Are You There God? It's Me, Margaret - By Judy Blume
High jinks ensue as Margaret and her three preteen friends negotiate training bras, menstruation, religion, and kissing. (Bantam Doubleday Dell, 1981)

Inkheart - By Cornelia Funke, Translated by Anthea Bell
This mystical story of a father who can literally bring a book's characters to life -- with often-disastrous consequences -- is the second book by Cornelia Funke, the international best-selling author of The Thief Lord. (Chicken House, 2003)
~~~ she read this ... she loved it

From the Mixed-Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler - By E.L. Konigsburg - Every kid yearns to run away and have an adventure, but how many get to do it in style? Siblings Claudia and Jamie live in New York's Metropolitan Museum of Art, and solve an art mystery that stumps even the experts. (Atheneum, 2002)

A Wrinkle in Time - By Madeleine L'Engle
It was a dark and stormy night. Thus begins this story about gifted children, a missing father, and traveling through time and space. (Farrar, Straus & Giroux, 1976

The Complete Chronicles of Narnia - By C.S. Lewis
Originally published in the 1950s, this mystical series will enthrall the imaginations of the favorite young adult reader in your life. (HarperCollins, 2000)
~ ~ we did pick this one up ... she knows the stories, but hasn't read them through herself yet

The Witch of Blackbird Pond - By Elizabeth George Speare
Teenage Kit must question her own beliefs in the face of a puritanical community, an unusual Quaker friend, and accusations of witchcraft. (Laurel Leaf, 1978)

Ballet Shoes - By Noel Streatfeild
Preteen girls love this book, especially girls who enjoy dancing. This is the story of three girls who are shipped off to a dance academy because their guardian can't care for them. The girls find their talents and themselves. Originally published in 1937, Ballet Shoes was revived when it was featured in the movie You've Got Mail in 1998. (Bantam Doubleday Dell, 1993)

Little House on the Prairie - By Laura Ingalls Wilder
Discover a world of covered wagons and log cabins with Ma, Pa, Half-Pint, Mary, and Carrie Ingalls, American's beloved frontier family. (HarperCollins, 1976)