TOP 10 BOOKS FOR KIDS AGED 10

by - Sunday, December 03, 2017

At age ten, I know you are almost about to leave your little kids' book and starting to explore on the books your older brother or sister are reading. So, a combination of a fun and full of fantasy stories and a little more serious stories are collected for you to enjoy. Here's the list of books ideal for children at around age ten.

1. Harriet the Spy (Harriet the Spy #1)  by Louise Fitzhugh
* Harriet M. Welsch is a spy. One day she decided to get out of the usual spy route. Instead, she writes down everything she saw about the people around her. Every little thing she noticed on everyone, she jots it down on her notebook. Some lines on her notes goes like this:
"I bet the lady with the cross-eye looks in the mirror and feels just terrible."
"Pinky Whitehead will never change. Does his mother hate him? If I had him I'd hate him."
Fate plays a little harder with Harriet. She lose track of her notebook and unfortunately, it landed on the wrong hands. Before Harriet can stop it, her friends already read everything on her notebook. They already saw the always truthful and most of the time awful things she’s written about each of them. It is yet for us to know is Harriet can find a way to win her friends back.  

Louise Fitzhugh is not just a writer but also an illustrator of children's books. Aside from  the Harriet the Spy, other novels she wrote were two Harriet sequels, The Long Secret and Sport, and Nobody's Family is Going to Change.  Many of Fitzhugh's books were illustrated by her and she had works exhibited in Banfer Gallery, New York and  other galleries in 1963.

2. The Witches by Roald Dahl
* If you are thinking that this story is a fairy tale, then you are wrong. This is about real witches who do not ride around on broomsticks. The real witches, they don't wear cloaks and hats. These witches are vicious, slick, and awful individuals who  veils themselves as friendly, common women. To know that you are facing one of them is quite a challenge and you really have to be aware when you face them. So if you don't know yet on how to recognize a witch, this is your very chance to get to know them. Let's read on find out!

Roald Dahl was a British novelist, short story writer who was very prominent on writing novel for both children and adults. He later became one of the world's bestselling authors.

3. The Best Christmas Pageant Ever (The Herdmans #1) by Barbara Robinson
*The Herdman kids are known to be the worst kids in town . They are a kind of kids every parents want their children to avoid. Ralph, Imogene, Leroy, Claude, Ollie, and Gladys Herdman are an awful bunch. These kids burn down Fred Shoemaker’s toolshed,
they blackmailed Wanda Pierce just to get her charm bracelet and they smoke in bathrooms. Well, that’s just the start! One day the Herdman siblings show up at church for the free snacks, they take over the annual Christmas pageant and turn it to the best if not the worse Christmas Pageant ever. The Herdmans has never heard the Christmas story before. So they started to reimagine their own hilarious yet heartwarming tale.
This year’s Christmas pageant will surely be special.

Barbara Robinson starts writing at a very early age. She writes poems, plays, stories and she just never can't quit it. She got her love for books from her mother. She grew up in  Portsmouth, a small town in southern Ohio River. The atmosphere set on her hometown affected her writings and has became her inspiration. Love for reading runs through generations from her mother down to her own grandchildren.

4. The Witch of Blackbird Pond by Elizabeth George Speare
* Katherine Tyler, our headstrong heroine is a young orphan who travels from island of Barbados to Puritan colony of Connecticut. As she glazed at the shore of Connecticut Colony for the first time, she knew that her new home will never be like the shimmering Caribbean island she left behind. She felt like a bird in cage, left alone and lonely. Kit only felt release when she is in the meadows. Here she felt completely free and happy. This is where she meet Hannah Tupper, known as the witch of Blackbird Pond. Problems arise when this friendship with the witch is discovered. She was also accused of witchcraft. Now, she has to face suspicion, fear and anger.

The author, Elizabeth George Speare was born in Melrose, Massachusetts, but lived all her life in New England and this is the place she calls home. She loves to travel. When she married  Alden Speare, that is the time she came to Connecticut. The only time that she finds time at last to sit down quietly with a pencil and paper is when both her children were on Junior high. She never had difficulty to start writing again. She turned naturally to the things which had filled her days and thoughts and she began to write magazine articles about family living. Then one day, a true story from New England history. She thought of the character who seemed an ideal heroine and that is when she started with her first novel- The Witch of Blackbird Pond.

5. Alice's Adventures in Wonderland & Through the Looking-Glass (Alice's Adventures in Wonderland #1-2) by Lewis Carroll.
* One warm summer afternoon, young Alice tumbles down a rabbit hole and the strangest adventures in Wonderland started and continued to enchant readers even after more than 100 years. On this book, the young and imaginative Alice encounters the anxious White Rabbit, the laconic Cheshire Cat, the terrifying Red Queen,the Mad Hatter, the weeping Mock Turtle, and a host of other outlandish and charming characters.

