Book list for a seven year-old girl

Here is a list of the books Ella read on her own in 2009.
Now. I'm sure she would want me to point out that she is eight years old, not seven, but since she just turned eight in December, most of these books were read when she was seven. She's a pretty voracious reader, my girl. I think this list contains over ninety books. Sheesh!

I took my list- which was made in the order she read them- and reorganized it for you so that books by the same author are grouped together and books in a series are together.

I have read only some of these books. I have skimmed nearly all of them. (Which means I've read various paragraphs throughout the book to get a feel for the book.) Also: Ella consistently tells me when there's a "bad part" in the book. And just so you know: her definition of a bad part is when a character disobeys their parent or says the word hate.

We try to be selective about the books we choose for her/allow her to read. That being said, even in this list there are probably a few books that I would consider borderline "twaddle". However, I'd say with 90 percent of them, that is NOT the case. And: Ella has enjoyed reading even the ones I might label "twaddlish". :)

Again, I've "coded" them as follows:

* Ella's favorites to read
** my favorites for Ella to read (since I haven't read most of these books, I starred books I am most familiar with, or books that I could tell made a lasting impression (in a good influence sort of way) on my girl.)

{books from the Reading to Learn series, Christian Light Education}
***I Wonder...
***Happy Hearts
***Doors to Discovery

{Millie series, Martha Finley}
*Millie's Unsettled Season, Book 1
*Millie's Courageous Days, Book 2
*Millie's Remarkable Journey, Book 3
*Millie's Faithful Heart, Book 4
(Note: Millie is getting too old for Ella; Millie is now 15)

{Rachel Yoder series, Wanda Brunstetter}
*Back to School
*School's Out
*Out of Control
*New Beginnings
*A Happy Heart
*Just Plain Foolishness
*Jumping to Conclusions

{Books about Martha Morse, Laura's great-grandmother, by Melissa Wiley}
***The Far Side of the Loch

{Books about Charlotte Tucker, Laura's grandmother, by Melissa Wiley}
***Little House by Boston Bay
***On Tide Mill Lane
***Across the Puddingstone Dam

{Books about Caroline Quiner Ingalls, Laura's mother, by Maria Wilkes & Celia Wilkins}
***Little House in Brookfield
***Little Town at the Crossroads
***Little Clearing in the Woods
***On Top of Concord Hill
***Across the Rolling River
***Little City by the Lake
***A Little House of Their Own

{Books about Laura's daughter, Rose Wilder Lane, by her heir, Roger Lea MacBride}
***Little House on Rocky Ridge
***Little Farm in the Ozarks
***The Land of the Big Red Apple

Note: Some of the Martha, Charlotte, Caroline, and Rose books have been republished in abridged editions. You can recognize the abridgments by their photographic covers (pictures of real girls). The orginal, unabridged editions have illustrated covers. I've found that the original, unabridged editions are becoming more difficult to find, but we're still trying to track them down so that Ella can read them all. You can find a complete list of the unabridged books here.

{Dear America series}
A Journey to the New World: The Diary of Remember Patience Whipple, Mayflower, 1620
The Winter of Red Snow: The Revolutionary War Diary of Abigail Jane Stewart, Valley Forge, PA, 1777
My Brother's Keeper- Virginia's Diary, Gettysburgh, PA, 1862
*Across the Wide and Lonesome Prairie- The Oregon Trail Diary of Hattie Campbell, 1847
Love Thy Neighbor: The Tory Diary of Prudence Emerson
*Voyage on the Great Titanic: The Diary of Margaret Ann Brady (1912)
So Far From Home: The Diary of Mary Driscoll, An Irish Mill Girl, Lowell Massachusetts, 1847

{Moody books/Sarah Maxwell}
***Summer with the Moodys
***Winter with the Moodys
***Autumn with the Moodys
***Spring with the Moodys

