While I entirely DO NOT read during the school term I can assure you that my big two devour one book after another so when it comes to Christmas time, the one thing that I get early shopping on and will ALWAYS be given as presents are BOOKS. All of the books! SO MANY BOOKS. Who better to ask than Al Tait to come up with a list of books for us all? Last Christmas she gave guys 30 great books and then again in April this year, some more for the holidays. She is an author herself having written some wonderful adventure books that my girls have LOVED. Daisy especially has loved The Book of Secrets (last Christmas) and The Book of Answers (April 2018) so make sure those are two definites on your shopping lists!
Over to Al and her wonderful ideas for this coming Christmas…and beyond!
Last year, when Beth asked me to recommend brilliant books for her girls for Christmas, I came up with 30, evenly divided between Daisy (then 11) and Harper (then 8). You can see them all here, and they remain brilliant!
But each year, our kids change and what’s available to us on the bookshelves changes too, so I’m back with 30 more brilliant books for girls – this time, bringing the lovely Maggie into the mix as well.
As co-host (along with Megan Daley of Children’s Books Dailyand fellow author Allison Rushby) of the fabulous Your Kids’ Next Read Facebook group, I’m in a great position to see the books that are being recommended over and over by parents, teachers, booksellers and other interested parties. The books and authors that are cementing their places in the hearts of kids worldwide.
It’s been an interesting year in children’s books this year, with a lot of discussion about the role of gender not only in choosing books but actually IN the books themselves. The ABC released this clever little digital bookearlier this year to highlight the results of research into Neilsen Bookscan’s Top 100 picture books, which found that the top 100 was twice as likely to be written by male authors and had a male lead character 69 per cent of the time.
For this year’s Australian Society of Authors Colin Simpson Memorial Lecture, author Jacqueline Harvey addressed the issue in a speech entitled ‘Gender, Gatekeepers and Good Fun: The State Of Play In Children’s Literature’. You can read it here. The TL;DR is that it’s important for kids to read as many different types of books as possible – books marketed for girls, books marketed for boys, books featuring a range of diverse characters in different roles.
Why am I raising this now? Well, I’ve realised that in writing a post titled ’30 (more) Brilliant Books For Girls’, I’m inadvertently doing what Jacqueline Harvey would describe as ‘perpetuating a problem’.
So, I’m just going to say that ALL of these books are also most excellent for boys – it’s just that I’ve chosen them with three brilliant girls in mind.
Maggie (3)
Beware The Deep Dark Forest by Sue Whiting (ill Annie White)
All The Ways To Be Smart by Davina Bell (ill Allison Colpoys)
The Underwater Fancy Dress Parade by Davina Bell
Thelma The Unicorn by Aaron Blabey
Wild World by Angela McAllister (ill Hvass and Hannibal)
Puddle Hunters by Kirsty Murray (ill Karen Blair)
Claris: The Chicest Mouse in Paris by Megan Hess
Another Book About Bears by Phil and Laura Bunting
Errol by Zanni Louise (Ill by Phil Bunting)
The Last Peach by Gus Gordon
Harper (9)
The Peski Kids (series) by R. A. Spratt
Kensy & Max (series) by Jacqueline Harvey
The Endsister by Penni Russon
The Mulberry Tree by Allison Rushby
The War That Saved My Life by Kimberley Brubaker Bradley
The Evolution of Calpurnia Tate by Jacqueline Kelly
Louisiana’s Way Home by Kate Di Camillo
Freedom Swimmer by Wai Chim
The Royal Ranger (series) by John Flanagan
Stories for Kids Who Dare To Be Different by Ben Brooks
Daisy (12)
Missing by Sue Whiting
The Fall by Tristan Bancks
The Wonder of Us by Kim Culbertson
Warcross by Marie Lu
Lenny’s Book Of Everything by Karen Foxlee
Arkanae (The Medoran Chronicles series) by Lynette Noni
Liars by Jack Heath
Indigo Blue by Jessica Watson
The Hired Girl by Laura Amy Schlitz
Wakestone Hall (Stella Montgomery series) by Judith Rossell
Happy reading over the upcoming holidays….hope that this has given you all some ideas for shopping and thank you AL for this great list again. Make sure you join that Facebook Group too – so many great ideas in there constantly.
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