Heads' Tips - books to share with your daughter

Encouraging your children to enjoy their reading is one of the most important ways in which you can help them to develop skills which will serve them well throughout their education and give them pleasure for the rest of their lives. Reading to little ones, hearing them read when they begin to master the skill and, later, sharing and discussing books with your children creates a bond which should enrich your relationship and provide an important shared experience. Below are a selection of books that you may enjoy reading to or with your daughter, or perhaps after she has finished them! Ask your daughter for her recommendations – don’t assume that books designed for younger readers can’t be hugely enjoyed and appreciated by adults – and then talk with her about what you’ve read. Why not introduce her to books you loved when you were younger; some timeless classics are as powerful today as they were then. Enjoy.

Use the arrow keys below the images to scroll around the selection, and click through to any title to find out more and then purchase.

Junior & pre-teen

Reading to your younger children or hearing them read aloud will be all the more enjoyable if you are excited about the books too! And you can always read ahead once they’re asleep…

How to Train Your Dragon (Hiccup Horrendous Haddock the Third series), Cressida Cowell – a source of literary hilarity for all the family.
Percy Jackson series, Rick Riordan – great introduction to myths and legends in modern setting
Skulduggery Pleasant series, Derek Landy – tales of a literally-skeletal detective
Mortal Engines series, Philip Reeve – adventure & imaginative science fiction series (Mortal Engines, Predator’s Gold, Infernal Devices & A Darkling Plain.)
Artemis Fowl series, Eoin Colfer
Wolf Brother (Chronicles of Ancient Darkness series), Michelle Paver
Harry Potter series, J K Rowling
Journey to the river sea, Eva Ibbotson
Step by Wicked Step, Anne Fine
Love Aubrey, Suzanne LaFleur
Knife, R J Anderson (and the sequel Rebel)
The Thirteen Treasures, Michelle Harrison (and sequel The Thirteen Curses)
Inkheart (Inkheart trilogy), Cornelia Funke
Skellig, David Almond (and the prequel My name is Mina)
Holes , Louis Sachar
The Graveyard Book, Neil Gaiman
War Horse, Michael Morpurgo
The Boy In The Striped Pyjamas, John Boyne – a book that works on different levels for children, teens and adults

Early Teens

During the early teen years, many girls gravitate towards books that are either romantically girlie or gothic (or both). You may not think vampires are for you, but books like the Twilight series have the knack of taking mums back into the psyche of their teenage self and giving dads an insight into how their 13 year old girl may be feeling. They are also so much a part of girl culture at present that it gives you huge common territory – worth a read for that alone!

Twilight series, Stephanie Meyer
The Hunger Games Trilogy, Suzanne Collins – fast paced, gripping science fiction saga
Noughts and Crosses trilogy, Malorie Blackman
At the Sign of the Sugared Plum, Mary Hooper
Pirates!, Celia Rees -swashbuckling historical novel
My Swordhand is Singing by Marcus Sedgwick – tense, edge-of-seat gothic horror
The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time, Mark Haddon
Finding Violet Park, Jenny Valentine (also The Ant Colony and Broken Soup)

Older teens

Equally enjoyable for you and your daughter, these and many other contemporary titles will keep you both entertained and engaged…

The Chaos Walking trilogy (The Knife of Never Letting Go, The Ask and the Answer and Monsters of Men), Patrick Ness
A Gathering Light, Jennifer Donnelly
How I Live Now, Meg Rosoff
Postcards from No Man’s Land, Aidan Chambers
Numbers, Rachel Ward
Lucas, Kevin Brooks
Looking for JJ, Anne Cassidy
Rowan the Strange, Julie Hearn
What I Saw and How I Lied, Judy Blundell
Auslander, Paul Dowswell

Modern Classics

Whatever your daughter’s age, you may still find that she will enjoy reading some of the books you read as a child, and you may find great comfort in re-reading them with an adult’s perspective!

My Family and Other Animals, Gerald Durrell
The Earthsea Quartet, Ursula Le Guin
The Railway Children, E. Nesbit
The Secret Garden, Frances Hodgson Burnett
What Katy did series, Susan Coolidge
Little Women series, Louisa M Alcott
Anne of Green Gables, L Montgomery
The Ghost of Thomas Kempe, Penelope Lively
The Indian in the Cupboard series, Lynne Reid Banks
Goodnight Mister Tom, Michelle Magorian
When Hitler stole Pink Rabbit, Judith Kerr
The Diary of Anne Frank, Anne Frank
Over Sea, Under Stone, Susan Cooper (The Dark is Rising sequence)
To Kill a Mocking Bird, Harper Lee

For more reading ideas for your daughters take a look at our other recommendations in Summer holiday reading and Ideas for reluctant readers

With thanks to the Heads & staff at the following schools:
Bolton School (Girls’ Division), Central Newcastle High School GDST, Haberdashers’ Monmouth School for Girls, Heathfield School, Ipswich High School GDST, Kent College, Leicester High School for Girls, Malvern St James, Merchant Taylors’ Girls’ School, Moira House, Queen’s College London, Shrewsbury High School GDST, St Albans High School, St Leonards-Mayfield, St Swithun’s School, Sydenham High School GDST, The Queen’s School Chester, The Maynard School, The Red Maids’ School, Wakefield Girls’ High School, Westholme School, Woldingham School