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

[stevendj.livejournal.com]

The Poet's Handbook by Judson Jerome taught me a lot about poetry, and I just bought a copy for my 10-year-old niece. It may be too much for her, even though she's very, very smart, but she's not being challenged at school and I thought something at a higher level might spark her interest.

The best book I've read on writing fiction is Damon Knight's Creating Short Fiction. Damon's essay collection, In Search of Wonder, is also a good choice. It doesn't talk specifically about writing, but it's very entertaining and a writer needs to start thinking in terms of what works and what fails.