It's We Recommend,
yet again, where we try to find you (or your loved one, or at least
your liked one) the perfect book. Need a recommendation? Send us an
email at thediamondinthewind (at) gmail (dot) com, with the person's
likes, loves, hates etc, and we will do our best with it. And
truthfully, all the good stuff is in the comments.
Ah, my friends, this is the perfect request, because 11-year-old girls—they are a delightful reading audience. See here:
Part of my family (myself and my 13 year old son) are huge
readers, while the other part (husband and 11 year old daughter) are not
as obsessed. It is my daughter that I'm looking for advice about. I
hope you or your readers will come up with some ideas.Within the past year or so, she has finally decided to
branch out from the chapter books (Geronimo Stilton, etc) which she
adored and try her hand a larger books.She
loves Neil Gaiman (The Graveyard Book and Coraline are her two
favorites), she has reread Lari Don's series First Aid for Fairies and
Other Fables Beasts several times. She has read 6 of the 7 Harry Potter
books, but is waiting until she is older to read the last one.When asked, she says she wants to read "interesting" books. I
think she likes mysteries, an I've got her reading From the Mixed-up
Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler. I've requested Savvy from the
library, and will also try out Chasing Vermeer.I'd love to have a list of other books to continue to perk her interest.
The question is, can we determine what she loves from the traces here? Creepy sounds good, magical sounds good, what should it be?
The ones that first come to mind are Tamora Pierce and Terry Prachett, but the truth is there are so many amazing books it's hard to know where to begin. So I did what any sane person in this situation would do, and I asked Diana. Her pick:
Magic? Check. Mythical creatures? Check. A little creepy, but not too creepy? Check and check again!
But here's the excellent part: the request said she's trying to come up with a list. This one is the first of a series, but there's room for a whole lot more. What are your picks? Put them in the comments, please!
marcialerner.com 
Wrinkle in Time, just blogged about it http://reelgirl.com/2013/09/a-wrinkle-in-time-rarer-than-unicorn-5-females-mentor-female-protag/
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Land of Stories is pretty good too http://reelgirl.com/2013/09/land-of-stories-glee-actor-pens-books-starring-heroic-females/
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Mrs Frisby and the rate of NIMH? Golden Compass?
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How about Eva Ibbotson? ISLAND OF THE AUNTS; WHICH WITCH; THE SECRET OF PLATFORM 13…my daughter couldn’t get enough of these when she was 11.
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The Sisters’ Grimm series by Michael Buckley (the first title is The Fairy Tale Detectives)
and the Echo Falls series by Peter Abrahams (the first title is Down the Rabbit Hole)
I also want to put a plug in for Gerald Morris’ The Squire Tales series–adventure, humor, magic, and strong female characters. The stories are based on Arthurian Legend.
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Three Times Lucky – my kids recommend this book to EVERYONE
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Zilpha Keatley Snyder, especially The Egypt Game
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If she likes mysteries, she would love The Westing Game. Or anything by Ellen Raskin.
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The Diamond in the Window!
Tom’s Midnight Garden
The Thyme Garden (Eager)
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oops- Should be The Time Garden (I think)
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Flavia deLuce! And Robin Mckinnley books. Also Edgar Eager. And the And the Gone Away Lake books… Ah, to be 11 and just discovering these… Hopefully any one of all those suggested by us will unlock a tidal wave of reading!
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How about Michael Vey, or the Percy Jackson series..how do you write the plural of series? There are two. My 12-year-old is obsessed right now. She also loved Harry Potter. The Running Dream, Miss Peregrine’s House for Peculiar Children, The Alchemyst Series with Nicholas Flamel?
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OH! She also loved every book by Wendy Mass!
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What about Howl’s Moving Castle? It has magic and mysteries! Diana Wynne Jones in general might be right up her alley. She was actually great friends with Neil Gaiman, and supposedly based the young Christopher Chant (from the Chrestomanci series) on him. If she likes Howl there are two more books in that series (Castle in the Air, House of Many Ways) and there are six Chrestomanci books!
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I was also really into Patricia C. Wrede at that age: http://www.amazon.com/The-Enchanted-Forest-Chronicles-Searching/dp/0152050523
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Cornelia Funke! Horton’s Miraculous Mechanisms series… humm, I guess she’s too young for Pratchett? He does have a young adult series! I only mention it because Gaiman lovers frequently love Pratchett.
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My eleven year old’s recent faves that haven’t already been mentioned: Scott Westerfeld’s Leviathan trilogy, The Spindlers by Lauren Oliver, Raina Telgemeier’s graphic novels Smile and Drama, Barry Deutsch’s Mirka graphic novels, The Origami Yoda series, and The Magic Next Door series.
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Well, clearly “The Wolves of Willoughby Chase” as referenced in your previous post. I second Ibbotson. My favorite book when I was 11 was “The Last of the Really Great Whangdoodles” And every 11 year old I know is currently reading “The Warriors” series.
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Oooh, I just walked by my bookcase – a book that every 11 year old should read “The Silver Crown” by Robert C. O’Brien.
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