Mother-Daughter Fiction for "Tween" Girls

For my Information Needs of Children class, I had to create a bibliography of 20 books of outstanding quality on the topic of mother-daughter fiction for girls around the around the ages of 10-12.  I did a LOT of reading for this assignment and found some great books.  Today, however, I'm going to provide just five of my personal most favorites from that list.

#5 - Pieces of Georgia by Jennifer Fisher Bryant (2006) NY: Alfred A. Knopf.

Georgia, 13, is on Mrs. Yocum’s “At-Risk” list ever since her mother died from pneumonia six years earlier. Mrs. Yocum provides Georgia a notebook, suggesting she write down any thoughts, feelings, or questions she would ask her mother if she were alive. In journal entries to her mother, written in verse, Georgia tells of the anonymous gift she received for a free membership to the local museum, her and her father’s struggle dealing with the death of her mother, her friend Tiffany’s struggle with trying to do it all, and her own journey to becoming an artist like her mother.


I was rooting out loud for Georgia. She's a quiet, reserved girl and slightly odd (like most great artists), but she deserves the world. This book evokes happy tears.


Check it out on Goodreads.

#4 - Ida B...and Her Plans to Maximize Fun, Avoid Disaster, and (Possibly) Save the World by Katherine Hannigan (2004) NY: HarperCollins Publishers

Ida B. Applewood (not to be confused with her mother’s name - Ida Applewood) lives on an orchard with her parents and is friends with the trees. Life is swell for this fourth grader, until one day Mama has some bad news, and the repercussions of that news Ida B.’s not going to like one bit. Ida B. is mad and soon feels her heart turning into a hard stone, leaving her to wonder if she will ever be happy again.

I first read this back in the summer of 2009 and fell in love with Ida B. Although it sounds selfish for her to be mad at her mother for having cancer, I was sympathetic to her feelings. I remember being a little girl and being so angry at the world I could explode. It was touching to go through the experience with her.

Check it out on Goodreads.


#3 - Walk Two Moons by Sharon Creech (1994) NY: HarperCollins Publishers

Thirteen-year-old Salamanca Tree Hiddle (Sal) takes a cross-country road trip with her grandparents to visit her mother in Idaho, who had earlier left Sal and her father behind in Kentucky. Along the way, Gram and Gramps ask Sal to entertain them with a story, so she tells one of her best friend, Phoebe, whose mother also had gone missing. Through telling Phoebe’s story, she ultimately tells her own.

This is another old favorite, read in the summer of 2009 as well. (2009 was a good year for me - reading wise!) For the longest time before reading this book, I assumed it was a Native American tale from the looks of the cover and the title. Very misleading. This is a great story, entertaining and touching. Just like the movie "Titanic," you know how it's all going to end, but you keep hoping and crossing your fingers that it'll miss the iceberg.

Check it out on Goodreads.


#2 - The Summer Before Boys by Nora Raleigh Baskin (2011) NY: Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers


Twelve-year-old Julia spends the summer before seventh grade with her “cousin” (who is actually her niece) of the same age. Julia’s mother is serving as a nurse with the National Guard in Iraq, and her father (Eliza’s grandfather) works long hours. She and Eliza have been best friends all their lives, spending hours playing dolls and pretend, but this summer things are different for Julia. Worrying about her mother and the next chance she will have to see that cute boy, Michael, begins to take up more of her attention, straining her friendship with Eliza.

Of all the books on my list, this is the one I really wish had been written when I was a girl and one that I think all girls will love. I remember that age so well when one week we're playing with Barbies and the next we're talking about boys!

Check it out on Goodreads.


#1 - My Name is Mina by David Almond (2011) NY: Delacorte Press

Mina is strange. Mina is weird. Mina is different. She does not fit in at her school, exasperates her teachers and principal, and is teased by her classmates. Her mother consequently decides to home school her. Mina spends her days sitting in her tree, writing in her journal, playing with words, and dreaming she can fly. Sooner or later though, Mina realizes she is going to have to come down from her tree and find her place in the “real” world.


This is one of those books that is inspires great teaching. After reading this, I want so badly to go back to the classroom so I can tell my students we're throwing out homework and replacing it with "Extraordinary Activities!"  David Almond uses nine-year-old Mina to exude his immense wisdom, and I'm glad I got schooled.  This book is a prequel to Skellig, which means you don't have to have read that to appreciate this book.  I haven't read it yet, but after this was so phenomenal, I think I have to.

          Check it out on Goodreads.