Best Books for 10(ish) year olds

[Barbara Rockwell]

What were you favorites from 4th/5th grade? I gave an almost 10-year-old The Phantom Tollbooth, The Secret Garden, and The Little Princess and she absolutely loved them. Now I'm trying to remember what other great books I read at that age...

[Dave Rosenthal]

Barbara, how about A Wrinkle in Time? It was one of my favorites as a kid, and I think the age group is about right.

[Angie]

I loved Little Women, but it took me a very long time to read it.

There was a series of books called The Wild Rose Inn books that I loved. They're out of print now, but they're still pretty easy to find on amazon or ebay. The series starts out in the last 1600's and ends in the mid-1900's and is about the Mackenzie family that owns and Inn - each book takes place in a different time period and is told from the perspective of the girls in the family. I loved those books.

My other favorites were: the Little House books, the Anne of Green Gables books, The Borrowers, Cheaper by the Dozen, The Babysitter's Club books, and The American Girl books.

[Lexie]

I loved the LIttle House books as well as The Girl With Silver Eyes by Willo Davis Roberts and Yesterday's Doll by Cora Taylor. The first Boxcar Children book was the best (I have a very old beat up hardback from before it was a series) as well :D

[Padfoot]

Phantom Tollbooth is one of my absolute favorite children's book. I actually just heard of it about a year ago and read it several months ago, and it blew my mind.

I suggest Mrs. Frisby and the Rats of Nihm, Alice in Wonderland, both I loved as a child, but even will still read them and love them today.

[Valerie Russo]

Gosh, there are so many...

Encyclopedia Brown Books
Freaky Friday
Bunnicula
Charlie and the Chocolate
Are You There, God, It's Me Margaret
Freckle Juice
Blubber
Fudge-A-Mania, Superfudge
Tales Of A Fourth Grade Nothing
Pippi Longstocking
Charlotte’s Web
Tuck Everlasting
The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe
From the Mixed-Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler
Harriet the Spy
Island of the Blue Dolphins
Bridge to Terabithia
The Borrowers
The Secret Garden

[Melissa]

I still have my copies of Tuck Everlasting and Bridge to Terebithia as I loved them so much. The Narnia books and Wrinkle in Time were also favorites. Some other good ones are The Witch of Blackbird Pond, Indian in the Cupboard.

[Lusty Reader]

Oh my gosh, what a great topic, this is bringing back so many memories!
I was into animal related books for a while (the Redwall Series, Watership Down, Charlotte's Web, Misty of Chincoteague)
And then I was into a phase of fantasy/magic (Alanna the Lioness, and Daine the Wolfspeaker series by Tamora Pierce, So You Want to be a Wizard and like Dave - A Wrinkle in Time, though I didn't like a swiftly tilting planet as much)
And some randoms:
-From the Mixed-up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler
-My Side of the Mountain, anything by Jean Craighead George
-Harriet the Spy

[Barbara Rockwell]

So many good recommendations I hadn't thought of! I still have my Narnia and Little Women books, and I may or may not have had a Charlotte's Web themed birthday. :) That 10-year-old is going to be so happy. Thanks everyone!

[Valerie Russo]

Some more:

The Little Prince
The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain
The Neverending Story by Michael Ende and Ralph Manheim
20,000 Leagues Under the Sea by Jules Verne
The Wizard of Oz by L. Frank Baum
The Incredible Journey by Sheila Every Burnford

[Nicole]

I loved 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea. I have to read that again.

[pussreboots]

At age ten I was into The Hobbit, the Trixie Belden series, The Hardy Boys series, and so forth.

[Angie]

I just read a Trixie Belden book for my blog a few weeks ago. One of my friends mentioned to me that they loved those books as a child, and I had never even heard of them. But the very next day I was in a used bookstore, and I saw the first one, so I decided to check it out. It was definitely the kind of book I would have loved as a child, and I'm kind of sad that I missed out on reading them when I was that age.