Trends in Books: What’s Your Tween Reading?

The FPgirl members do love to read! When we polled them a month ago to ask what they were reading their answers were as diverse as they are, but a few books stood out in the nearly 350 responses.

The top selections may not surprise you, but to this mom of two boys and one daughter, I delighted in the fact that this group of FPgirls enjoys action-packed novels with strong heroes and heroines and plots that have them on the edge of their seats.

Here are some of their favorites:

The Hunger Games trilogy seemed to be on the top of the list with Harry Potter books not far behind. Some girls mentioned their parents said they were still too young to read The Hunger Games but they couldn’t wait until they were old enough to do so.

Not far behind, the Divergent series, Percy Jackson books, The City of Ember series, A Series of Unfortunate Events series, Dork Diary books, Diary of a Wimpy Kid books, The Mother-Daughter Book Club series are all favorites as well. It appears to me that our FPgirls are growing up with strong self-esteems and empowering minds as they are really choosing books without fluff and meaningless girl banter. Not that there’s anything wrong with fun girly books, but when it comes to reading, it’s good to have some meat in their stories!

Which brings me to a couple that I’d like to highlight:

Glitter Girl by Toni Runkle and Stephen Webb: This is a fun read with a powerful message of what can happen when the lure of popularity and fame gets in the way of best friends. Perfect for girls who love a little bit of glamour and fashion, Glitter Girl sparkles while it also shows tweens how your best friend doesn’t have to be exactly like you.

“Hi! I’m Kat. Welcome to my blog. I may be from a small town but I’m also Glitter Girl Cosmetics’ newest trendsetter. Thanks to my flair for fashion and my popular style blog, I’ve been chosen to be an Alpha Girl, which means I get to try out all the Glitter Girl products before they hit the stores.

Forty-eight hours after she blogs about the goodies in the new line, every girl at Kat’s school is sporting the gear. Kat’s popularity skyrockets, but Jules—Kat’s BFF—seems to be the only one who’s not buying into the Glitter Girl lifestyle. Is Kat willing to sacrifice her friendship for life in the fab lane?”

Out of My Mind by Sharon M. Draper: I picked this one up for myself a few months ago, mostly because I was so attracted to the cover. And actually, a few of our FPgirls have read it and loved it as well. Every tween should read this book. It will bring new light into their eyes and a compassion they never knew they had toward the disabled.

 ”Melody is not like most people. She cannot walk or talk, but she has a photographic memory; she can remember every detail of everything she has ever experienced. She is smarter than most of the adults who try to diagnose her and smarter than her classmates in her integrated classroom—the very same classmates who dismiss her as mentally challenged, because she cannot tell them otherwise. But Melody refuses to be defined by cerebral palsy. And she’s determined to let everyone know it…somehow. In this breakthrough story, readers will come to know a brilliant mind and a brave spirit who will change forever how they look at anyone with a disability.”

And finally, for more reading ideas for your tween girls, here are a few more suggestions on what the FPgirls have been reading lately:

• Double Fudge
• Wonder
• Dragon Slippers, Dragon Flight, Dragon Spear
• Keeper of the Lost Cities
• The Phantom Isles
• Pegasus: Olympus at War
• So B. It
• To Kill a Mockingbird
• Beautiful Creatures
• Love, Aubrey
• Son of Neptune
• Gone
• Hobbit
• Looking for Alaska
• The Fault in Our Stars
• John Green books
• Thirteen Reasons Why
• Flora & Ulysses
• The Adventures of Tom Sawyer
• The Babysitters Club
• Anything by Andrew Clements
• The Maze Runner
• Canterwood Crest series
• Chicken Soup for the Pre-teen Soul
• Undercover Girl series
• One Direction books
• Jerry Spinelli books
• The Outsiders
• Pride and Prejudice
• Tarzan of the Apes
• The Great Gatsby
• Nancy Drew
• Little Women
• Inkheart trilogy
• Narnia
• Allie Finkles Rules for Girls
• The House of Hades

Take a look at the whole discussion at Whatchya Reading! over at FPgirl’s Style Mag! And also share with us what your daughter is reading!

About the Author:

Stephanie Elliot, in no particular order, is a wife, writer, blogger, book reviewer, editor and mother to three kids, two who have already been tweens, and one who is right smack in the middle of his tween-ness. Her oldest son is almost driving and her daughter survived her tween years so Stephanie must be doing something right. Find out more at http://stephanieelliot.com