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Secondary education

author recommendations for 13 year old

51 replies

MacarenaFerreiro · 16/01/2019 23:11

Advice from DD's English teacher is that she needs to stretch herself more with her reading. She reads every day for pleasure, both in school and at home. She is however stuck in a bit of a rut with Jacqueline WIlson and similar style books. She lacks confidence in a lot of things and although is capable of reading more challenging stuff, she likes the familiarity and that it's an easy read.

She doesn't like fantasy - not interested in Harry Potter, Hobbits, anything with vampires or dystopian things like Hunger Games. She likes happy endings and "realistic" scenarios. She is interested in murder mystery, whodunnit type things, but not grim and grisly ones. Death in Paradise is her favourite TV show. Oh, and she doesn't like "old fashioned books". (i.e. what I was reading at her age).

So we're looking for suggestions of age-appropriate fiction for a 13 year old who is fussy ;-)

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JustRichmal · 17/01/2019 07:44

Gerald Durrell: My Family and Other Animals is a book dd liked at that age.

At the moment dd aged 15 is reading an autobiography of Jane Goodall: in the Shadow of Man and says that it's good.

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N0rdicStar · 17/01/2019 07:45

Agatha christie

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EvaHarknessRose · 17/01/2019 07:53

Dd says John Green ones (not necessarily happy endings though!)
Another one called Wonder?

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QuaterMiss · 17/01/2019 07:53

George Eliot Silas Marner maybe.

Thomas Hardy The Mayor of Casterbridge has such an amazing beginning.

But - murder /mystery is easy! Golden Age fiction by
Agatha Christie
Josephine Tey (absolute masterclass in writing)
Margery Allingham
Ngaio Marsh is a bit grisly ...

Sci/fi fantasy?
Octavia Butler
Ursula le Guin
Karen Lord
etc ...

Or
Melvyn Peake's Gormenghast Trilogy.

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bestbefore · 17/01/2019 08:06

Look for books marked as being for Young Adults - might be some in that category?

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QuaterMiss · 17/01/2019 08:07

Personally I feel life was better before any such categorisation ...

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MacarenaFerreiro · 17/01/2019 08:13

I loved Agatha Christie at her age. I'm not sure she's going to be interested in anything she deems historical though, which in teen speak means written before about 2006.

Definitely not into sci-fi.

She's just awkward! I volunteer in a charity shop and we're drowning in donated books so I'll have a browse next time I'm in and see what looks good. There's just so much choice though.

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anniehm · 17/01/2019 08:15

Jane Austen was a favourite of my daughter at that age, she also read harder hitting classics like dickens. She loved the fantasy stuff too like terry pratchett. For crime - Agatha Christie. PG Woodhouse might appeal, many are quite funny.

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TwoGinScentedTears · 17/01/2019 08:17

I thought all teenagers liked Cassandra Clare, but if she doesn't like fantasty it might not be for her.

Has she read the Miss peregrine books? A little weird, but not quite as vampirey as some of the other stuff?

Some of the earlier John Grisham (or the young adult versions?)

Has she read morpurgo? I have a list somewhere of 100 books to read in your teens that I got when I was viewing secondary schools. It's been a brilliant list-I'll dog it out and take a photo later

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CherryValance · 17/01/2019 08:17

I capture the castle - Dodie Smith

Jamaica inn and Rebecca - Daphne du Maurier (get her to see this as historical fiction rather than ‘old fashioned’)

Maybe some Philippa Gregory?

Of some of the easy reading fiction recently published like ‘Eleanor Oliphant’ or ‘Dear Mrs Bird’?

Rainbow Rowell? ‘Fan Girl’ or ‘Eleanor and Park’

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OneStepMoreFun · 17/01/2019 08:23

How about Anthony Horowitz's Alex Rider series about a school boy spy? It's realist, full of cliffhanger mystery and always has a happy ending. There's quite a few books. They are very readable.

You could try her on Nancy Drew. Find one with a cover that doesn't look old fashioned. The mysteries are good so she might get caught up in them and forget they're not modern.

Holes by Louis Sachar is fantastic. So is Small Steps which is the sequel.

Dark Ride by Caroline Green is good too. About a teenager who meets a boy at a deserted seaside fairground.

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ILiveInSalemsLot · 17/01/2019 10:16

My niece was similar and loved Kate Maryon books. They’re an easy read.

Take your dd to the library or have a browse around a bookshop.

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Bimkom · 17/01/2019 11:20

Have you thought of Educated by Tara Westover.

My DS was a bit like this (although he was into fantasy, and percy jackson) big reader but not stretching himself. I was reading Educated, and he just picked it up, and loved it, and then said to me - I want more like this. Part of what he liked was that it felt (and was) really modern - he wouldn't read the "old fashioned" books either, but this was up to the minute.
Another book he loved (when I went searching around after that) was the Bone Sparrow. I would try that one too.

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Seeline · 17/01/2019 12:27

My 14yo DD really enjoys the Miss Marple books. She also like the Philip Pullman 'Sally Lockheart' books. They are set in Victorian times, but are about a mystery-solving young lady.
Her favourite author at the moment is Francis Hardinge, but they may be a bit 'fantasy' for your DD. Worth a go maybe from the library?
She also like Eva Ibbotson.

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HappyMamma · 17/01/2019 12:29

Not hugely high brow but if you are just keen for her to read more try all the sophie Kinsella ones ? My 13 year old DD loves them !

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NC4Now · 17/01/2019 12:32

My DS has really enjoyed the Cherub series. They are crimey and a bit gritty but the kids are the heroes.

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2019hereicome · 17/01/2019 12:34

I really enjoyed malorie blackmans noughts and crosses series at that age. It is technically a dystopian but not in the same way of the hunger games etc. However it deals with some big themes and gets quite dark, so I would advice having a read yourself first to determine if it would be suitable.

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BuffaloCauliflower · 17/01/2019 12:37

I was mostly reading inappropriate non-fiction at that age, but it’s made me who I am!

Naughts and Crosses - Malory Blackman?

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2019hereicome · 17/01/2019 12:48

Buffalo yes.

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AlexanderHamilton · 17/01/2019 12:49

My 13 year old ds has enjoyed the Robert Thoroughgood books based on death in Paradise.

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HalfBloodPrincess · 17/01/2019 12:51

Harlen Coben and James Patterson both have YA novels. My dd reads both.

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MidLifeCrisis007 · 17/01/2019 12:54

+1 for Malory Blackman books

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AlexanderHamilton · 17/01/2019 12:58

He also enjoyed the John Grisham Theodore Boon teen lawyer series.

His current favourites (he's almost 15 now are the novel of Dear Evan Hansen and Be More Chill by Ned Vizzini but the former is a poignant ending and the latter is possible a bit age inappropriate language and subject matter.

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Tinty · 17/01/2019 13:10

Agent 21 by Chris Ryan is a good series, DD really liked this as well as the Alex Rider books. I have bought DD Rebecca for Christmas and the Agatha Christie, Poirot book (50 Stories), amongst others. But she loves to read so she got 18 books and £50 worth of waterstones vouchers. Grin. We also bought The Darkest Minds series of books.

She really liked, Anne of green gables, Daddy long legs, Secret Garden The book thief, My family and other animals by Gerald Durrell and Little Women. The trick is not to tell her that they were books you read when you were younger. Grin

I can't get her to read Anne Frank though. Sad I loved that book when I was her age.

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OneStepMoreFun · 17/01/2019 13:42

I completely agree about Cherub and Malorie Blackman - great books, easy to read, realist but full of cliffhangers and mystery.

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