I'd suggest Twenty-One Balloons by William Pene du Bois.

You could also try the Nancy Drew series but I don't know if they would be suitable. They may be a bit dated.

How about Alice in Wonderland?

Right off the top of my head:
The Wrinkle in Time series by Madeleine L'Engle if she is the sort to like fantasy
Any of the American Girl series if she likes history
Also, the Dear America series
The Redwall series by Brian Jacques if she likes fantasy and animals (I think this one is up to 20 books so you might just want to get her started)
Matilda by Roald Dahl
Any by Betsy Byars

that she has read The Series of Unfortunate Events by Lemony Snicket? The last in the series was just released to great fanfare yesterday. If she hasn't they are a good series and very much fun-but read in order!
If she is willing to tackle a somewhat wordy book, the Alcott books are time-honored classics-
Little Women, Little Men, Jo's Boys is one series
another matched pair is Eight Cousins and Rose in Bloom

The Elizabeth Enright series The Saturdays, The Four-Story Mistake, Then There Were Five and Spiderweb For Two

Not just for girls, but books I have given kids that age:

>The Phantom Toolbooth

>Just So Stories (Kipling)

>Heide

Anything by Beverly Cleary

>

A couple more suggestions:

The Laura Ingalls Wilder Little House books
The Secret Garden and A Little Princess
Lloyd Alexander's Prydain series, beginning with The Book of Three

The Little House Books would be at the top of my list followed by the Narnia books. I was reading Farmer Boy last night....
I don't know if they are dated now, but at that age I loved Judy Blume.

there are some really good suggestions here. I'd add The Boxcar Children by Gertrude Chandler Warner as another series.
I don't know, of course, how well you know the little girl in question. I would just say from my teaching experience that 10 is one of those "cusp" years-some 10 year-olds are deep into Laura Ingalls Wilder and that ilk, some have left her far behind. You might want to do some covert research ;-) and find out how mature she is and how well she reads-whether or not she has an older sister is often a factor as well-sometimes younger sisters get interested earlier than usual in a series that their older sister is reading. I've had older sisters ask to renew library books because "now my little sister wants to read it too." I always congratulate them on being a good role model.

Thank you one and all. Many great suggestions here.

Also suggest Kit Pearson's trilogy about a young British girl, 10 year old Nora, and her brother who are shipped to Canada during WW2. The first book is called The Sky is Falling. The series was a huge fav with my girls.

You "must" get her the "Fudge" books by Beverly Cleary-my DD adored them and in fact she is presently reading one with her 5th grade reluctant readers. They may not be fine literature but they show a great understanding of kids and they are funny. I'm not sure how many she wrote-perhaps 3?

My 11 yr old loved Eragon and Eldest which are dragon-related fantasy with a third book on the way. She also loved all the Harry Potter books and is anxiously awaiting #7. Also in the fantasy category, Terry Pratchett has a series of three books featuring witch-in-training Tiffany Aching that we both loved, The Wee Free Men, A Hat Full of Sky, and the newest one Wintersmith.

I'll second the recommendation for the Judy Blume Fudge books (Fudge, Super Fudge, Double Fudge, Fudge-A-Mania and also Otherwise Known as Sheila The Great), though they might be a little young for her. My 11 yr-old still likes Mrs. Piggle-Wiggle, too, though that is geared a bit younger. She's currently reading Esperanza Rising (not a series) by Pam Munoz Ryan and tells me it's "SO good!".

Anne of Green Gables and all the Alcott books were favorites of mine at this age, too.

FYI (and IMHO), if you do choose the Boxcar Children (which my kids absolutely loved) stick to books 1 through 19, which were all actually written by the author and not by a committee. The later books are awful and there are lots of them.

Oh, ditto BoxCar Children! Also, A Tree Grows in Brooklyn (might be a little old, again depending on maturity) and All Of A Kind Family (several books).

I loved animals as a child (still do, actually), so around age 8, 9, 10, I loved reading all those horse books (below is a link to a list of the most popular ones).

Here is a link that might be useful: Juvenile Fiction about horses

The Fudge series isn't Beverly Cleary-they are written by Judy Blume. Great series, though.

When I was 10, I loved the Chronicles of Narnia. (and I still do at 35)

And how can we forget the Betsy-Tacey books?

I read The Boxer Car children series in third and fourth grade. By fifth I though it was juvenile. I love it now, of course, but it might be too young.

