Classic novel suggestions for DD (age 12)

[feetheart]

I have put this in here as the children's book section didn't seem appropriate.
DD's English teacher has suggested that she stretch herself and have a go at some of the classics but we are struggling to come up with ideas.
She has read The Hobbit and Lord of the Rings, Tarka the Otter, Round the World in 80 Days, Harry Potter, Hitchhikers Guide (def a classic in DH's eyes :)) and probably a load more that we couldn't think of so what suggestions can wise, literary Mnettters come up with?

So far we have:

• 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea
  
• War of the Worlds
  
• Oliver Twist
  
• A Christmas Carol
  
• Of Mice and Men
  
• The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time
  
• Little Women
  

What else might challenge but engage a book-loving 12 year old?
TIA

[SavoyCabbage]

My dd (11) has enjoyed

Anne of green gables
The wizard of oz
just william
Little women etc.
A wrinkle in time etc
Little house on the prairie etc.

She loves a series. She didn't like the Narnia series at all though.

[FriendlyLadybird]

I suppose it depends on what her English teacher means by The Classics. Adult or children's books? At any rate, remembering what I had read by that age, I would suggest:
Walter Scott, Ivanhoe (and others if she likes that)
Thomas Hughes, Tom Brown's School Days
Captain Marryat, The Children of the New Forest
Anthony Hope, The Prisoner of Zenda (and Rupert of Hentzau)
Agree with other Jules Vernes. If she enjoys nineteenth century adventure, how about Rider Haggard and King Solomon's Mines? Oh and Robert Louis Stevenson, Treasure Island
If she hasn't read any Alan Garner I would suggest those (The Owl Service etc.) and also Philip Pullman, Northern Lights etc. which have acquired classic status.
Dodie Smith, I Capture the Castle
Ernest Hemingway, The Old Man and the Sea
George Orwell, Animal Farm and 1984
How about E.M. Forster, A Room with a View?
William Golding, Lord of the Flies
If it turns out that she's read of all these, I have many more suggestions ...!

[ZeroFunDame]

Most of:
Agatha Christie
Dorothy L. Sayers
John Buchan
John Wyndham
Josephine Tey
Mary Shelley

Stella Gibbons Cold Comfort Farm
R. D. Blackmore Lorna Doone

All rather Anglo-centric - but I guess that's where we all start if we're in the UK. They all use the most beautiful English.

[feetheart]

That's great, thanks.

I think he meant adult classics as she has worked her way through a lot of the children's stuff and most of the appropriate teen fiction - lots of stuff about dragons but not really into vampires :)

Plenty to be going on with but any more suggestions will be gratefully received, thanks.

[FuzzyWizard]

Classics:
Little Women
The Secret Garden
A Little Princess

More Contemporary:
His Dark Materials series
Chaos Walking trilogy
We were liars
Before I fall

[wiltingfast]

When I was that age I loved The Dark Is Rising series by Susan Cooper.

Depends what she likes really? What are her favourite books so far?

[cdtaylornats]

Tiffany Aching books by Terry Pratchett's
The Mouse That Roared by Leonard Wibberley
Dr. Doolittle books by Hugh Lofting

Many out of copyright books can be downloaded free and legally from Project Gutenberg.

[outtolunchagain]

Lark rise to Candleford ( the proper one snot the silly TV series) I loved this as a bookworm 12 year I really identified with Laura

Pride and Prejudice , read this at 12 and loved it , also Sense and sensibility
Jane Eyre
Sherlock Holmes
Dorothy L Sayers
Animal Farm

[drinkscabinet]

Trouble with classics that are suitable for 12 year olds is that they are very malecentric. Has she read His Dark Materials? Not a classic yet though. How about some lighter stuff like Nancy Mitford or Stella Gibbons? Austen would be OK but not sure if a 12 year old would get how brilliant she is, maybe P & P and save the rest for later, or the Brontes (Jane Ayre first), Wilkie Collins has some great page turners and is good on (the lack of) women's rights, I'd read The Woman in White first I think. Elizabeth Gaskell might have some suitable, I'd be tempted to suggest Wives and Daughters except for the fact that she died before she finished it (the story is almost tied up though).

How about To Kill a Mockingbird? Or Frankenstein?

[TheCountessofFitzdotterel]

Funny books: Diary of A Nobody, Three Men In a Boat, P.G. Wodehouse, Cold Comfort Farm (already mentioned).

[threenotfour]

Try Malorie Blackman The Pigheart Boy and 101 Dalmatians by Dodie Smith - beautifully written and much more engaging than the film.
Malorie Blackman's Noughts & Crosses series are excellent. They would challenge her but are just on the border of her age group.

[feetheart]

Thank you so much for the suggestions, lots of ideas :)

She has read His Dark Materials, some Malorie Blackman and the Tiffany Aching series plus is working her way through DiscWorld (she is her parent's daughter :))
Can't believe I forgot about Wilkie Collins, I love both The Woman in White and The Moonstone, or Three Men in a Boat.
She has decided to reread Lord of the Rings so that should keep her busy for a few weeks whilst we compile a list and present it to the library :o
I will show her the thread tomorrow and see if she wants to add anything/ask any questions.

Thanks again.

[Takver]

I'd second Jane Eyre

Has she read I Capture the Castle?

[sanquhar]

I can remember really enjoying the 'redwall' and 'deptford mice' series at that age.

[MojoLite]

I echo Little Women and also maybe I know why the caged bird sings - though a bit hard hitting in parts

[Takver]

I'm not sure if they count as classics, but I remember enjoying Daphne du Maurier a lot around that age.

[Theycallmemellowjello]

I loved Daphne Du Maurier at that age as well! Also Angela Carter (a modern classic?). Austen (any) and the Bronte sisters (esp Jane Eyre - but again any). Maybe also The Mill on the Floss? To Kill a Mockingbird?

[Zakken]

Thomas Hardy? I loved gloom and tragedy at that age, so I lapped up Tess of the D'Urbervilles. For something a bit cheerier, Far From The Madding Crowd.

Sherlock Holmes is a great shout. I read all the stories at 11 or 12. Funnily enough I never went on to read the longer ones - Study In Scarlet etc.

Possibly some Dickens? I've never been a great fan, although my mother was, and all the books were in the house. I did enjoy 'A Christmas Carol' though.

[lamprey42]

Not really classic but I loved jane gardam's bilgewater. Also Michelle magorian 'back home' and Cynthia voight's series dicey's song. Definitely cold comfort farm and I capture the castle as said above.

[lamprey42]

John Wyndham if she likes sci-fi?

[CosmicDespot]

I read a lot of Stephen King at that age. Roald Dahl's adult stories too. If she's not into that kind of thing, I agree with Sherlock Holmes, Wodehouse, Terry Pratchett, I Capture the Castle and Cold Comfort Farm.

[mmack]

My dd is 13 and her favourite novels recently have been Purple Hibiscus by Chimamanda Ngozi Adiche and The Outsiders by S.E. Hinton. Both have teenage protagonists and I imagine that is why they made such an impression.

[ElkTheory]

A Tree Grows in Brooklyn was one of my favourite novels at that age. Also To Kill a Mockingbird, Jane Eyre, Wuthering Heights.

Has she read Antonia Forest's books? They are brilliant for children and adults. I still reread my collection quite regularly.