Book Talk Tuesdays: Clean Books for Teenage Girls

Books for the Pre-teen and Teenage Girls in Your Life

My first foray into reading involved animal stories by Jean Craighead George and Marguerite Henry. And then I discovered the myriad volumes of horse-and-girl stories. I devoured every one I could find in our library via the good old card catalog system. Somewhere between 8th and 9th grade, I graduated to Harlequin Romances. Yeah. Quite the switch. I didn’t discover Grace Livingston Hill for another twenty years, and the line-up at the local Christian bookstore seemed preachy and boring.

The Young Adult (YA) and Middle Grade (MG) genre has exploded in the past ten years, and has even reached into the Christian market. As a middle grade and high school teacher at a Christian mission school, I love finding authors who write from a Christian world-view without preaching. Most of my students have no knowledge of Christianity when they arrive at our school, so finding ‘clean’ books that they love but that don’t glorify the dark side can present a challenge.

Melanie Dickerson’s books fit the bill perfectly. My students love all of her books, and many never find their way home to the library. We’re ok with that, though, because that means that they share them and pass them on to friends outside the school.

Dickerson takes fairy tales and retells them from a Christian world-view in a medieval setting—mostly in the fictional Germanic kingdom of Haggenheim. The female antagonists display self-sufficiency (no wilting violets here), compassion, and common sense. Dickerson avoids moralistic preaching. The heroines, although living hundreds of years ago, face many of the same emotional and moral dilemmas that adolescents face today: betrayal, abuse, problems with siblings, and consequences of bad choices.

Books for Younger Teens

The Healer’s Apprentice (Sleeping Beauty)
The Merchant’s Daughter (Beauty and the Beast)
The Fairest Beauty (Snow White)
The Captive Maiden (Cinderella)
The Princess Spy (The Frog Prince)
The Golden Braid (Rapunzel)
The Silent Songbird (The Little Mermaid)
The Orphan’s Wish (Aladdin-coming June 26)

Books for Older Teens

The Huntress of Thornbeck Forest (Robin Hood)
The Beautiful Pretender (The Princess and the Pea)
The Noble Servant (The Goose Girl)

The Regency Spies of London Series

A Spy’s Devotion
The Viscount’s Proposal
A Dangerous Engagement

Books by Jody Hedlund

Jody Hedlund also writes for the YA Christian Inspirational market. Readers of all ages will find it difficult to stop turning the pages in her Medieval adventure books. Older readers will enjoy her Orphan Train series. Believe me, these books knock the socks off those formulaic Harquelins I used to read! Hedlund also does a great job of creating relatable characters in relatable situations—even though the stories take place hundreds of years ago.

Medieval Adventure

A Daring Sacrifice
An Uncertain Choice
For Love and Honor
A Loyal Heart

The Orphan Train Series

With You Always
Together Forever

So, if you have a teenage or pre-teen daughter, granddaughter, niece, or friend who loves to read, check out these books. You can gift with confidence (and ask to borrow the book when they finish!).

Note: I am an Amazon affiliate. If you click on one of the links to Amazon, and decide to purchase something, I will receive a small commission at no additional cost to you.