A Little Light Reading

A few days ago, I wrote about the 9-year-old who is at loggerheads with The Librarians. What might we get her to read? It happens that our host made a list of the proposed titles, which people here might enjoy. What we know about the 9-year-old in the case is that she’s already enjoyed Harry Potter, The Hunger Games, and To Kill A Mockingbird.

There are bound to be shocking omissions: don’t hit me but feel free to email. You might think some are a bit advanced for 9-year-old tastes, but of course everyone’s mileage varies and it’s bound to take a while to get through the whole list. (One the one hand, it’s only about 150 titles; on the other, some of those lead to extensive series.)

Adult books

• (something) Barbara Hambly
• (something) Georgette Heyer
• (something) Kurt Vonnegut
• (something) Michael Lewis
• Amphigorey Edward Gorey
• Carrie Stephen King
• 1632 Eric Flint
• 1984 George Orwell
• All Creatures Great and Small James Herriot
• The Arabian Nights
• Major Barbara or Saint Joan George Bernard Shaw
• Around the World in 80 Days Jules Verne
• Blue Heaven Joe Keenan
• Brave New World Aldous Huxley
• Catch-22 Joseph Heller
• A Clockwork Orange Anthony Burgess
• Cold Comfort Farm Stella Gibbons
• Courtship Rite Donald Kingsbury
• Cranford Mrs Gaskell
• Crocodile on the Sandbank Elizabeth Peters
• Cyrano de Bergerac Edmond Rostand
• The Dark Lord of Derkholm Diana Wynne Jones
• The Daughter of Time Josephine Tey
• The Diamond Age Neal Stephenson
• The Diary of Anne Frank
• Don't Point that Thing at Me Kyril Bonfiglioli
• Don't Tell Alfred Nancy Mitford
• Dune Frank Herbert
• The English Orphans Mary J. Holmes
• Fire and Hemlock Diana Wynne Jones
• Fire Upon the Deep Vernor Vinge
• Fly by Night Frances Hardinge
• The Forever War Joe Haldeman
• Good Omens Terry Pratchett + Neil Gaiman
• Gone with the Wind Margaret Mitchell
• The Great Gatsby F. Scott Fitzgerald
• Greenmantle John Buchan
• Guards! Guards! Terry Pratchett
• His Majesty's Dragon Naomi Novik
• The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy Douglas Adams
• A Humument Tom Phillips
• I, Claudius Robert Graves
• Harry Potter and the Methods of Rationality Eliezer Yudkowski
• Harry Potter and the Natural 20 Sir Poley
• The Importance of Being Earnest Oscar Wilde
• I Robot Isaac Asimov
• Ivanhoe Walter Scott
• Jonathan Strange and Mr Norell Susanna Clarke
• Jumper Steven Gould
• The King Must Die Mary Reneault
• Lest Darkness Fall L. Sprague De Camp
• Little Fuzzy H. Beam Piper
• The World of Jeeves PG Wodehouse
• The Jungle Book Rudyard Kipling
• The Lord of the Rings JRR Tolkien
• Lysistrata Aristophanes
• Master and Commander Patrick O'Brian
• Middlemarch George Eliot
• Mr Midshipman Hornblower CS Forester
• Murder Must Advertise Dorothy Sayers
• Murder on the Orient Express Agatha Christie
• Nine Princes in Amber Roger Zelazney
• The Odyssey Homer
• Oedipus cycle Sophocles
• Our Hearts Were Young and Gay Cornelia Otis Skinner + Emily Kimbrough
• Pride and Predjudice Jane Austen
• The Princess Bride William Goldman
• Queen Lucia EF Benson
• Revenge Stephen Fry
• The Riddlemaster of Hed Patricia McKillip
• Ringworld Larry Niven
• Rite of Passage Alexei Panshin
• Sabriel Garth Nix
• The Saskiad Brian Hall
• The Screwtape Letters CS Lewis
• Sherlock Holmes Arthur Conan Doyle
• The Ship Who Sang Anne McCaffrey
• Shogun James Clavell
• Snow Crash Neal Stephenson
• The Stainless Steel Rat Harry Harrison
• Sundiver or Startide Rising David Brin
• Tarzan of the Apes Edgar Rice Burroughs
• Tea with the Black Dragon RA MacAvoy
• The 13th Child Patricia Wrede
• The Three Musketeers Alexandre Dumas
• Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy John le Carré
• Thus Was Adonis Murdered Sarah Caudwell
• Tunnel in the Sky Robert Heinlein
• The Warden Anthony Trollope
• Watchmen Alan Moore
• Watership Down Richard Adams
• When Will There Be Good News? Kate Atkinson
• The Witches of Karres James Schmitz
• Worm wildbow
• Young Miles Lois McMaster Bujold

YA/Children's

• (something) by Roald Dahl
• Airborne Kenneth Oppel
• Alice in Wonderland Lewis Carroll
• The Amazing Maurice and His Educated Rodents Terry Pratchett
• The Amulet of Samarkand Jonathan Stroud
• Archer's Goon Diana Wynne Jones
• The Bad Beginning Lemony Snicket
• The Book of Three Lloyd Alexander
• Bloody Jack Lois Meyer
• Charlotte's Web EB White
• Daddy Long Legs Jean Webster
• Enchantress from the Stars Sylvia Engdahl
• Ender's Game Orson Scott Card
• The Evolution of Calpurnia Tate Jacqueline Kelly
• Fangirl Rainbow Rowell
• Flora Segunda Ysabeau Wilce
• The Gammage Cup Carol Kendall
• The Golden Compass Philip Pullman
• Harriet the Spy Louise Fitzhugh
• Have Spacesuit, Will Travel Robert Heinlein
• The Hobbit JRR Tolkien
• Ingathering or Pilgrimage Zenna Henderson
• The Lion, the Witch & the Wardrobe CS Lewis
• Mistress Masham's Repose T.H. White
• Nation Terry Pratchett
• The Once and Future King T.H. White
• Pippi Longstocking Astrid Lindgren
• The Princess and the Goblin George Macdonald
• A Proud Taste for Scarlet and Miniver EL Konigsburg
• Ragged Dick & Struggling Upward Horatio Alger
• Rampant [Killer Unicorns] Diana Peterfreund
• Ruby in the Smoke Philip Pullman
• The Secret Garden Frances Hodgson Burnett
• Serafina Rachel Hartman
• Suite Scarlet Maureen Johnson
• Swallows and Amazons Arthur Ransome
• Terrier Tamora Pierce
• The Wee Free Men Terry Pratchett
• When You Reach Me Rebecca Stead
• The White Mountains John Christopher
• A Wizard of Earthsea Ursula K. LeGuin
• The Wolves of Willoughby Chase Joan Aiken

To read to her sister

• Chicken Soup with Rice
• I'm Coming to Get You Tony Ross
• Everyone Knows What a Dragon Looks Like Jay Williams
• The Little Engine that Could Watty Piper
• Madeline Ludwig Bemelmans
• The Mitten Jan Brett
• The Snowy Day Ezra Jack Keats
• Stellaluna Janell Cannon
• Tacky the Penguin Helen Lester
• Where the Wild Things Are Maurice Sendak

Apropos of nothing: I’ve read many of these books, but not all. I read only four of them for school; almost nothing that this group of fierce readers proposed was a book they had read for class. Three were read to me before I could read. My second grade teacher was Helen Doughty who, mid-year, transmogrified herself into Helen Lester. Could it be the same Helen Lester?