughter is enjoying The Last Wild by Piers Torday. I haven't read it, but based on our discussions it sounds like an interesting eco-aware SF novel.

Also I'd like to recommend So You Want to Be a Wizard by Diane Duane. The main character, Nita, is a 13 yr. old girl who is ... learning to be a wizard. I enjoyed it a lot.

 

[JunkMonkey]

My nine year old daughter loves E Nesbit's books: Five Children and It, The Phoenix and the Carpet, The Story of the Amulet etc.
Gaiman's Coraline is a favourite too (she has a signed copy).

Thinking ahead - you have a whole lot to get through already; enough to last you a couple of years - my 11 year old loved H G Wells' War of the Worlds and The Time Machine and was utterly hooked by Wyndham's The Day of the Triffids. She also found parts of Robert Sheckley's Dimension of Miracles so funny I had to read them over to her again and again. I lent her the first volume of PK Dick's short stories last week. Our bedtime read at the moment - when we get to it - is Mark Twain's A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court. One of the sadnesses of my life is that she is growing out of the bedtime read ritual, preferring instead to read on her own - and I was so looking forward to rediscovering Robert Heinlein's juveniles. Admittedly she has a reading age way beyond her years - one of the real positive aspects of her autism - but never underestimate what kids will like. I'm in my 50s now and am still coming across stories by the likes of Damon Knight, Robert Sheckley, Alfred Bester, Frederick Pohl etc. that I must have last read when I was about nine. (The specific memories they invoke allow me to place when I read them quite accurately. We moved house a lot.) I'm not sure how much I really understood of them as a kid but the images I took from them and the sheer Gosh Wow! of it all still echo.

 

[Jo Zebedee]

My 9 yo is loving Matilda and all I can do is think of Karen in Outnumbered ( Brits will know the series) and her recent meetin with her headmistress.

 

[Helix]

Riding Tycho by Jan Mark, The Firebringer Trilogy by Meredith Ann Pierce, Raptor Red by Robert T. Bakker, Julies Wolf Pack by Jean Craighead George, Dealing with Dragons by Patricia Wrede

 

[Mirannan]

Just possibly, The Lord of the Rings might be suitable. It really depends on how precocious she is, but just possibly. And it will certainly last a while!

Some of Heinlein's books aimed at juveniles might be useful, too.

 

[psikeyhackr]

Some of Heinlein's books aimed at juveniles might be useful, too.

Citizen of the Galaxy by Robert A. Heinlein, published in hardcover 1957.

psik

 

[RebeccaTheWrecker]

Dianna Wynne Jones is brilliant for younger kids. Howl's Moving Castle is definitely a good one, and her Chrestomanci series is also really interesting but may be for slightly older children as in the later books there are some older themes.

 

[The Bluestocking]

Try Eva Ibbotson's books - great female protagonists who go on adventures. Not SFF but definitely more aligned to Enid Blyton and L.M. Montgomery than anything I've seen in a while.

 

[psikeyhackr]

Ten Young Girls in Sci-Fi and Fantasy Who Kick Ass, Whom You've Never Heard Of - Duane Vore, Writer

Rite of Passage has some heavy stuff, including sex, that you might not want to expose her to.

I think this is great but parents should read it first to decide if it is "too mature" for their child's age.

psik

 

[Juliana]

My 9yo has discovered the 39 Clues. She loves them (is on book 6 now).

 

[chongjasmine]

You could try chronicles of narnia.

 

[dragon wizard byfire]

the Spiderwick Chronicles by Holly Black and Tony Diterlizzi

 

[Mirannan]

I think Diane Duane's Young Wizards books might suit. They have some fairly complex themes, but after all - all the main characters are children.
And a nine-year-old girl (Dairine) is the most powerful character in the series. For perfectly good reasons, I might add.