My 9 y.o. daughter and I are starting a mother-daughter book club with some friends. We'll be picking books for the first 6 months at our first meeting.  Does anyone have any suggestions for "must reads" for girls this age, especially recent books? I know most of the classics but would love to find some fun new books and authors. Thanks!

We loved The Tale of Despereaux by Kate DeCamillo!    Will think of others......

You could check out the Lightning Thief by Rick Riordan. It is not specifically for girls (my son loves the series) but I think both boys and girls would enjoy it. Here is the description from the back of the book...

Percy Jackson is a good kid, but he can't seem to focus on his schoolwork or control his temper. And lately, being away at boarding school is only getting worse - Percy could have sworn his pre-algebra teacher turned into a monster and tried to kill him. When Percy's mom finds out, she knows it's time that he knew the truth about where he came from, and that he go to the one place he'll be safe. She sends Percy to Camp Half-Blood, a summer camp for demigods (on Long Island), where he learns that the father he never knew is Poseidon, God of the Sea. Soon a mystery unfolds and together with his friends - one a satyr and the other the demigod daughter of Athena - Percy sets out on a quest across the United States to reach the gates of the Underworld (located in a recording studio in Hollywood) and prevent a catastrophic war between the gods.

My 9 y.o son and I just listened to Dealing with Dragons by Patricia Wrede about a very untypical princess. (it is the first of 4 books)

When I was nine years old, I remember reading the books from the Babysitter's Club with my mom. Also, I know these are classics but when I was around nine I started reading the Anne of Green Gables series by L.M. Montgomery and loved them. :) I read Watership Down by Robert Adams when I was in high school, but I found it to be appropriate for any age, though your daughters understanding of it my vary with an older persons. (As a word of warning, I think the seagull does swear once, and some of the rabbits die.)

Some books I read when I was older (11-15 maybe?) and enjoyed were  The Devil's Arithmetic by Jane Yolen, Number the Stars by Lois Lowry, and the Logan family series by Mildred D. Taylor (I think it starts with Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry). The Devil's Arithmetic and Number the Stars are both about the holocaust and the protagonist "dies" in the end of the former book ( except it involves time travel, so she is able to still live).

The Logan Family series is about prejudice in depression-era south and includes the words "nigger" and "nigger-lover." A black boy is also lynched in the first or second book.

I think all of these books are wonderful for discussing in group, but it would probably be best to read them first or at least consider the maturity of the children involved before letting your children read them. I hope this helps.

Edit: I just remembered reading and enjoying Tuck Everlasting. It's not as dark as the others, but could still be used to discuss the concept of relationships/community and belonging. (Find the original, not one based on the movie. They turned it into an unnecessary romance.)

I thought of another book that may work - A Wrinkle in Time by L'Engle. There could be some interesting discussions about that one and there is a strong female lead character.

What about The Mother Daughter Bookclub by Heather Vogel Frederick?

The Indian in the Cupboard series by Lynne Reid Banks is very good.   http://www.paperbackswap.com/book/browser.php?k=the+indian+in+the+cupboard

The Adventures of King Midas by LRB was very good as well.

I don't know how this one would work in a book club but the church I grew up in used to have a yearly mother/daughter banquet in May and we had a very animated member at the time who taught jr high language classes and she read alout from this book http://www.paperbackswap.com/book/details/9780020404804-O+Ye+Jigs+Juleps+A+humorous+slice+of+smalltown+turnofthecentury+America  O Ye Jigs & Juleps. It was hilarious! They were written by a 10 yr old girl. Of course this woman was an excellent narrator but my mom bought me the book afterwards since we both enjoyed it so much.

TheBetsy-Tacy books are some nice old fashioned reads.  There are several of them. They might make a good contrast against a more "modern" story.

This thread has suggestions for young animal lovers.  http://www.paperbackswap.com/forum/topic.php?t=136274

Here are a few my daughter and I have read together:

Rodzina – Karen Cushman

Once on This Island - Gloria Whelan

The Hundred Dresses - Eleanor Estes

Gooseberry Park - Cynthia Rylant

The Secret School - Avi

Listening for Lions - Gloria Whelan

Out of the Dust - Karen Hesse

The Princess Academy - Shannon Hale

Thanks for all the suggestions! I'm going to look up the ones we haven't read before and make a list for our first meeting.

How about:

Because of Winn Dixie

The Trixie Beldon Series books (a girl detective)

The Incredible Journey of Edward Tulane (not sure of the exact title)

Ella Enchanted is one of my favorites by Gail Carson Levine, and she also wrote 6 fairy tale retellings. A couple names are The Princess Test (The Princess and the Pea) Princess Sonora and the Long Sleep (Sleeping Beauty) and Cinderellis and the Glass Hill (kind of a combo between Cinderella and The Golden Goose). They are really cute stories.

The True Confessions of Charlotte Doyle is also an amazing book, as is The Witch of Blackbird Pond.

The Newberry Award, and Honor list is a really good place to find books for the younger age group. I've read a lot of them, and most of them are really good. There are very few that I have read that I would not strongly recommend.

I've heard good things about The new Meg Cabot Books Allie Finkle's Rules.  I haven't read them but my 9 year old nice loved them and I've injoyed the teen and adult books by Cabot.   http://alliefinkle.scholastic.com/

One of my all time favorities is "In the Year of the Boar and Jackie Robinson"

My daughter loves Holes and the Series of Unfortunate Events books.  She just turned 8 so they are a little hard reading but we listened to them on CD.