I have two young girls in my extended family, ages 8 and 10. I have been gifting / recommending them movies, TV shows, and so on that is as free of current year as possible. The older one has shown interest in reading manga, which I know nothing about, so I am turning to you fine gentlemen in hopes of getting some quality reading for her.
Some points to consider is that it should be something that is translated to local, which is probably the more popular stuff. She has also shown interest in horror movies and such, so some scary / spooky / supernatural elements I guess are fine. Bonus points for having good father figures, I found that to have a good effect on girls.
Not sure if anything else is of import, so, if you have any recommendations, fire away!
Thanks!
My Ordinary Life, also known as Nichijou. Its a silly manga and anime posing as slice-of-life, but is really more akin to a sketch comedy. Funny and very child-friendly.
I'd also recommend Shuna's Journey by the one and only Hayao Miyazaki. It's not quite a manga, it's more like what's called an "emonogatari." It reads more like a book with illustrations, although there are some sections that have a manga-like structure where character dialogue and thoughts are depicted in word balloons. But it's a good story, the illustrations are beautiful, and there's definitely an element of horror in it the girls should enjoy.
Emphatically seconded.
Underneath the sketches and the ordinariness, there's a lot of endearing and surprisingly deep...what I'd venture to call existential commentary, nicely packaged for 'all ages' and refreshingly lighthearted compared to the R&M-tier stuff that's strewn about over here.
This sells it pretty well.