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Soldier's Joy is pretty easy and can be kept slow. Sailor's Hornpipe is fun and instantly recognizable ("The Popeye song!"), and Fisher's Hornpipe is nearly as recognizable.

If you are interested in old-time you might consider an additional book purchase, Dan Levenson's Old-Time Festival Tunes for Fiddle and Mandolin. Every tune is written as a basic part, an advanced part (both of those in standard notation) and then mandolin tab. The basic part is actually basic without being insulting (so still has some slurs, some variation from straight eighth notes). The songs presented are pretty standard.

I think the advantage here over the Fiddler's Fake book is that the author has presented some ideas, via the advanced part, for dressing up each tune. FFB is exactly as advertised, a fakebook, so the player is left to dress up tunes and find variations on his/her own, which can be difficult for the beginner.

Good luck!

I highly recommend getting an instructor. There are videos and books for self-teaching, but personally I did not find them to be very useful- and it's easy to give yourself bad habits in the process. Your instructor can also help you make sure your fiddle is setup properly.

4/4 is standard size for an adult - she's not likely to need anything smaller.

(Personally, my beginner fiddle was a Cecilio and it was decent for the price. I don't recall upgrading anything on it-maybe strings? And a Don't Fret sticker, which I found invaluable as a newbie http://www.amazon.com/Dont-Position-Indicator-Violin-Viola/dp/B0052FU602)

Try playing the stuff you like playing on viola on the violin. Same string position (1 to 4), same finger position. Just get used to it, worked for jumping from guitar to bass for me.

Also there are a couple of books by Betty M Barlow, the one I have is Violin Pieces Country Style. It's all first position, so at my level it is great because it gives me something to play outside of my learning pieces. In your case I reckon it will let you get used to it and push the ante up bit by bit, even if you do find it a bit simple.

https://www.amazon.com/Violin-Pieces-Country-Style-Am32426/dp/082562164X

I'm a bit late to this, but Matt Cranitch's Irish fiddle book has extensive bowing notation, which really challenged me when I first picked it up many years ago. It helped me get the techniques like slurring across string changes under my belt, rather than just playing whatever felt easiest https://www.amazon.co.uk/Irish-Fiddle-Book-Traditional-Fiddle-Playing/dp/1900428903

I've been trying my best to practice the fundamentals as much as possible. Practicing scales slowly and making sure I'm in tune. I check my intonation against the open strings whenever I can depending on the scale. It's can be extremely frustrating! But I figure if you can't play it accurately slow then you wont stand a chance at faster tempos. Also if I land on an out of tune note instead of sliding to find it I try to take my finger completely off and try to land on it as accurately as possible.

If you can read sheet music I highly recommend the fiddlers fakebook!

For Irish fiddle, I've been loving The Irish Fiddle Book by Matt Cranitch. It starts as basic as can be and gets to be fairly challenging for an intermediate player. https://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/1900428679/ref=mp_s_a_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1503333037&sr=8-1&pi=AC_SX236_SY340_QL65&keywords=irish+fiddle+book&dpPl=1&dpID=51xXdyFfcbL&ref=plSrch

Sidenote - for banjo, the scruggs book actually ain't that great, it's a good introduction but seriously you will get a lot lot more out of Janet Davis "Splitting the Licks", highly highly recommend:

https://www.amazon.com/Mel-Splitting-Licks-Janet-Davis/dp/0786665297

We've had a lot of luck with this one: https://www.amazon.ca/Fiddlers-Fakebook-Ultimate-Sourcebook-Traditional/dp/0825602386

Brad Leftwich, Old Time Round Peak Style, w/ CD and bowings. This book is it. via Amazon.

Dave Reiner's Old Time Fiddling Across America