Fifty-five books every girl should read

I seem to be in the mood for compiling book lists at the moment. I felt inspired to make a list of the books that were my "best friends" as a very young girl. Okay, I'm still young, but I've got the 8-14 age bracket in mind here. These are books that I would love to share with my daughter/s one day, if I ever have any. . . I've been trying to get my younger sisters to read some of these books, but I guess they have other interests and hobbies right now. Hopefully I'll be blessed with at least one bookworm daughter someday. :-)

~L.M. Montgomery - Anne of Green Gables books and others~

Anne of Green Gables
Anne of Avonlea
Anne of the Island
Anne of Windy Willows
Anne's House of Dreams
Anne of Ingleside
Rainbow Valley
Rilla of Ingleside
Emily of New Moon
Emily Climbs
Emily's Quest
Jane of Lantern Hill

~Laura Ingalls Wilder - Little House on the Prairie series~

Little House in the Big Woods
Little House on the Prairie
On the Banks of Plum Creek
By the Shores of Silver Lake
The Long Winter
Little Town on the Prairie
These Happy Golden Years

~C.S. Lewis - The Chronicles of Narnia~

The Magician's Nephew
The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe
The Horse and His Boy
Prince Caspian
The Voyage of the Dawn Treader
The Silver Chair
The Last Battle

~L.M. Alcott - Little Women books and others~

Little Women
Good Wives
Little Men
Jo's Boys
Eight Cousins
Rose in Bloom
An Old-Fashioned Girl
The Inheritance

~Arleta Richardson - Grandma's Attic novels~

Away from Home
A School of Her Own
Wedding Bells Ahead
At Home in North Branch
New Faces, New Friends

~Johanna Spyri and Charles Tritten - Heidi books~

Heidi
Heidi Grows Up
Heidi's Children

~Ethel Turner - Seven Little Australians series~

Seven Little Australians
The Family at Misrule
Little Mother Meg

~Frances Hodgson Burnett~

The Secret Garden
A Little Princess 

~Patricia St John~

The Tanglewood's Secret
Treasures of the Snow
Rainbow Garden

~Miscellaneous~

Mara, Daughter of the Nile - Eloise Jarvis McGraw
Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farm - Kate Douglas Wiggin
The Complete Adventures of Snugglepot and Cuddlepie - May Gibbs

A Girl of the Limberlost - Gene Stratton-Porter

Pollyanna - Eleanor H. Porter

~~~~~

What are some of the books that you loved as a young girl? Are there any classics for girls that I have apparently missed out on, and should read ASAP? :P

Seven Little Australians - a semi-forgotten classic?

I've recently been re-reading Ethel Turner's Australian classic, Seven Little Australians. I had almost forgotten how good it was/is! 

First published in 1894, and set in late-19th-century Sydney, Seven Little Australians recounts the adventures and mishaps of the seven Woolcot children, ranging in age from 16 to 0. Their father, Captain Woolcot, is a stern, authoritarian parent who really doesn't understand his children at all. The step-mother, Esther, is barely 20 and is scarcely any older than the oldest child. The children's mother died several years before the story takes place. 

The seven children get into all sorts of mischief. - This was one of the first childrens books to portray children in a realistic, wholly unsentimental way. 

Seven Little Australians was a bestseller in Australia and overseas when it was first published, and I don't think it's ever been out of print since. However, it doesn't seem to be as widely read now as it was 50 - or 100 - years ago. Amongst homeschooling and/or bookwormish families it remains quite a favourite, but in general, not many children - or adults - seem to be reading it. I don't know, maybe it's just me. . .

From the 1973 TV adaptation of Seven Little Australians

Anyways, if you enjoyed Little Women or Anne of Green Gables, I highly recommend that you give SLA a look. Ethel Turner's writing style is similar to Louisa May Alcott's, only less sentimental. Unlike Alcott, Turner does not deliberately set out to build a moral into each chapter, which is refreshing, in a way.

Ethel Turner wrote two sequels to Seven Little Australians - The Family at Misrule and Little Mother Meg, both of which are very good, and both of which are unfortunately currently out of print.

1973 adaptation

There was a miniseries made of Seven Little Australians in the '70s, which was fairly good, though it deviated from the novel in some points. You can watch a couple of clips from the series here.

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