Santa's Book List

I decided to make a list of books that might be interesting for children to find in their stockings on Christmas morning.  This is my criteria for choosing this list:

1)  The books are interesting to children 8-14 approximately.  Before 8, picture books are usually more fun as gifts, and I will have my "December Picture Books" post soon to cover this topic.  After 14 children are really ready for 'adult' books, so any great classic or book I have read I pass on to my older children.  Jane Austen or the Bronte sisters are great for girls; my boys have loved Edgar Rice Burroughs and Robert Jordan.  The list includes various reading levels in no particular order.  For fun reading, choose below their reading level so there is no struggle.

2)  They are 'fun' books.  These are books children will enjoy reading.  That does not mean there is nothing to learn from them, it means that they are a great sit-by-the-fire-on-Christmas-afternoon-and-read-a-great-book fun.

3)  I did not include anything that I have covered before or that seems like it is already well-known.  I included books I thought you may not have read before.

4)  Although I split into girls and boys, many of the titles could appeal to both.  I have found that girls enjoy "boy" books more than boys enjoy "girl" books, however.

4) This list is obviously NOT exhaustive.  There are so many, many wonderful books.  Thus the impetus for writing this blog.  This is what I had on my bookshelf and jumped out at me.  So, it is books that my family and I love.  That said, please comment and leave me a list of your own favorite fun books so that I can have some ideas of what to buy my own children for Christmas!

Now for the lists:
GIRLS
The Borrowers by Mary Norton
Miss Pickerall by Ellen MacGregor (out of print, but I read these as a little girl and thought they were great.  I'd like to find them for my little ones.)
Sarah, Plain and Tall by Patricia MacLachlan
The Family Under the Bridge by Natalie Savage Carlson
Sadako and the Thousand Paper Cranes by Eleanor Coerr
Courage of Sarah Noble by Alice Dagliesh

The Frog Princess Series by E.D. Baker - Advertised as being the books the Disney movie of the same name is based on.  The only thing they have in common is their name and the book is so much better.
Once Upon a Marigold and Twice Upon a Marigold by Jean Ferris
Ordinary Princess by M.M. Kaye
Katie John by Mary Calhoun (Out of print, but such a fabulous book!)
Three Good Deeds by Vivian Vande Velde
The Thirteenth Princess by Diane Zahler
The Amaranth Enchantement by Julie Berry
The Peppins and Their Problems by Polly Horvath (really silly but cute)
Mary Poppins by P.L. Travers
Pollyanna Eleanor Hodgman Porter
Betsy-Tacy by Maud Hart Lovelace (This is a series.  The first couple are great for little girls and some of my favorite, but gets very 'crushy' by the end of th series so I don't like the last books as much.)
The Year of Miss Agnes by Kirkpatrick Hill
The Sisters Eight Series by Lauren Baratz-Logsted
The Pinderwicks by Jeanne Birdsall
ANYTHING by Eleanor Estes

BOYS
The Whipping Boy by Sid Fleischman
All Alone by Claire Hutchet Bishop
The Reluctant Dragon by Kenneth Grahame
The Chocolate Touch by Patrick Skene Catling
The Hodge-Heg by Dick King-Smith (and anything else by this author)

Be a Perfect person in Just Three Days by Stephen Manes
The One and Only Ivan by Katherine Applegate (wonderful for animal lovers, but beware of some evolutionary content)
A Single Shard by Linda Sue Park
Swallows and Amazons Arthur Ransome
Homer Price by Robert McCloskey
Redwall Series by Brian Jacques
ANYTHING by Lloyd Alexander
Young Fu of the Upper Yangtze by Elizabeth Foreman Lewis
Gentle Ben by Walt Morey
Abel's Island by William Steig
The Great Brain series by John D. Fitzgerald

There is a beginning for you.  Please, leave me a list of your own!
Merry Christmas!!!

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