The Reverend Charles Lutwidge Dodgson is well known by his pen name Lewis Carroll. He was an Oxford scholar, Church of England Deacon, University Lecturer in Mathematics and Logic, academic author of learned theses, gifted pioneer of portrait photography, colourful writer of imaginative genius sequels.
Alice's Adventures in Wonderland and its sequel is just one of his famous writings. His famous poems are "The Hunting of the Snark" and "Jabberwocky". He is considered to be a literary genius.

6.  Ella Enchanted by Gail Carson Levine
*Ella was visited by a young fairy named Lucinda, her fairy godmother. Lucinda bestowed her a magical talent to obey whatever she is told to do so. This turns to be more of a curse rather than a blessing to Ella. When her lovely mother died, she was forced to live with a loathsome stepmother and two treacherous stepsisters. This embarks Ella to go on a quest to find Lucinda and convince her to reverse the spell. On her way, she befriends elves, and fall in love with a prince. Ellah Enchanted is a remarkable and delightful version of Cinderella with some satisfying twists and deviations from the original story.

The Lost Kingdom of Bamarre, Stolen Magic, The Two Princesses of Bamarre and Fairest are just some of the amazing books written by the same author, Gail Carson Levine. She was born and raised in New York City, New York. She credits her love for writing from her parents. The success of Ella Enchanted made Gail decide and retire from government work and pursue writing full-time.

7. Betsy-Tacy (Betsy-Tacy #1) by Maud Hart Lovelace
*Betsy Ray badly wants to have a friend and playmate of her age. There are lots of children on Hill street but no one is of the same age as hers. Betsy hopes there's a little girl that she can play with. One day, a new family move in the house just across the street and sure enough she meet a five year old girl, Tacy. Since Betsy's fifth birthday, they became very best friends. People start to think they are just one person - Betsy-Tacy. From then on, they shared lots of fun together. They make a playhouse from a piano box, have a sand store, and they also love to dress up. More surprises come when a new found friend Tib came along.

Maud Hart Lovelace was born on April 25, 1892, in Mankato, Minnesota. She used her own family as a model for the fictional Ray family. A newly moved in neighbor Frances, nicknamed Bick, is her model for Tacy. Tib is the character she used for Marjorie or Midge. She's the other little girl who lived nearby  in a large house designed by her architect father. These three little girls (Maud, Bick, and Midge) became lifelong best friends so as Betsy,Tacy and Tib)

8. The City of Ember (Book of Ember, #1)  by Jeanne DuPrau
*The city of Ember was created many hundred years ago. The builders created this city to contain everything that is needed for human survival. It works real fine in the past but corruption is rapidly spreading throughout the city while the storerooms are almost out of food and crops. To make things worst, the lights are starting to fail. Not long enough, Ember could be engulfed by darkness. One day, Lina and Doon discover fragments of an ancient parchment. The two children start to wonder if there could be any other way out of Ember. Let's join them in their journey. Let's see if they can decipher the words from long ago and will they find a new future for everyone? Their greatest struggle will be the people of Ember, will there be anyone of them who will listen to them?

Jeanne DuPrau finds writing a hardwork. She has this quote from Thomas Mann taped to her wall: "A writer is someone for whom writing is harder than it is for other people". This quote gives her so much courage to continue writing. She also love gardening and a dog lover. She lives with her two nephews, a niece, and her dog named Ethan.

9. Anne of Green Gables (Anne of Green Gables #1) by L.M. Montgomery
* The unmarried siblings, Matthew and Marilla Cuthbert lived on their ancestral farm, Green Gables. It's in the quiet town of Avonlea in Prince Edward Island, Canada. Matthew being sixty, realized that he is getting old and decided to adopt a boy from an orphanage  to handle the farm work with him. Due to a misunderstanding, the orphanage sends a red-headed girl named Anne Shirley. instead. Anne is highly imaginative, eager to please the elderly and quite dramatic at times. She did everything to win the elderly siblings and eventually,  the Cuthberts quickly become attached to Anne and decide to keep her.

Lucy Maud Montgomery was a Canadian author. she is best known for a series of novels. Anne of Green Gables is Lucy's first novel. Lucy Maud Montgomery, was born at Clifton, Prince Edward Island on Nov. 30, 1874.

10. The Hidden Staircase (Nancy Drew #2) by Carolyn Keene
*Nancy decided to help the relatives of Helen Corning to solve the mystery of the ghost haunting their old mansion. A mysterious visitor came to Nancy to warn her that her father, Carson Drew is in danger. Nancy discovers an underground passage and staircase. She also find the missing property owner,  Willie Wharton, and learned that her father is a prisoner in the tunnel. The disappearance of Mr. Drew, the thefts and all the mysterious goings on at Twin Elms along with the discovery of a hidden staircase, ushers Nancy to resolve these baffling mysteries.

Carolyn Keene is a writer pen name that was used by many different people- both men and women- over the years. The company owner hires different writers and they all used the pseudonym Carolyn Keene to assure anonymity of the creator.

This list of books is surely good enough to fill your free time. You may grab a copy of the book so that whenever you have spare time, you may just sit on the corner and start reading. You'll surely love and enjoy these books and the stories which you can remember all the days of your life.

Image result for photos of books for 10 yr old

You May Also Like

0 comments