Children's Books discussion

My daughter, now 8 1/2, has enjoyed a variety of books, from realistic stories of people (Little House in the Big Woods) and animals (Angus and Sadie) to the whimsical (Pippi Longstocking) and outright fantasy (James and the Giant Peach), (The Enchanted Wood). However she is uncomfortable when the main character(s) of a story misbehave or get into trouble. She didn't much care for Beezus and Ramona because of Ramona's behavior, even though there was no malice involved; even the misadventures of Paddington in A Bear Called Paddington made her uncomfortable in spite of their whimsical nature. The realistic dangers and adventures of The Incredible Journey also bothered her.

In light of these preferences, I am hoping that some of you amazingly well-read folks on Goodreads can suggest books for my daughter. Thank you!

Authors, please don't use this thread as an opportunity to make a sales pitch for your work. I'm looking for recommendations from other parents based on their experience reading to their children.

I enjoyed the classics but unlike your daughter, I liked girls who misbehaved. Anne of Green Gables My niece really liked the The Princess in Black series even up to age 8. She loves graphic novels and at that age she had read and loved Zita the Spacegirl. One other book she really loves is The Animal Family.

You might try some of the other Lucy Maud Montgomery books
Magic for Marigold
The Story Girl (the kids do misbehave once in awhile)

How about an adaptation of Little Women - something like
Portraits of Little Women Series by Susan Beth Pfeffer.

Since she likes Little House in the Big Woods she might like some of the spin-offs about Laura's ancestors or daughter or even the early reader or picture book adaptations of the novels.

She might like Betsy-Tacy and The Melendy Family

It's been a long time but some books I read and loved at that age were by
Eleanor Estes (The Moffatts)
All-of-a-Kind Family series
The Golden Name Day
Linnea in Monet's Garden
The Borrowers (maybe too much mild peril?)
Eight Cousins
The Secret Garden (maybe too big a secret and too much drama?)
A Little Princess (maybe too sad?)
Charlotte's Web
Mr. Popper's Penguins
Dr Dolittle Collection: The Story of Dr Dolittle, The Voyages of Dr Dolittle and Dr Dolittle's Post Office

Most of the Newberry Honor books mentioned in this thread

The American Girl books MINUS the summer stories! Try Josefina who is the quietest and most shy of them all, avoid the summer story still. Maybe Molly would be good too. She's spunky but she doesn't really get into trouble, trouble. The worst thing she does is play a mean trick, even in the summer story. The library may have the AG short stories which might be easier for your daughter- less peril and misbehavior. The modern characters have a lot of friend drama and tend to be whiny.

Five Little Peppers and How They Grew by Margaret Sidney
This is an old-fashioned family drama. It was interesting to read how a poor family in the 1880s coped with life and having very little. I did love the happy ending, although it was a little bit too good to be true. I don't really remember anyone misbehaving in the story. Mostly the family was trying to pull together to make ends meet.

Beverly wrote: "Five Little Peppers and How They Grew by Margaret Sidney
This is an old-fashioned family drama. It was interesting to read how a poor family in the 1880s coped with life a..."

Noo... I didn't recommend that one for a child. I absolutely loved this book when I was a kid but my aunt's sister pre-read it before reading to her first grade class and she did not choose to read it out loud to the kids. It's a bit problematical. Phronsie runs away chasing after the angry Italian organ grinder's monkey. He's a threatening character and a bad stereotype. She's rescued, of course. There's also a scene where she falls down the stairs holding a knife.

The Noisy Village books by Astrid Lindgren

Heidi by Johanna Spyri

Thimble Summer by Elizabeth Enright

Little Lord Fauntleroy by Frances Hogdson Burnett

I don't know if they are still in print but I adored the Betsy series at that age. I think the author was Carolyn Haywood.
The author Catherine Wooley aka Jane Thayer has some gems as well. I also liked the Homer Price series at that age. And The Boxcar Children. Anything by Beverly Cleary is good as well.

Those are mostly "international" recommendations that are not just for your daughter but for... her dad, too.

Tove Jansson all the way. The Moomin books are splendid for any 8-9yo (or 80-90yo, for that matter).

Eiko Kadono's Kiki's Delivery Press. After Kadono won the Hans Christian Andersen Award, two or three new translations in English appeared on the market. The book was pretty hard to find before that. Now it isn't. It's a blast. Also, very endearing.

Toon Tellegen's short stories - especially the 4 books the UK publisher Boxer Books released + The Day No One Was Angry (Gecko Press)

Ervin Lázár's 'Arnica, the Duck Princess (Hungary) + Eva Furnari's Fuzz McFlops (Brazil), both from Pushkin Press.

Philippa Pearce's Tom's Midnight Garden.

David Almond's My Dad's a Birdman.

Andrew Clements's Frindle.

E.L. Konignburg's The View from Saturday + From the Mixed-Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler.

Anne Fine's Goggle-Eyes.

Thank you for the suggestions, everyone!

I teach 2nd and 3rd grade students. The Boxcar Children and its series is a HUGE favorite for that age group. Also Magic Tree House.

The Boxcar Children

Dinosaurs Before Dark

If you're looking at American Girl books, also avoid Changes for Kirsten: A Winter Story, actually best to avoid her all together for a sensitive child. Addy too, probably because of the issues of slavery and maybe Kaya. Start with Valerie Tripp books but not the summer stories, except for Molly. She disobeys authority in the form of another kid during the color war at camp to try to save the game and earn a win for her team. It's meant to bring WWII down to a kid's eye level.

Lewis, I have a sensitive young reader myself and can relate to your quest. A few we have enjoyed that haven't been mentioned already in this thread:

Dragons and Marshmallows and related series. The protagonist has loving and involved parents and really tries to act responsibly and kindly and good STEAM tie-ins. (Note there is some mild animal peril in these, but all ends well. Not sure if that is a concern for her.)

In Aunt Lucy's Kitchen and the rest of the Cobble Street Cousins series. Very sweet and gentle.

Happy Little Family and the rest of this series by Caudill

"B" Is for Betsy and series

As I recall neither the Caudill books nor the Betsy books had intentional misbehaving but a few incidents of children forgetting what they ought to be doing (i.e., absorbed in picking flowers and accidentally trespassing on a neighbor's lawn. All ends well

I might perhaps suggest also Little House in the Highlands (we've only read the first three in that series) since she is okay with something like Little House books and how Laura does not always behave like a "proper young lady" -- her great-grandmother Martha in this series is much the same. We also liked some of the books in the Charlotte years but they are a bit heavier with themes of loss etc. so I had to skip a few chapters for my sensitive reader.

I wish her happy and stress-free reading! :-)

Kathryn wrote: "good STEAM tie-ins."

Thank you for the suggestions! Please explain STEAM? I'm not familiar with that acronym. Thank you.

Sorry, more often it’s just STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Math). In the Zoey and Sassafras books the girl uses real world science to help magical animals in need :-) Both my boys love this series.

(STEAM includes Arts)

Marin wrote: "Lewis wrote: "My daughter, now 8 1/2, has enjoyed a variety of books, from realistic stories of people (Little House in the Big Woods) and animals (Angus and Sadie) to the..."

Marin, according to group rules, you are not allowed to promote your own work except in the author section. So you need to remove your post and if you want to promote your work you can set up a topic for it in the author/promotional section. And sorry, not doing so will mean that one of us moderators will be deleting your post as our rules are pretty strict regarding where in the group authors are allowed to post about their own work.