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    Book Suggestions

    Millennials, what books did you read as tweens?!

    View 43 Comments

    43 Comments

    1. blue-raspberry67 on

      i read goosebumps as a kid so after i outgrew those, i switched to RL stines’ other series- fear street

      i was obsessed with spooky books

    2. Stormrosie on

      Ella Enchanted by Gail Carson Levine. One of my absolute favorites when I was that age. I still have my old copy, and it’s very loved and dog-eared.

    3. Nyx-Star on

      “Age appropriate” is a nebulous phrase that has far more to do with the individual than the age group I’m afraid. However, The Chronicles of Narnia would definitely be age appropriate and likely easy reads (well before the 80s but still). Matilda by Dahl was one I read around then I think. Of course the big book from my childhood was Harry Potter…

      As for books I read at 10 😅 I was deep into Stephen King by then. Probably just finishing up IT and starting in The Stand to be honest….

    4. ilikethedaffodils on

      Babysitters Club, Sleepover Club, Animal Ark, Jacqueline Wilson. I also loved The Borrowers after watching the TV series, and Michelle Magorian’s books esp Back Home and Goodnight Mr Tom. And Michael Morpurgo!

    5. PastSupport on

      I liked His Dark Materials, The Deptford Mice, The Old Kingdom books (the first three), The Wyrd Museum. EDIT: some of those will be later 90s, when I was 10/11

      I also inherited a load of older and classic books from my grandad, so I had Jane Eyre, Little Women, Treasure Island, Oliver Twist and A Christmas Carol, and The Hobbit, Lord of the Rings and my absolute favourite, Watership Down!

    6. PatchworkGirl82 on

      My taste in books was all over the place at that age. I was big into the Babysitters Club, but I also loved Jane Eyre and Carrie (which somehow was allowed to be on the shelf in my middle school study hall).

      I read all of Judy Blume, Lois Duncan, Roald Dahl (Matilda was my favorite lol), and LM Montgomery. I remember borrowing The Neverending Story by Michael Ende and Pinocchio by Carlo Callodi constantly from the library.

      I would sometimes just wander the aisles of my library and pick out what looked interesting too, I went through books the way the Hungry Hungry Caterpillar went through food.

      Edit: also the American Girl books! I swear that’s how I became a history nerd later, because I was obsessed with the Felicity and Samantha books.

      Edit: grammar

    7. TheHappyExplosionist on

      Tamora Pierce! Especially Song of the Lioness. Also a bit later, but a lot of animal books like Warriors, Guardians of Ga’Hoole and Silverwing.

    8. HeyOkay00 on

      Goosebumps and Babysitters Club. and VC in 6th grade 😂

      There was a book I read as a tween that I cannot find the title of. There was a young girl whose parents were on a trip and someone was babysitting her. She lied about when they would come home so she could go to the mall by herself. At the mall, she bought men’s underwear shaped like a wolf I think (??) and then an older man tried to kiss her. Not sure if it was a salesperson or teacher or who it was. But she was home alone and scared and finally told her best friend. 

    11. Famous-Reporter-3133 on

      Goosebumps series, Judy Blume (maybe slightly older for those books?!). I also remember reading the Little House on the Prairie series.

    12. LoneLantern2 on

      Susan Cooper Dark is Rising series, Patricia C. Wrede Enchanted Forest Chronicles.

      And only didn’t read it at her age because it wasn’t out when I was her age, but Wee Free Men, Terry Pratchett

    17. sillyoryx on

      Babysitters club was huge for me, but I also really enjoyed the Amazing Days of Abby Hayes series – I always found such comfort in reading them.

    18. BelmontIncident on

      The Boxcar Children, Narnia, The Hobbit and Lord of the Rings, Diane Duane’s Young Wizards series.

    19. KoriMay420 on

      I read a lot of the Sweet Valley books (Kids and then Sweet Valley High when I got older)

    21. singasongoftwopence on

      I was scarred for life by *Animorphs* and highly recommend it if she’s at all interested in scifi or grittier space opera. Basic gist is shape-shifting child soldiers help fight an alien proxy war of ambiguous morality.

      Honorable mention to *The Ear, the Eye and the Arm* by Nancy Farmer as a first foray into Afro-futurism.

      Seconding Tamora Pierce (*Emelan* over *Tortall*), Garth Nix (*Old Kingdom*), Susan Cooper (*The Dark is Rising*), Madeleine L’Engel (*Time Quintet*) and Phillip Pulman (*His Dark Materials*). Terry Prachett’s young adult books (*Nation* and the Tiffany Aching series) are also gold, though not a millennial touchstone.

    23. Kansasgrl968 on

      I loved horror and supernatural so it was a lot of R.L. Stine Fear Street/Fear Street Saga, Christopher Pike. I also like messy drama/gothic and that led me to V.C Andrews. Then it was whatever was assigned reading for school.

