All of these books were published before 2000—you may remember some from your own childhood! Some are classics and/or award winners. Some…not so much. At any rate, they’re older than the tweens you may be choosing them for.
PLEASE NOTE – SPOILER ALERT: Reviews on this site are aimed at parents, educators, and other adults who care about what kids are reading. For that reason, they contain spoilers, since it’s usually the spoilers that you most wish you knew about before your kid read the book and ended up sobbing or cowering under the covers until well after midnight. (Gosh, what makes it sound like this is the voice of experience?)
- Anastasia Krupnik
- Anne of Green Gables
- Basil of Baker Street
- Brian’s Winter
- Black Maria (AKA Aunt Maria)
- Bridge to Terabithia (1978 Newbery Medal winner)
- The Door in the Hedge
- The Dragon Charmer
- Encyclopedia Brown
- Frankenstein
- George Washington’s Socks
- The Giver (1994 Newbery Medal winner)
- The Handmaid’s Tale
- Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets
- Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban
- Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone
- Hatchet (1988 Newbery honor)
- A Hidden Magic
- Horrible Harry and the Kickball Wedding
- Howl’s Moving Castle
- Jacob Two-Two’s First Spy Case
- Look Out, Washington, D.C.!
- Mississippi Bridge
- The Mysterious Disappearance of Leon (I Mean Noel)
- Nate the Great and the Halloween Hunt
- Only You Can Save Mankind
- The Ordinary Princess
- Pawn of Prophecy
- The Phantom Tollbooth
- The Princess Bride: S. Morgenstern’s Classic Tale of True Love and High Adventure
- Prospero’s Children
- Scorpions (1989 Newbery Honor)
- The Snarkout Boys and the Baconburg Horror
- Speak (1999 National Book Award Finalist)
- Stone Fox
- The Talking Earth
- The Tattooed Potato and Other Clues
- The Thief
- The Time Warp Trio
- The View from Saturday (1997 Newbery Medal winner)
- Walk Two Moons (1995 Newbery Medal winner)
- Water Sky
- The Whipping Boy (1987 Newbery Medal winner)
- The Witches
- Zeely
Speak Your Mind