Long car ride... family books on tape or audible.....

We once took a road trip around the time when the DaVinci code was out and listened to that with kids around that age. They loved it, though we did have to explain a few things. (I don't remember what those things were.)

We used to have the kids take pictures of signs that had the names of different towns along the route. At home they would make a scrapbook with the pictures in order and some fun little notes here or there. (i.e. "The worlds largest rubber band ball lives here.)

That, or any of the Rick Riordan series.

What a great idea! We are planning a 10 road trip for next summer. I'm going to jot down the suggestions so we can use them. I'm already worried about spending THAT much quality time together! haha!

I second (third?) the Harry Potter series. We listened to the 5th and 6th books when we drove from NJ to CA a few years ago, when DD was 8. Even though DH and I had read/listened to them already, it made the miles just fly by. If not those, maybe the Hunger Games books, if she hasn't read them.

On a few of our road trips, one of the things that we did was not eat at any chain restaurants. We tried to find locally-owned places instead. Made the trips that much more interesting.

Have a great trip!!!

We love the hobbit and chronicles of Narnia for our road trips

The Wee Free Men by Terry Pratchett
Hank the Cowdog

Try Tamora Pierce's Lioness Rampant series. The first 2 books should be age appropriate for her. The last 2 aren't dirty, but the character has matured and she does take lovers, but not in any detailed way. This is my Dd's favorite series, even over the Potter books, because of the strong female characters. Pierce also has another series about some younger, but not childish characters, that was very good.

We also enjoyed Jim Butcher's Codex Alera books even though the main character wasn't female.

Anne McCaffery's books about the girl who finds the little dragons was also a favorite - can't remember the name right now.

Patricia C Wrede's Dealing with Dragons series was also very good. DD is currently listening to another of Wrede's series and is really enjoying it, but she is almost 20 now, so I am not sure if it is appropriate or would appeal to your DD.

Bruce Coville's books, Jeremy Thatcher, Dragon Hatcher, and Juliet Dove, Queen of Love were good. Love almost anything read by Full Cast Audio and they also do most if not all of Pierce's books.

Terry Pratchett's Wee Free Men book starts a series about a young witch that was really good.

The Tale of Emily Windsnap was good, but I didn't listen to the rest of them; DD listened to them alone.

These are the books that I remember listening to with DD and not having any problem stomaching them LOL I DID NOT listen to the Meg Cabot books with her; after about 10 minutes into the first one, I knew I couldn't do it. I felt the same way about the Twilight books - no way, no how.

You might want to take along a little something for you to listen to after she goes to sleep, or when she is doing something else, like watching a movie. If I'm driving, I use over the ear ear phones and attach one to my shirt rather than have it on my ear. I have no problem hearing what's going on around me and it keeps me awake.

I like the Stephanie Plum books by Janet evanovich or Fannie Flagg's Standing in the Rainbow.

Enjoy!
Marcy

We have so many wonderful memories of road trips with our kids.  

In addition to listening to a few books on tape, here are some things that we did that added to the experience - 

Before we left for a 3 week cross country trip we took out several age-appropriate library books about the states we would be traveling through and took the books with us.  It was amazing how much more fun it was for the kids to learn as they were traveling.  

This one might not pertain to your trip, but we always listened to "destination music" for a couple of weeks before and during our trips. For example, when we were going to be heading west, I remember listening to lots of John Denver.  When we were preparing for a Caribbean cruise, we listened to reggae and island-type music.   When heading to NYC, we listened to Broadway and New York themed songs.  

Would your daughter enjoy keeping a journal of the trip?  We didn't travel a whole lot when I was a child, but we took a long road trip from Pennsylvania to Colorado one summer and I kept a journal.  I still love looking at it.

Some of my suggestions probably seem kind of hokey and "dated" in this electronic age, but I have to say that I'm SO glad that we didn't have smart phones and DVD players on those trips.  Those road trips were full of great discussions and just enjoying each other's company.  (With more than a few moments of getting on each other's nerves thrown in too, of course!)  

I hope all of you enjoy your trip!

There was a thread in my audiobook group on Goodreads about this at the start of the year: good book for a family car trip
That poster has two 12yo girls & a 15yo boy and there's quite a few suggestions in that thread.
The poster eventually chose Cinder
and wrote that they all loved it and were asking for the second one (Scarlet).

The Best Christmas Pagaent Ever by Barbara Robinson totally held my kids attention. I think they were a little younger at the time than 12 though. But it's really funny. We ended up sitting in the car when we got home to finish it when we got home because we didn't want to wait to see how it turned out. And it's the right season for it.

I will echo the Harry Potter series --- and .... listening to a book is a different experience than reading it. I pretty much only listen to books I've already read. In some cases, I've ended up liking the book more after I heard it!

Bud, Not Buddy is an awesome book to listen to on tape, such a nice voice and a great story. Make sure you listen to the auThors note, too, at the end about preserving your ancestors stories. Oop, zoop, sloop. Gotta listen to this one!