Books That Will Change Your Life
WE PRESENT these titles for your reading pleasure, knowing there are endless books beyond this list to discover and love, too. We know you will read them in your own fashion and at your own pace.
20 GIRL CLASSICS
A Wrinkle in Time by Madeleine
L’Engle, and her other books too.
Anne of Green Gables (and Emily
of New Moon) by L.M. Montgomery
Behind Rebel Lines: The Incredible Story
of Emma Edmonds, Civil War Spy by Seymour Reit
Bridge to Terabithia by Katherine
Paterson
Caddie Woodlawn (and the sequel,
Magical Melons) by Carol Ryrie Brink
Charlotte’s Web by E.B.White
The Famous Five, a series by Enid
Blyton, with Dick, Ann, Julian, George (a girl!), and her dog
Timothy.
From the Mixed-Up Files of Mrs. Basil E.
Frankweiler by E.L. Konigsburg
Harriet the Spy by Louise
Fitzhugh
The Illyrian Adventure series by
Lloyd Alexander
The Little Princess (and The
Secret Garden) by Frances Hodgson Burnett
Keep Climbing, Girls by Beah H.
Richards
Little Women and Jo’s Boys by
Louisa May Alcott
Little House on the Prairie by Laura
Ingalls Wilder—the entire series.
Lizzie Bright (and The
Buckminster Boy) by Gary Schmidt
Mandy by Julie Andrews
Matilda (and The BFG) by
Roald Dahl. Actually, make that anything by Roald Dahl.
Miss Happiness and Miss Flower by
Rumer Godden
Pippi Longstocking by Astrid
Lindgren
Ramona by Beverly Cleary (the
series)
OTHER FAVORITES
Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland and
Through the Looking Glass by Lewis Carroll
Amazing Grace by Mary Hoffman
All of a Kind Family by Sydney
Taylor
The Borrowers by Mary Norton
Call of the Wild by Jack London
The Chronicles of Narnia by C.S.
Lewis. Seven classic novels from the 1950s, including the most
famous, The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe
The Good Earth by Pearl S. Buck
Great Expectations by
Charles Dickens
Harry Potter by J.K. Rowling. All
seven, in time, and as you grow.
The Hobbit and The Lord of the
Rings by J.R.R. Tolkien
The Hoboken Chicken Emergency and
other madcap stories by Daniel Pinkwater
Island of the Blue Dolphins, by
Scott O’Dell, about a girl Robinson Crusoe. When you’re done, read
the original Robinson Crusoe by Daniel Defoe.
Jane Eyre by Charlotte Brontë
Johnny Tremain by Esther Forbes
The Little Prince by Antoine de
Saint-Exupery
Marjorie Morningstar by Herman
Wouk
Mary Poppins by P.L. Travers
Mrs. Frisby and the Rats of NIMH, by
Robert C. O’Brien
My Side of the Mountain and Julie
of the Wolves by Jean Craighead George
Out of the Dust by Karen Hesse
The Phantom Tollbooth by Norton
Juster. Yes, another boy-hero-rescues-the-princesses plot (though
here the princesses are Rhyme and Reason), but a great book
nonetheless.
Pride and Prejudice by Jane
Austen
Treasure Island by Robert Louis
Stevenson
A Tree Groes in Brooklyn by Betty
Smith
The True Confessions of Charlotte
Doyle by Avi
Winnie the Pooh by A.A. Milne. The
original books, and the poems.
The Witch of Blackbird Pond by
Elizabeth George Speare
Wuthering Heights by Emily
Brontë
The Wonderful Wizard of Oz by Frank
Baum
SCIENCE FICTION AND FANTASY BOOKS
Lloyd Alexander’s The Chronicles of
Prydain
Isaac Asimov’s Foundation and
Robot series
Ray Bradbury’s Dandelion Wine and
Fahrenheit 451
Orson Scott Card’s Ender’s Game and
all the books in the Ender series
Susan Cooper’s The Dark is Rising
sequence
Lois Lowry’s The Giver, Gathering
Blue, and Messenger
Ursula K. LeGuin’s The Tombs of
Atuan and her Earthsea trilogy
Anne McCaffrey’s Dragonsong
trilogy
Robin McKinley’s The Blue Sword and
The Hero and the Crown
Philip Pullman’s His Dark
Materials
CLASSIC GIRL-AND-HER-HORSE BOOKS
Black Beauty by Anna Sewell
Misty of Chincoteague by Marguerite
Henry
My Friend Flicka by Mary O’Hara
National Velvet by Enid Bagnold
The Girl Who Loved Wild Horses by
Paul Goble
MYTHOLOGIES AND FAIRY TALES
Bullfinch’s Mythology is a start.
Some might say it’s for grown-ups, but read a few lines to yourself
out loud and you’ll see whether or not it works for you.
The Complete Hans Christian Andersen
Fairy Tales by Hans Christian Andersen
One Thousand and One Arabian
Nights
The Complete Grimm’s Fairy Tales by
Brothers Grimm
The Adventures of Robin Hood
The Once and Future King by T.H.
White, about King Arthur’s Court.
Beauty: A Retelling of the Story of
Beauty and the Beast by Robin McKinley
The Odyssey by Homer
OLD-FASHIONED GIRL-DETECTIVE SERIES
Nancy Drew by Carolyn Keene.
Starting with The Secret of the Old Clock, all the mysteries
in River Heights end in Nancy’s lap, and with her girlfriends
George and Bess at her side, she always finds the secret
passageways to solve them. The series began in the 1920s, and was
revised twice, in the 1950s and the 2000s, each time becoming
slightly less intrepid.
Trixie Belden. An even better girl
detective series is the Trixie Belden books, featuring
Trixie, a teenaged, freckle-faced tomboy from upstate New York
whose down-to-earth nature, pluck, and quick thinking aid her in
solving mysteries with her friends Honey and Jim. Julie Campbell
started the series in 1948 and wrote the first six books; after
that the books were written by a series of writers using the
pseudonym Kathryn Kenny.
NONFICTION
When we were young and bored, our parents told us, “Go read the dictionary!” We did, and look where it got us. One should never underestimate the pleasure to be found flipping through a dictionary, an encyclopedia, or an old science book.