Reddit mentions of Learn German with Stories: Dino lernt Deutsch Collector's Edition - German Short Stories for Beginners: Explore German Cities and Boost Your Vocabulary (German Edition)

I haven't purchased these yet since I've been busy with other things, but another poster recommended them and it looked like a very good supplement to pair with duolingo and memrise.

https://www.amazon.com/Learn-German-Stories-Berlin-Beginners-ebook/dp/B00F33E3C0?ie=UTF8&ref_=asap_bc

He has about 8 beginner German books and a few intermediate to advance ones. You can use click the "look inside" button to see an example of the text. I think I may pick up the audible one as well, because he reads through it very slowly and pronounces everything accurately.

He also bundles the first 4 beginner books here:

https://www.amazon.com/Learn-German-Stories-Collectors-Beginners-ebook/dp/B00W9L9F9A/ref=mt_kindle?_encoding=UTF8&me=

Do you know the Dino lernt Deutsch series by Andre Klein? It is a series of six books meant for beginners of German and the e-book versions are only 3-4 USD per book. There is even an omnibus covering books 1-4 for 10 USD.

http://www.amazon.com/Learn-German-Stories-Collectors-Beginners-ebook/dp/B00W9L9F9A/ref=mt_kindle?_encoding=UTF8&me=

http://www.amazon.com/gp/bookseries/B00PPH1TLM/kindle/ref=sr_bookseries_null_B00PPH1TLM

Alternatively this one:

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00XJ07X94/ref=series_rw_dp_sw

This one is only 1.16 USD: http://www.amazon.com/Kandis-Zucker-kurze-Erz%C3%A4hlungen-German-ebook/dp/B007XSFTJ4/

I really wish I had a credit card so that I could gift one of those books to your daughter, but maybe another Santa is willing to help out?

Read read read read read. After studying for six months like you, I've set a goal this year to read one book a week. I'm starting book #7 now and it's changed everything for me.

The the best way to master grammar is reading. The best way to learn new vocabulary is reading. There's dozens of extremely common words in German that you might think you know that you actually don't, such as immer, doch, schon, etc., etc.. The only way to learn words like these is to see them in context hundreds of times.

Start with the easiest books you can understand. I guarantee that you are ready to start the book series Cafe in Berlin. That link contains the compilation of the first four books in the series. Go read the reviews and download the sample now. Do it.

Bonus tips:

1. You don't need a kindle to read kindle books. Just use the phone app or web app.
   
2. Try to understand the words and grammar in context before turning to a translation tool
   
3. The app (as well as the google translate app) include a highlight-to-translate if you get stuck.