    24. foamy_da_skwirrel on

      Madeline L’Engle books, The Dark is Rising, Wateship Down, and honestly a lot of books for adults I probably should not have been reading lol

    25. triangularte on

      Julie of the Wolves and Island of the Blue Dolphins

      Not your question, but the best books I read with my kids when they were that age more recently were The Birchbark House series by Louise Erdrich and The Girl Who Drank the Moon by Kelly Barnhill. I’ll plug those any chance I get!

    29. francesc_ahhh on

      Slightly later than what you’re asking for as I’m an 89 baby but I loved the Georgia Nicholson books by Louise Rennison. Laugh out loud funny.

    30. PrimeGarbage on

      The Land of Elyon series by Patrick Carman

      The Sammy Keyes mystery series by Wendelin van Draanan

      The Wild Girls by Pat Murphy

      The Summer of the Monkeys by Wilson Rawls

      Where the Red Fern Grows by Wilson Rawls

    32. Good_Geologist6170 on

      ANITA BLAKE VAMPIRE EXICUTIONER BY LKH
      The Hollows series Kim Harrison
      Woman of the other world (I forgot about this one… might have to look into it)
      Buffy the Vampire Slayer Books

      I read a lot of adults and some YA. MY dad was so proud of how I was devouring books. Until he flipped through an Anita book. Then he threw them out! I’m 36 now and still read some of them when new ones come out.

    35. Dry_Philosophy_6747 on

      The Babysitters Club, The Sleepover Club, books by Enid Blyton and Roald Dahl, the Harry Potter series, His Dark Matériels

    36. SaltyInformation0409 on

      Redwall series by Brian Jacques
      Caddie Woodlawn by Carol Ryrie Brink
      Princess Diaries
      The Hatchet series
      My Side of the Mountain

    38. Open_Environment_867 on

      I read a ton of choose your own adventure books, Roald Dahl books, Babysitters club, sweet valley high, goosebumps, animorphs, Ramona Quimby, Harry Potter. And of course all the adventures of Mary Kate and Ashley books.

    40. GaoAnTian on

      Starting at age 11 or 12 I worked my way thru every Newberry winner. And those I liked, I went and read every other thing that author wrote.

      Favorites included Katherine Paterson, Avi, Lois Lowry, Scott Odell, Jean Craighead George, Linda Park, Karen Cushman, Elizabeth George Spear. Looking no at this list I think I just realized where my interest in history came from!

      The Westing Game which led me to read every Agatha Christie, Ngaio Marsh, Dorothy L Sayers, GK Chesterton and be obsessed with British mysteries of the 1920s and 1930s.

      I adored From the Mixed Up Files of Mrs Basil E Frankenweiler by EL Königsberg and wanted to live in a museum for years after that book!

      I hate anything written by Jerry Spinelli though.

      I was super into Greek and Roman mythology at that age and read all kinds of non fiction books and various story collections. And then read the Odyssey and the Iliad in middle school because I was already a fan of original source material.

      At age 13 I discovered Lucy Maud Montgomery and Louisa May Alcott and Inter Library Loan was my best friend as I ordered anything ever published by these writers including obscure articles and short stories published in magazines that had long ago gone defunct.

      My niblings always receive books from me as gifts for every single occasion and I read them first, so some modern favorites include:

      Magic School Bus Science Readers
      I Survived….
      Magic Tree House
      Magic Tree House Merlin
      Captain Underpants
      Magic Tree House Facts
      Geronimo Stilton
      Thea Stilton
      Elephant & Piggy
      What If You Had…
      Frankie Sparks
      Franny K Stein
      I Wonder Why…
      Magic School Bus (chapter books)

    41. cloudcreeek on

      Cirque de Freak, The Count of Monte Cristo, Myth-o-Mania (books about Greek mythology)

    42. fragments_shored on

      I read a lot of fantasy at that age and my favorites were:

      * Robin McKinley, especially “The Hero and the Crown,” “The Blue Sword,” and “Beauty”
      * Patricia C. Wrede’s The Enchanted Forest Chronicles – first book is “Dealing With Dragons”
      * Lloyd Alexander’s Prydain Chronicles – first book is “The Book of Three” (I also loved his Westmark series, the first book is “Westmark”)
      * Philip Pullman’s His Dark Materials series, although I was a later teen when I read these – first book is “The Golden Compass” (in the US, “Northern Lights” in the UK) – I also loved his Sally Lockhart books, which are historical fiction mysteries with a plucky main character, first book is “The Ruby in the Smoke”
      * Susan Cooper’s The Dark Is Rising series – first book is “Over Sea, Under Stone”
      * Madeleine L’Engle’s books, although I re-read “An Acceptable Time” as an adult and it did not hold up – maybe start with “A Wrinkle in Time” instead, or “Meet the Austins”
      * Tanith Lee’s Unicorn trilogy – first book is “Black Unicorn”

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