Apparently most are fondly remembering their youthful days of Lucas and/or MUD adventuring. I too love my days of MUDding and Lucas was revolutionary and influential -- my kids (and I) loved them back in the day! However, I don't believe a contemporary 10-year old would have much patience with a MUD or GOG-updated 10-15 year old games (with the exception of the Monkey Island remakes).
If you want a great contemporary adventure game (and, yes, I'm ignoring the fact that you apparently aren't asking about adventure games per se), I would highly recommend "Edna & Harvey: The Breakout" from 2011, easily one of the best games I've played in years. Very traditional but has both a fascinating story line, great voice acting and the wonders of a different (and usually quite witty) response to 98% of combination attempts. None of the repetitive "No, that doesn't work", but a unique on-point retort. The programmer claimed 30,000 lines of dialogue!
Another one from the same company is "The Whispered World". Artistic backgrounds, great story, great voice action. Highly recommended.
Both of these are from Germany -- the Germans are the ones making the best adventure games these days). Another is "The Book of Unwritten Tales" from 2009. This is more 3-D, a bit of action, delightful story. Problem: it's only in German but you can grab fan-written subtitles.
Black Mirror II & Black Mirror III are also recommended. Culpa Innata. The Runaway & Broken Sword series are good for a Lucas-like experience. And, yes, I'm still a connoisseur of adventure games at 57. :) Today I'm playing "The Next Big Thing" -- she would love it! Hilarious!