Hi my niece has recently got really into reading and she absolutely loves thick books at the moment and states that her school doesnt have books thick enough for her and recently got her mom to buy her some books from the local market that she deemed thick enough (500-700 pages long) they’re mainly about cat perspectives and stuff nothing fancy but I want to get her some books for Christmas she’ll like but aren’t having any luck online other then Harry Potter.
Any recommendations?
Edit: Thank you so much to everyone for the lovely suggestions! I’m trying to respond to everyone I’m just a little overwhelmed as I wasn’t expecting there to be this many responses (I still appreciate it!) so thank you again 🙂
by EducationalTomato489
27 Comments
Wings of Fire series
She’s wonderful.
Check out Keeper of the Lost Cities, all of the Rick Riordan Presents books, Nevermoor, Ranger’s Apprentice, Eragorn
The Complete A Series of Unfortunate Events
Eragon and it’s sequels
The Hobbit and the Lord of the Rings trilogy
(these were my big books when I was 12)
Chris Colfer’s Land of Stories
Mysterious Benedict Society. Magic Misfits.
Redwall series, Charlie Bone series by Jenny Nimmo, Inkheart series and her other books, Diana Wynne Jones books, Crestomanci series and her Dalemark quartet is super chonky, maybe Anne of Green Gables and The Secret Garden?
Tamora Pierce! Get the Song Of the Lioness (Alanna), Wild Magic (Daine), and Protector Of The Small (Kel) quartets. I think every girl should grow up reading them.
Gregor the overlander is great and the Wayward Children Series
The Wrinkle in Time series, or the “Time Quintet”, I was an avid reader around her age and was very impressed with this series.
She might like The 39 Clues series or The Mysterious Benedict Society, as someone else suggested. The Molly Moon series by Georgia Byng was a favorite of mine around that age as well.
Fablehaven! They are CHONK.
the familiars series! if she loved harry potter, she’ll like those for sure. the kingdom keeper series are good too!
A book my daughter and I read together that was absolutely riveting for both of us was Fifty-Four Things Wrong with Gwendolyn Rogers. It handles so many deep topics like addiction, non-traditional families, neurodivergence, unjust school policies, and gender identity at a level that kids understand without being patronizing. Really just a beautiful book. We didn’t want to put it down each night at bedtime because we wanted to find out what would happen next.
My kids like the animorphs books (tho they’ve refused to read the chapter books as of yet and just read the graphic novels)
My daughter and I read the lunar chronicles last year when she was 8. It starts with cinder.
Percy Jackson is a good series
The Inkheart trilogy, Artemis fowl, Eragon
I was obsessed with these!
I loved The Invention of Hugo Cabret at around her age. It’s a chonky book but a graphic novel so a fun read. Plus the author has some other great graphic novels if she gets into his style of storytelling.
If you want something other than fantasy, I recommend the Laura Ingalls Wilder-books and the Anne of Green Gables-books.
The Danish fantasy series “The Shamer’s Daughter” is very good, too
In addition to the others that were mentioned: I would’ve loved Nevermoor as a 9 year old!
Edit: it’s not that long though sorry – maybe Septimus Heap? Those were long. Can you get collections instead?
It’s hard to find big books that people would consider suitable for a 9 year old, and around her age I was already starting to read things much more mature for my age and that was one of the reasons. The best bet is to find a series, here’s a list of some I loved at her age:
– A Series of Unfortunate Events
– the Percy Jackson Series
– the Narnia Series
– the Uglies trilogy (has a fourth book, but it’s a different protagonist so I didn’t read it)
– the His Dark Materials series
Peter and the Starcatchers!
The Wind in the Willows by Kenneth Grahame
The Mysterious Benedict Society series by Trenton Lee Stewart
The Edge Chronicles by Paul Stewart and Chris Riddell (For my money, so much more fun than Harry Potter. The world building is incredible.)
The Phantom Tollbooth by Norton Juster (The perfect book. A fun read at any age.)
Jonathan Stroud has several series with fairly chunky books, Lockwood and Co., Bartimaeus Trilogy, and Scarlett and Browne.
The wizard in my shed
At least I think it’s called that. And I think there’s even a second part by now.
Chronicles of narnia
Maybe she’d enjoy Tolkien’s works? Some of them like beren and luthien when she’s a bit older but it’s a hugeee and vast world that she might enjoy? 😊😊
The keys to the kingdom series, by Garth Nix
I loved Goddess Girls growing up. The series has fun stories about mythological goddesses in high school and their misadventures.