{Pioneer Daughters series/ Jean Van Leeuwen}
***Hannah of Fairfield
***Hannah's Helping Hands
***Hannah's Winter Hope
{other books by Jean Van Leeuwen}
***Cabin at Trouble Creek (Mark read this book, and liked it so much that I have it bookmarked for a future read-aloud)
Bound for Oregon

{Barbara Greenwood/Heather Collins collaborations}
***A Pioneer Sampler: The Daily Life of a Pioneer Family in 1840
***A Pioneer Thanksgiving: A Story of Harvest Celebrations in 1841
***The Last Safe House: A Story of the Underground Railroad

{books by Patricia MacLachlan}
***Sarah, Plain and Tall
***Skylark
*Caleb's Story
*More Perfect Than the Moon
*Grandfather's Dance
*Baby

{The Boxcar Children series}
Surprise Island
Mike's Mystery
Mystery Cruise
Mystery of the Dog Show
*The Campout Mystery
Houseboat Mystery

{American Girl books}
***Kirsten (all 6 books)
*The Runaway Friend (A Kirsten Mystery)

{books by Marguerite Henry}
Brighty of the Grand Canyon
Justin Morgan Had a Horse

{books by Meindert DeJong}
Along Came a Dog
*Shadrach

Clara Barton: Founder of the American Red Cross (Augusta Stevenson)
Go Free or Die: A Story about Harriet Tubman (Jerri Ferris)
I Remember the Alamo (D. Anne Love)
*Corn Farm Boy (Lenski)
Sacagawea: American Pathfinder (Flora Warren Seymour)
Cora Frear (Susan E. Goodman)
*Happy Little Family (Caudill)
Prince Tom (Jean Fritz)
Betsy-Tacy and Tib (Lovelace)
Shanghaied to China (Trailblazer books/Dave Jackson)
A Doctor Like Papa (Natalie Kinsey-Warnock, James Bernardin)
Sarah's New World: The Mayflower Adventure (Colleen L. Reece)
*Bread and Butter Indian (Anne Colver, *illustrated by Garth Williams!)
*Mandie collection, Volume 1 (Lois Gladys Leppard)
The Story of Florence Nightingale (Margaret Leighton, illus by Corinne Boyd Dillon)
The Wilds of Whip-Poor-Will Farm (Janet Foster)
*Linnea in Monet's Garden (Cristina Bjork)
*Whinny of the Wild Horses (Laundrie)
*Old Town in the Green Groves (Cynthia Rylant)
Pippi Longstocking (Astrid Lindgren)
*Little Lord Fauntleroy (Frances Hodgson Burnett)
*The Railway Children (E. Nesbit)
Phyllis Wheatley: America's First Black Poetess


Please let me know if you have any questions about this list or recommendations for us that you may have thought of while reading this list!

18 comments:

  1. From a mom with a 7 yr. old that also loves to read...THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU!! This is SOOO helpful!

    ReplyDelete
  2. Oh! I'm just thinking about the books I read as a little girl... I read as many Mandie books as I could get my hands on... There were 18 written by the time I was ready to read them. I bet there are more now.

    Oh, to be Ella's age again... Chores done and a quiet hour to read and read!

    ReplyDelete
  3. What a great (comprehensive) list! It makes me want to sit down and read those books I did as a little one.
    Also looking forward to the time my sweet girl is able to read them. :)

    ReplyDelete
  4. Good reading Ella! I am so proud of how smart you are and what good books you choose to read.

    I think Ava will want to read each and every book you recommend when she it 7 (in four years).

    ReplyDelete
  5. Such a fun list...and a good resource. Has she ever read the Cobble Street Cousins series by Cynthia Rylant? We are reading them aloud now and they are so sweet and simple.

    ReplyDelete
  6. Just visited the library and found a sweet, true story called Mailing May by Michael O. Tunnell, illustrated by Ted Rand. It is about a little girl whose parents mail her to visit her grandma since they can't afford a train ticket. Thought your family might enjoy it!

