Miss Priss is a good little independent reader, but she is still at a stage where she needs 8-year old content, shorter chapter books, and simple plot lines. An obvious choice is Junie B. Jones, but the character bothers me. I want Miss Priss wants spunky book characters that are in the same vein as Junie B., but she also wants I want the character to use decent grammar.

Here are a few book suggestions that meet the decent grammar and spunky girl character criteria. Miss Priss reads them on her own, but we also spend time reading together several nights a week. I read a page aloud, and then my daughter takes a turn. It helps build her reading fluency without slowing the reading down so much that she loses momentum. It is also just a fun activity for the two of us.

1st grade+

• No Dogs Allowed by Stephanie Calmenson and Joanna Cole
• Just Grace series by Cherise Mericle Harper
• Cam Jansen series by David A. Adler
• Heidi Heckelbeck series by Wanda Coven
• Ramona Quimby series by Beverly Cleary
• The Never Girls series by Kiki Thorpe
• Ivy and Bean series by Annie Barrows
• Gooney Bird Greene series by Lois Lowry
• My America: Meg’s Prairie Diary series by Kate McMullan
• Hailey Twitch series by Lauren Barnholdt

4th grade+

• Wide Awake Princess series by E.D. Baker
• Ten Good and Bad Things About My Life (So Far) by Ann M. Martin
• Destiny, Rewritten by Kathryn Fitzmaurice
• The Magic Half by Annie Barrows
• Cornelia and the Audacious Escapades of the Somerset Sisters by Lesley M. M. Blume
• The Tail of Emily Windsnap series by Liz Kessler
• Because of Winn-Dixie by Kate DiCamillo
• The Meaning of Maggie by Megan Jean Sovern
• Maggie Malone and the Mostly Magical Boots by Jenna McCarthy and Carolyn Evans
• The Bread Winner by Arvella Whitmore
• The Egypt Game by Zilpha Keatley Snyder
• A Little Princess by Frances Hodgson Burnett
• Anastasia Krupnik by Lois Lowry