When I buy gifts for people, I tend to look at books first. I was a big reader growing up and now I find myself raising big readers. It’s a proud momma moment when I see the whole family curled up with respective books. Our house is fairly crawling with good books and I do not mind this problem at all. If you have a seven year old girl looking for her next good read, here are ten books I’d suggest sticking under the tree for her this Christmas.

Christmas Stories by Laura Ingalls Wilder – This whole series of Little House Chapter Books is fantastic for kids just getting into chapter books and a great introduction to the Little House series. This one seems like an obvious choice for this time of year.

Ballet Cat: The Totally Secret Secret by Bob Shea is one my own daughter has her eye on. It’s heavy on the pictures and perfect for building your kid’s confidence in reading a larger book because it’s a deceptively quick read despite its size. It’s reminiscent of the Piggie and Elephant books by Mo Willems that both my kids love.

Clarice Bean: The Utterly Complete Collection by Lauren Childs has three Clarice Bean books in one box set. This are chapter books by the same author who wrote Charlie & Lola. I love her writing style because it tosses in larger words in a funny way so it’s secretly increasing your kid’s vocabulary, too. If your daughter isn’t quite ready for chapter books, the Charlie & Lola books are fantastic, too.

Wonder Woman at Super Hero High by Lisa Yee is a great chapter book to offer your comic book loving girls. It all takes place at Super Hero High where some of our favorite super heroes go to school to learn to be super heroes. Join Wonder Woman’s first year at school and meet all your favorite comic book heroes in a way you’ve never seen them before!

Kristy’s Great Idea: Full Color Edition by Ann M. Martin is a major nostalgia alert. I bought this for my daughter to lure her into my favorite series from childhood and found myself sitting on my bed reading the whole thing in one sitting. I loved the illustrations and my daughter was immediately hooked and asking for book two! Only a small handful of the books have been given the graphic novel treatment, but you can go from these to the regular series or even check out the Baby Sitters Club Little Sister series which are shorter in length and feature younger girls.

Julia’s House for Lost Creatures by Ben Hatke looks like a beautiful picture book to add to your collection. Even when your kids start reading to themselves regularly, they still love to be read to. This is when you up the ante and get picky about your picture books. Gorgeous illustrations and stories good enough that you actually want to find out what happens next. This one looks fantastic.

Mercy Watson Boxed Set by Kate DiCamillo is going under my Christmas tree this year. My daughter is reading one of the books for school and cannot stop the gushing. I like to keep a good thing going and this little pig seems to have the power to captivate my daughter with every page. These are kind of a hybrid between chapter books and picture books. Lots of illustrations but plenty of words, too.

Buckle and Squash: The Perilous Princess Plot by Sarah Courtauld is a mixed-up fairly tale chapter book with scattered sweet illustrations about two very different sisters who find themselves on a daring adventure. It’s praised for it’s wit and wordplay and seems to be a hit for all ages.

Kiki: My Stylish Life by Kyla May is one of my daughter’s favorites. It’s part of a series of books, each told from a different girl’s perspective. It’s written like a diary and has lots of cute illustrations and a lot of sass and silliness. My daughter laughed out loud over this one and frequently asked to read section aloud to me. It’s a great forray into chapter books for kids that are kind of ready for more but still love plenty of pictures in their books.

Okay, so you have a big reader – maybe they are ready to start writing, too? I just ordered my daughter this adorable “secret” diary with a pretty little box to keep it in. Now she can write her own stories and feel like she’s part of her own novel in the making.

What books would you add to this list?

What was your favorite book at this age?

Top Ten Tuesday is a weekly meme hosted by The Broke and the Bookish.