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

[ke-jia.livejournal.com]

The best book about the task of writing and becoming a writer I've ever read (out of about five books I've read that are devoted to the subject) is Stephen King's On Writing.

I'm also partial to a book of essays and short stories written by Gene Wolfe, Castle of Days. The essays generally either describe the process of writing science fiction, or the process of writing his best known novel Book of the New Sun. It may not be the most appropriate book in the world to the task, but I never pass up an opportunity to plug Gene Wolfe. He's gold.