Savvy by Ingrid Law is an above-average book for girls, published last year. It’s fine for boys, too — I recently read it to my daughter and two sons, and all enjoyed — but the main character is a girl and so I think of it as aimed primarily at girls. It has humor, adventure, and just the tiniest dash of young romance. The author has a nice way with words, too. I’m never at a loss for what to read to my kids, but I picked this one because a friend suggested it and I’m happy to pass on the recommendation.
Tonight we started reading Down the Long Hills, by Louis L’Amour. The main characters are a seven-year-old boy and his three-year-old sister, abandoned on the prairie. I’ve read about two dozen L’Amour books, mostly as a teenager, but not this one, which I recently learned was aimed at “young adults” before booksellers turned this into its own publishing category. The first chapter is engaging, and includes a “teaching moment” on the very first page: I had to explain the meaning of “buffalo chips.” Hilarity ensued.