This whole blog series started because a friend asked me what books I recommended for her daughter, who is the fourth of five children and the only girl. They have plenty of boy books in their house but no girl books. My favorite books came from my grandmother, either as gifts or because I found them in her house. Most of these are discoveries from her.
Before we begin, you may ask why I did not include Little House on the Prairie or Elsie Dinsmore. I did not for two opposite reasons. Little House books are so classic and valuable that they are not restricted to girls (my 13 year old son has been taking them out of the library to listen to.) Elsie books, on the other hand, are contrived and forced. They are fairly well written, but I imagine very few children are as persecuted as she is at the same time coddled the way she is, never having put on her own stockings! The later ones are better, to my mind. So, here are my recommendations.
1 -- The Hundred Dresses -- Eleanor Estes. She is a wonderful writer. I'll talk about her books more in a later post. This book is a shorter one but it discusses the difficulties of a poor Polish girl who lives in a small town where her classmates make fun of her and how the other girls learn to be more thoughtful.
2 -- The Goat in the Rug -- Charles L. Blood and Martin Link. This is a short story that is a one-off of a Navajo woman making a goat's wool rug from start to finish -- from the goat's perspective. I just like it.
3 -- Heidi -- Johanna Spyri. You can't beat it. It's got everything: poor orphan, grumpy grandpa, animals, getting to run free in the mountains, Christian growth, a poor little rich girl, rich city house and miraculous healing of body and relationships. It's at the top of my list of girls' chapter books.
4 -- Little Women -- really, anything by Louisa May Alcott. They are fun, the characters are vivid and relatable, even today, and the goal is to be good, even knowing the characters' flaws. After Little Women, you may want to read:
5 -- Eight Cousins and its sequel, Rose in Bloom. There is also:
6 -- Jack and Jill. All of these are great for homeschoolers because the characters are almost all homeschooled! So was Louisa May Alcott. As a result, you get the usual unusual mix of ages and sexes in the interactions of the characters that is typical of homeschoolers.
7 -- Rumer Godden books. The first one my grandmother gave me at Christmas in San Fransisco when I was eight was The Dolls' House. If you are interested in including a little fun Japanese culture, she wrote Miss Happiness and Miss Flower and its sequel, Little Plum. Home is the Sailor was one that I read to my boys -- twice! -- because it is about a boy doll in a dolls house who promises to find the older brother doll and the father doll that were lost. He does. They are full of what might be called, "nursery fantasy," the notion that dolls have lives we are not aware of. However, they can only influence the children who play with them by wishing -- read, praying.
8 -- Carol Ryrie Brink. She wrote Caddie Woodlawn, a historical novel about Brink's real-life aunt, and Baby Island.
9 -- Frances Hodgson Burnett. Her three amazing children classics are A Little Princess, The Secret Garden and Little Lord Fauntleroy. All three fall into what I would call the "orphan fantasy" genre. Though they all take place in England, the author is actually from the American South and these books were based on her fantasies as a poor young girl. However, they are beautifully written.
10 -- The Wolves of Willoughby Chase. Joan Aiken. She is incredibly prolific but her stories are somewhat farfetched. But, I always like this one. Your children may like to read more of them.
