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Start using Mumsnet PremiumBook suitable for adult level reading 14 year old
(47 Posts)Need a genuinely great book that's not riske or dark etc.
A Tree Grows in Brooklyn
Jane Eyre? I read it at that age, along with Gone With The Wind, The Diary of Anne Frank, Pride & Prejudice, any Dickens novel, Hardy - The Mayor of Casterbridge, Tess of The D'Urbervilles, To Kill A Mockingbird - Harper Lee. Just a few for a start
Most books, I would have thought? At 14 I was just picking from adult books.
Agree with chicken. At 14 the world of books is fully open to them.
At 14 I was reading anything I fancied.
I agree that this is an unanswerable question because there are far more suitable than unsuitable books - google a list of 100 greatest books of all time/the 20th Century, maybe cross out Lolita, The Naked Lunch and Venus in Furs and hand it over.
Is your DC particularly vulnerable?
My ds is currently reading Ender's Game, by Orson Scott Card. He has just finished Patrick Ness's More Than This.
He reads anything he wants to - he's 13. I make sure there are plenty of books he might like around the place, I make suggestions when he asks. Oh, and I do insist that he reads something. Apart from that, it's up to him.
Use the library - half the joy is finding them for yourself.
Bearing in mind always that people remember reading classics as children with much more pleasure than they experienced at the time. And people are the same about reading as they are about sleeping through the night and potty training. Selective memories and rose tinted glasses.
Lots of the Young Adult books. Terry Pratchett.
Lots of Adults read some children's or Teenage books.
An official reading age of 14 is actually pretty advanced, it was considered that a reading age of 11 is enough for all secondary school textbooks etc. And a really high reading age just means being able to cope with Scientific papers standard of complexity (and probably Joyce, Proust etc.).
I think that at 14 yrs my mother finding a 'suitable' book would put be right off it! However my mother recommending one because she loved it would be a different thing. By that age I had changed to adult library which gave a great range and many a happy discovery. I still love browsing the library shelves with nothing particular in mind.
Do most 14 yr olds not have an adult reading level?
I was reading Stephen King at 14 Is there a particular reason why they can't read adult books?
I recently read "When Hitler Stole Pink Rabbit" - despite the title it isn't dark (apart from maybe one episode which the narrator hears 2nd hand, and which is only related in one paragraph). Its an autobiographical novel by Judeth Kurr, who wrote little children's books like the Mog books, but this one is about her family's escape from Germany, via Austria and France, to the UK, just as Hitler came to power (before tge really awful stuff started happening, but knowing their lives or freedom were at risk) it is written for teens, and an enjoyable read for an adult. In German schools they often study it in translation at about age 14, for literature.
That is a book that wouldn't ruffle any protective mother's feathers (if ahe rwad it, eather than just saw Hitler in the title), however I am as baffled as everyone else as to why a 14 year old with no reading problems isn't just choosing their own nooks off parents shelves, or at the library. There are some things I wouldn't want my 14 year old reading (Game of Thrones has so much rape and grusome mindless killing and maiming...) but maybe just a glance at what they pich up, and a flick through, will allow you to re-direct from that sort of thing!
I think at 14 I was reading Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, Agatha Christie, Stephen King, James Herbert, Dick Francis, Lace, Flowers In The Attic, Emmanuelle, Judith Krantz and the entire library collection of yellow-jacketed Gollancz science fiction. A healthy balanced diet.
And how can I forget Interview With The Vampire.
Open reading. Why not let the child choose? There are indeed all the classics to choose from. Unless you are buying a book as present I suppose.
When Hitler Stole Pink Rabbit is a children's book. You can enjoy it as an adult or teenager, but also much earlier.
Your OP isn't very clear. Are you looking for a present?
Many 14 year olds do not have an adult reading level. My own ds is 13, and does- but he is also a bit wet sensitive and can still disturb the house with nightmares if he reads some stuff before bed. For example he loved Patrick Ness's More Than This,(can't recommend this book often enough, by the way) but couldn't read it at bed time and still sleep. Maybe that's what the OP means?
The Power of One - Bryce Courtenay
The Midwich Cuckoos
The Silver Darlings - Neil Gunn
John Buchan - Thirty Nine Steps
yes James Herbert or Jilly Cooper!!
i jsut read Kiss me First about a girl who gets caught up in an internet/facebook/suicide thing. really enjoyed it and recommended to my teens, i think if i recommended jane austin they would run to the hills.
To kill a mockingbird
Sophies world
Go to a good bookshop and have a good look round with her.
Ds is 12 and has a reading level of 16 apparently. If he read Stephen King he would never sleep again!
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