A friend who lives in Buenos Aires, Argentina, was looking for books for his adventurous 9-year-old daughter, who is being raised bilingually and is hungry for books in English. I had some ideas of my own, but it was more fun to ask my friends on Facebook.

Boy, did they come through! Here’s the first selection–many suggested by more than one reader–accompanied by my short comments, linked to a wonderful children’s bookstore, Wild Rumpus in Minneapolis. More to come!

Elisabeth Enright, THE SATURDAYS (This is a wonderful book about kids in NYC back the 1940s.)

Beverly Cleary, RAMONA QUIMBY, AGE EIGHT (and the rest of this charming series)

 Jeanne Birdsall, THE PENDERWICKS (Four girls having adventures)


Louise Fitzhugh, HARRIET THE SPY (Still a masterpiece)


Mary Pope Osborn, THE MAGIC TREEHOUSE books (Simpler stories than most of those listed. My son loved them at this age.)


E.L. Konigsburg, FROM THE MIXED-UP FILES OF MRS. BASIL E. FRANKWEILER (another NYC-based classic)


Walter Brooks, FREDDY THE PIG and its 30 sequels. (About a pig and other barnyard animals…Jacob adored these books.)


Sydney Taylor, ALL-OF-A-KIND FAMILY (Another NYC-set tale!)


Roald Dahl, MATILDA


E. B. White, CHARLOTTE’S WEB


Wendy Mass, TWICE UPON A TIME: RAPUNZEL, THE ONE WITH ALL THE HAIR (and its fractured-fairy-tale sequels.)


Maud Hart Lovelace, BETSY-TACY and its sequels. (Vivid, charming portraits of life in mid-twentieth-century America. A huge favorite of my daughter’s.)


C.S. Lewis, THE LION, THE WITCH, AND THE WARDROBE 


Madeleine L’Engle, A WRINKLE IN TIME


Kevin Henkes, JUNONIA (A lovely portrait of a thoughtful, wise young girl.)

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