for kids 9-14

Well, since you didn't tell us much about your 9-14 year old, I can really only go of the list your provided. And they're all good....

I like:
Watership Down -- But this is only one of the greatest stories ever written for any age....
All of a Kind Family -- Even boys will like this collection of stories about 5 girls
The Invention of Hugo Cabret: My son loves this book as well. The author has created a new form of literature. Simply astounding. I love his follow up, Wonderstruck, which my son did not care for.
Daulaire's Greek Myths -- Beyond fabulous, the best illustrated book I've ever read.

My son likes:
The Strange Case of Origami Yoda
Maniac Magee
Percy Jackson and Harry Potter
A Long Way from Chicago


Books I Really Didn't Like
American Born Chinese
Phillip Pullman's Dark Materials
The Little Prince

Books my son and I thought were the most egregious oversights:
Adam of the Road: Elizabeth Gray -- Simply fabulous book
Peak: Roland Smith -- A book about a boy who climbs Mt Everest
Hank Zipzer : Henry Winkler -- Better for 9 year olds who don't like reading.
Theodore Boone series

 

I'd remove A Wrinkle in Time and The Chronicles of Narnia.

And as seems so typical of American-centric lists, they left out such terrific English classics as Swallows and Amazons by Arthur Ransome, and The Wind in the Willows by Kenneth Grahame. And where is Dumas' Les Trois Mousquetaires or any version of One Thousand and One Nights ???

And I guess some other classics, such as Jack London's Call of the Wild and White Fang, Twain's Adventures of Tom Sawyer or Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, Stevenson's Treasure Island, even Conan Doyle's The Hound of the Baskervilles are now being passed over for the likes of Beverly Cleary's Ramona series.

 

Here's a list that was just published on Book Riot:

http://bookriot.com/2013/08/09/50-books-to-read-before-youre-11-34-book-riots-twenty-five/

I just had my son read The Phantom Tollbooth, and he liked it a lot... lots of wordplay.

 

I'd add back in A Wrinkle in Time, one of the first books I read as a youngster of my own choice and I loved it.

 

I'm 28, and in elementary school Ramona was the only thing I read in that paragraph.

On another note, has anybody read Killing Mr. Griffin by Lois Duncan?

 

The list was for 9-14 year olds. My girls read Ramona too, but at a lot younger age than 9 (4th grade). Heck, Ramona herself only turns 10 in the 8th and final book. Not a lot of kids enjoy reading about younger kids, and I think Ramona should be relegated to the 4-8 year old list.

 

Maybe A Wrinkle In Time and The Chronicles of Narnia can play to see who gets promoted to replace it.