Is she a good reader? If not, some of the classics like Black Beauty have been re-written into a slightly easier to read format. If she reads at grade level or above....then, she can handle the "real thing"

I loved Black Beauty at her age. If she's a tom boy type, she might enjoy Treasure Island and stories like that.

>some of the classics like Black Beauty have been re-written into a slightly easier to read format

This drives me to distraction. When I was a kid, I went to my parents if I didn't understand something I was reading, or I put a book aside and waited till I could. I just hate the idea of dumbing down classics, it just doesn't have to be that way (exceptions - classes for children with actual learning disabitlities) But this is probably for another thread

Anyway, second on Black Beauty. In fact that started me on a long run of horse books that lasted well into JR HS.

Polly Horvath writes some really good (and funny) books, especially Everything on a Waffle which won a 2002 Newbery Honor Award and The Trolls a National Book Award Finalist that sounds like a boy book, but it's really not. Awards aside--because kids don't care--they are AWESOME books with strong female characters who are each quite unique. I read them as a library school student and laughed out loud at points.

The Two Princesses of Bamarre by Gail Carson Levine is a great book. By the same author is another book that my students have enjoyed-Ella Enchanted is a charming book-don't go by the movie, they have nothing in common but the title.

Thanks again, everyone. I knew I could count on you. My SIL loves the list, said she's going to keep it for her daughter to work her way through. I almost wish I was 10 years old again with a life-time of reading ahead of me. There were years when I didn't even glance at a book.

When I was 10, all I read were animal stories: all of Marguerite Henry's exquisitely illustrated books (especially King of the Wind, a true story), Walter Farley's Black Stallion series, Jack O'Brian's wonderful Silver Chief, Dog of the North series, Jim Kjelgard's Snow Dog, and, if she's mature, Jack London's White Fang and Call of the Wild (White Fang is easier to take, as it has a happy ending). A favorite "human" story was Caddie Woodlawn.

She's a lucky girl to have the adults in her life care so much about her reading!

I just loved the box car chilren when i was a kid. i know you asked for series, but Holes and how to eat fried worms are both great books to read.

if she likes a mystery, 'The Cat who....' books might not be
too far beyond her reach. I read the original Tarzan books at that age and was captivated. as well as nacy drew and the hardy boys. also the series about budding astronauts "Tom ???" after that i slid into Narnia, and then the lord of the rings. Horatio Hornblower would be great, (but O'brian's Master and Commander series was
a heavy, but wonderful read for me this past year)
I also remember a series about a boy named henry, he as always in trouble(or was it a Homer?)
diggerb

Oh yeah, that was the age I was reading Call of the Wild, Black Stallions and others. If she likes animals, James Herriot (of the vet series fame) has written some books for children, well more like YA. They might be a little high for her, but my niece got them at 11 and has eaten them up already.

Island of the Blue Dolphins was one of my all time favorite books, I read it a couple of times and my daughter read it at least 3 times.

I adored Caddie Woodlawn when I was ten.

At that age I adored the original Mary Poppins books and also a lovely short series by Eleanor Estes about the Moffat family, who lived at the turn of the century in a small town in New England. Oe was called The Moffats, another The Middle Moffat and there were at least a couple more. Also by her, and a great book, is Ginger Pye, a lovely children's mystery set in the same time period. I reread all these books as a child and wouldn't mind reading them all again.

Each Little Bird That Sings by Deborah Wiles
Ida B. by Katherine Harrigan (or Hannigan)
Mrs. Piggle Wiggle is great.
Oh, and someone suggested the Freddy the Pig series in another thread and I read Freddie the Detective and it is utterly charming. I love it!

Though they are a bit old-fashioned, I love the Edith Nesbit books, especially Five Children and It. They have a lot of humor. Others I have enjoyed are the hilarious Catweazle by Richard Carpenter
The Mouse and His Child by Russell Hoban
Mistress Masham's Repose by T.H. White
the Borrowers series by Mary Norton
The Princess and the Goblin (a classic) by George MacDonald
A Dog So Small, by Philippa Carr. (Not sure if I have spelled her name right.)Oh, and Tom's Midnight Garden (I forget the author.)

This may already have been mentioned, but for series books my DD really likes Trixie Belden, which was a favorite of mine back in the 70's. They've been reissued in hardcover through #16 or so.

I love the harry potter serices

i would highly reccomend rules