unRequired Reading Blog

Green Mansions by W. H. Hudson.
Abel, a young European, falls in love with Rima, a lovely and mysterious girl of the jungle, and the two travel through the South American jungle to Rima's distant homeland.

The Hunchback of Notre Dame by Victor Hugo.
Quasimodo, the horribly misshapen bell-ringer of Notre Dame, rescues and defends the beautiful gypsy, Esmeralda.

Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte.
A young governess falls in love with her master but their love is
threatened when a terrifying mystery is exposed.

An Angel for May by Melvin Burgess.
Tam travels back in time to his small English town at the time of World War II, where his friendship helps a traumatized girl living on a farm just outside the town.

Blossom Culp and the Sleep of Death by Richard Peck.
Blossom, high-school freshman and possessor of "second sight," helps an Egyptian princess, dead for 3500 years, to regain her tomb, and in
addition saves a suffragette school teacher from losing her job in 1914.

Down the Rabbit Hole: an Echo Falls Mystery by Peter Abrahams.
Like her idol, Sherlock Holmes, Ingrid uses her intellect to solve a
murder case in her hometown.

Twisted Summer by Willo Davis Roberts.
Fourteen-year-old Cici hopes for a romantic summer at the beach but
instead finds herself trying to solve a murder which had occurred there the previous year.

The Wee Free Men by Terry Pratchett.
A young witch-to-be named Tiffany teams up with the Wee Free Men, a clan of six-inch-high blue men, to rescue her baby brother and ward off a sinister invasion from Fairyland.

Out Standing in my Field by Patrick Jennings.
Although fifth-grader Ty Cutter is named after baseball great Ty Cobb, he is the worst player on the Brewer's team--which happens to be coached by his overly-competitive father.

Boston Jane by Jennifer L. Holm.
Schooled in the lessons of etiquette for young ladies of 1854, Miss Jane Peck of Philadelphia finds little use for manners during her long sea voyage to the Pacific Northwest and while living among the American traders and Chinook Indians of Washington Territory.

The River Between Us by Richard Peck.
During the early days of the Civil War, the Pruitt family takes in two mysterious young ladies who have fled New Orleans to come north to Illinois.

Since you say you really enjoyed the Lasky book about Elizabeth I, I
think you should be aware that there are 19 more books in that series by a variety of authors. They cover many female world leaders such as
Queen Victoria, Mary: Queen of Scots, Anastasia, etc. You can find them
in our catalog by searching "series" and typing in "royal diaries."

BOSTON JANE by Jennifer L. Holm.
Schooled in the lessons of etiquette for young ladies of 1854, Miss Jane Peck of Philadelphia finds little use for manners during her long sea voyage to the Pacific Northwest and while living among the American traders and Chinook Indians of Washington Territory.

Here are some other titles you might enjoy reading.

Sabriel by Garth Nix.
This is a part of a trilogy. The 1st book is called Sabriel, and introduces us to the daughter of the necromancer Abhorsen, who must journey into the mysterious and magical Old Kingdom to rescue her father from the Land of the Dead. The 2 books that follow are Lirael and Abhorsen.

Here are some titles that
other thirteen-year-olds have enjoyed.

Capt. Hook: The Adventures of a Notorious Youth by J.V. Hart and Brett Helquist.
Describes the youthful adventures of J.M. Barrie's classic character,
Captain Hook, from his days at Eton to his voyages on the high sea.

Flipped by Wendelin Van Draanen.
In alternating chapters, two teenagers describe how their feelings about themselves, each other, and their families have changed over the years.

Once Upon a Marigold by Jean Ferris.
A young man with a mysterious past and a penchant for inventing things leaves the troll who raised him, meets an unhappy princess he has loved from afar, and discovers a plot against her and her father.