Christmas present query

[rivka]

What would you get a twelve-year-old girl who wants to be a writer?

I think we gave her a blank book last year. (Not because we knew that she was an aspiring author at that point, just because we got lucky. Or maybe that's why she now wants to be an author.)

There are a lot of books about writing aimed at kids and teenagers, but I have no idea of their quality.

There's also this writing journal, which, while not for kids, was recommended on Amazon by a young woman who describes herself as a "13-year-old writer."

Any recommendations?

Comments

[jonquil.livejournal.com]

If you're willing to overlook the language (she's passionate about the importance of the Shitty First Draft), I strongly recommend Anne Lamott's Bird By Bird. I first told the Bird By Bird story from this book to a tearful third-grader who was sure she'd never finish an assignment; she still asks for it every now and again.

Bird By Bird isn't a children's book; it's a human's book about how hard and how worthwhile writing is.

[qe2.livejournal.com]

I second this one. Bird by Bird was the first writing book I ever picked up for myself, rather than being handed it for school. I still love and reread it.

(I own and reread Natalie Goldberg, too. I would have found her frustratingly opaque and grr-inducing when I was twelve. Your giftee's mileage may vary.)

[jmhm.livejournal.com]

I was going to say Bird by Bird.

Also Strunk and White, Fowler's Modern English Usage (Teresa turned me on to that) and maybe a volume of Orwell's essays containing Politics and the English Language, which is far and away the best thing I've ever read about writing, political or non-