    ReplyDelete
  7. I just printed out your list and hope to let my daughter read some in the near future! Thanks for sharing!

    ReplyDelete
  8. My girls and I have enjoyed The Racketty Packetty House by Frances Hodgson Burnett, The Courage of Sarah Noble by Alice Dalgliesh and Understood Betsy by Dorothy Canfield Fisher.

    Thank you, there are many books on here I have not heard of.We'll have to look for them.

    We recently found all the "other" Little House books.Thank you for the helpful iinformation on those!

    Agreeing with Kristin on Cynthia Rylant...we LOVE all her books!And also with Rebecca M...oh, to be a little girl and read all these wonderful books (I'm doing it now as an adult:)!

    Have a great week!
    - Kathi

    ReplyDelete
  9. Wendy~
    You are so welcome!

    Rebecca~
    Me too. Summer break was *always* my favorite because I could check out a whole stack of books and read and read and read...

    I used to love Mandie books, too. :) And Trixie Belden. Anyone else read Trixie?

    Mrs. B.~
    Thank you! I wish I had the time to read many of these books, too!

    Amy~
    I have to remember to pass along your words to Ella.
    Glad we can do a little legwork ahead of time for sweet Ava!

    Kristin~
    We'll have to look into those, Kristin!

    Katie~
    We've read that! It is a good one. I love true-story books! :)
    Thank you for thinking of us!

    Erna~
    You're welcome!
    Thank you for coming by...

    Kathi~
    Oh! I've not heard of The Racketty Packetty House. I'll check into it! We loved The Courage of Sarah Noble. And Ella read Understood Betsy, too~ and thoroughly enjoyed it!

    Blessings to all of you...
    ~Stacy

    ReplyDelete
  10. Thank you so much for this list! There are some overlaps with what my daughter has read/is reading (which shows me they may have similar loves) but lots and lots of new, inspiring ones for us. Thank you so much!

    ReplyDelete
  11. Stacy! Wow!!!! I have bookmarked it and I may print it also! Wow. My Emma is about to turn 7 and she is a voracious reader as well! I will be ordering these in droves from our library!!! Thank you so much!!!

    ReplyDelete
  12. Thank you so much for writing this down. Really thankful here. :) Homeschool mom to four always looking for good books to read~ learning through literature everyday-Thank you!

    ReplyDelete
  13. Hi Stacy! I'd love to hear what you guys have been reading lately? I go back to this list often to look for new books. I'm planning to post a list soon too.

    ReplyDelete
  14. Thank you - my seven year old Selena is reading books faster than I can find them for her and I am going to bookmark this list! She is on the last Hannah of Fairfield book and LOVED that series. She's also on the last Kirsten book - but I forgot about Betsy Tacy and Tib - thank you for that reminder.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Oh, hooray, sweet Selena!! Happy reading! Glad the list is helpful. I know it will be handy as my little girls get older, too. I'll be so glad I kept track of all these titles.

      Delete
  15. Thanks for this list. I have a 7yr old girl who has only just started reading chapter books since discovering Magic Tree House series. I understand Magic Treehouse is quite a basic reading level. What series would be next for her in terms of ability to read? I'm not good with books, and did not grow up reading any books unless it was compulsory at school. Am hoping to change that for my children. Are there lists for younger children? Thank you, Claire

    ReplyDelete
  16. Hi Claire,
    There is this list I made for six-year-old girls, here:
    http://withgreatjoy.blogspot.com/2008/11/reading-list.html

    Has she read The Courage of Sarah Noble? Or The Josephina Story Quilt? Or the In Grandma's Attic series? Those may be good places to begin, since they're a bit shorter.

    Good job, mama! :)

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thank you so much for replying.
      Thank you for the 6 year old list, just what I was trying to find but couldn't.
      Thanks for the book recommendations. She hasn't read any of those. I haven't even heard of them! As I said I hardly read anything as a child :(

      Delete

Thank you for commenting! I love hearing from you, and I will do
my best to reply back to you in the comment section.