(no subject)

[the_rck]

I'm looking for book recommendations for Delia. I'm making up her Christmas wishlist now, and I'd like to put a few books on it.

She loves the Harry Potter books and will read them voluntarily. So far, they're the only books that have gotten her that excited. Other books, she'll read a chapter of and give up. She's rejected the Oz books and the Chronicles of Narnia. She liked Charlie and the Chocolate Factory when we read it to her (she even read ahead) but didn't like Charlie and the Great Glass Elevator. She likes Beverly Cleary and Judy Blume (the younger books) when we read the books to her but won't read them herself unless assigned them for school.

She doesn't deal well with books that have parents dying or appearing to die on screen. We couldn't read her The Secret Garden because of that (we haven't tried skipping the first chapter).

Delia seems to like the idea of reading better than actually reading. She checks out a lot of books from the library that she simply doesn't touch. She reads well but not fast.

Anyway, books like the Harry Potter books seem to be the way to go. What's out there to coax a reluctant reader?

Comments

[kyrielle]

Ummm. Crud. I really want to recommend Diane Duane's Young Wizards series...but partway through it, a parent does indeed die (and her wizard child tries to save her through magic and fails), so I think that would be a good series to avoid, unfortunately. And it's relevant and has repercussions in later books, so skipping that book altogether might not work either.

Alas, other than that and Tamora Pierce, I'm not sure what to recommend - and some of Tamora Pierce's subject matter is a bit grown-up at times (YA of the 10-12 level, I'd think.) Although the Circle of Magic books aren't, all four kids have been dumped on the temple, and one is orphaned - and while it's not on-screen, there's a flashback to it.

[the_rck]

She can handle characters who're orphaned. Harry Potter is, after all. I'm not sure about the flashback. I think it might depend on how it's handled and how attached she is to the story. I'll have to take a look.

[kyrielle]

Diane Duane's series would probably still be hard (it's a main focus, and I cried - more than once).

The Tamora Pierce one may not be quite as bad. Also, crap, the second series in her Tortall books also has an orphaned kid - although as noted, Mom comes back later as a goddess.

Of her books, I'd say the Circle books are more kid-stuff, but the Tortall books are better (but with some, non-explicit, sex in some series).

Circle books start with The Circle of Magic Quartet: Sandry's Book (I think this one has the flashback, actually), Tris's Book, Daja's Book, Briar's Book. Next is The Circle Opens (which is the same characters older, and really needs to be read after): Magic Steps, Street Magic, Cold Fire, and Shatterglass. Next is The Will of the Empress (same characters again, order critical) and Melting Stones (you could sort of read it out of order but it uses a character introduced in Street Magic, so maybe not). [Edit: there's another recurring character, Briar, and his mentor, in Melting Stones. Melting Stones was written/published after The Will of the Empress but occurs before it, so you may want to flip the order of the two.]

The Tortall books are a lengthier set of series and for the most part build on the characters and understanding of the previous series. They can be read out of order easier than the Circle books but may contain spoilers for previous books or expect you to know things about the world that aren't explicitly restated. Those series are:

The Song of the Lioness: Alanna: The First Adventure, In the Hand of the Goddess, The Woman Who Rides Like a Man, Lioness Rampant.

The Immortals: Wild Magic, Wolf-Speaker, The Emperor Mage, The Realms of the Gods.

Protector of the Small: First Test, Page, Squire, Lady Knight.

Trickster Series: Trickster's Choice, Trickster's Queen. (If she does NOT enjoy the earlier series, she might enjoy this one. The main character is very different from Pierce's usual, and there's a lot of, well, trickery and spy games. The main character is the daughter of two characters from the first series, though, so there's definitely spoilers about who does and doesn't live that long from the other known characters.)

Beka Cooper series: Terrier, Bloodhound, and Mastiff.

Mastiff is just recently out and I think still only in hardcover. The rest should all be available in softcover.

Edited to note: The Beka Cooper series is the most recently written. But, again, it can be read out of order - it happens quite a while before any of the others. Having first read The Song of the Lioness will let someone catch and enjoy one reference (Beka is the ancestor of one of the characters in the first quartet), but it's not critical to the story at all.