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Original poster

Suitable books for quite an innocent 12yo girl whose a very good reader

109 replies

MirkleMe · 23/02/2020 19:35

My 12yo DD is capable of reading adult books but obviously the topics are not suitable, especially as she's quite niave.

She's in yr 7.

Any suggestions

OP posts:
lekkerkroketje · 24/02/2020 14:12

A Traveller in Time by Alison Uttley is wonderful. George Elliot and Jane Austin might be doable but Charlotte Bronte definitely. Lord of the Rings is a foot trapper and has some difficult vocabulary but doesn't have any challenging themes (until you read it as an adult and realise how little he understood women and what condescending bullies some of the main characters are. But that went over my head as a young teenager!) Jasper Fforde's Thursday Next books were good as a teenager too, especially if read in conjunction with Jane Eyre.

zelbazinnamon · 24/02/2020 14:11

Chrestomanci series by Wynne Jones

Bubbletrouble43 · 24/02/2020 14:08

Not meaning to derail but this brings back memories of when my lovely late nan accidentally bought an erotic novel ( it wasn't very hard core luckily) for my dd when she was about 13/14 and into everything twilight and vampire related. I think she got confused and headed into the adult fiction section....

Littletabbyocelot · 24/02/2020 14:07

I loved Pratchett (long before Tiffany Aching), Heyer, Austen and Ursula Le Guin's Earthsea Trilogy (I don't think there was anything racy in it). Also Elizabeth Peters, though later books have mild references to sex. Maybe no1 ladies detective agency? If she likes Pratchett she might also like Neil Gaiman. My mum at a similar age loves Eagle of the Ninth.

Veterinari · 24/02/2020 14:03

Farthing wood series by Colin Dan
Judy Blume
Narnia

Marcipex · 24/02/2020 14:00

The Binny books by Hilary McKay
The Time of Green Magic by Hilary McKay

I loved the Drina books by Jean Estoril, if they’re available.

Anything by Antonia Forest, but the school stories have probably aged best.
Autumn Term
End of Term
The Cricket Term etc

zelbazinnamon · 24/02/2020 13:59

Watership Down

PhantomErik · 24/02/2020 13:58

Has she read any Percy Jackson books? All based around the Greek god, myths & legends. Loads of books in the series & follow on series as well.

Start with Percy Jackson & The Lightning Thief.

youllhavehadyourtea · 24/02/2020 13:55

I started reading classics at that age - Brontes, Austen, Dickens

Fell in love with the Brontes in Primary 7 and the love has never left me.

Bubbletrouble43 · 24/02/2020 13:54

Just remembered dd loved the redwall series of books... they are like a very epic and serious wind in the willows, Dd loved animals so they worked. There are loads of them!

Enb76 · 24/02/2020 13:53

the Cadfael mysteries

And in that vein, the Matthew Bartholemew series by Susanna Gregory, murder but very little gore and often funny.

Bubbletrouble43 · 24/02/2020 13:52

Echo pp it's time for the classics! Me and dd both loved swallows and Amazon's series too. There are so many to choose from. She may even be ready for Austen.

AnotherEmma · 24/02/2020 13:42

It's not inappropriate at all. They just kiss.

merryhouse · 24/02/2020 13:36

the Cadfael mysteries

sex happens, in various places to different degrees of respectability, but it's all very carefully told. I think the closest we get to explicit is when someone - ah - discovers that the visiting novice is not actually a man...

It's a long time since I read His Dark Materials, but I suspect that the bit where Lyra and Will get all Dusty might be deemed inappropriate by the 12yo in question Smile

StrawberryJam200 · 24/02/2020 12:56

Yes, Carnegie Short List books can be wonderful (eg The House With Chicken Legs, just one lovely read from last year) but many are definitely YA and unsuitable for younger teens.

ShowOfHands · 24/02/2020 09:31

School librarian is a good suggestion. DD sees her school librarian every lunchtime and swaps her books over. She provides lists of things not available at school and we go to the library. Some of the Carnegie books she read last year were brill, some a little much for some 12yos I suspect so check the content first.

zelbazinnamon · 23/02/2020 21:25

Alanna by Tamara Pierce

gracepoolesrum · 23/02/2020 21:18

In that case I take back my Sarah Waters suggestion Grin but I expect she'll get through this phase pretty quickly op

ProfessorLayton1 · 23/02/2020 21:05

Skellig - David Almond
A wrinkle in time
Divergent series
Dark is rising series - Susan Cooper
Warjak paw
Warrior cats series

zelbazinnamon · 23/02/2020 21:02

I loved Fifteen, @ChequerBoard!

My 11 year old loves 1920s boarding school books like Angela Brazil and L M Alcott books (Eight Cousins, Rose in Bloom, Jack and Jill, An Old Fashioned Girl, plus the 4 in the Little Women series).

More recent books - Murder Most Unladylike, Sally Nichols books, Eva Ibbotson eg Journey to the River Sea, Star is Kazan.

pourmorewine · 23/02/2020 20:58

The Giver by Lois Lowry

AnotherEmma · 23/02/2020 20:56

YY to life of Pi

I can't remember when I first started reading Austen, either - she might still be a bit young. I think the most accessible of her books for a young reader is probably Northanger Abbey.

Original poster
MirkleMe · 23/02/2020 20:56

Neither were comfortable with anything that had more than a chaste kiss in it yet many YA books go much further.

Yes this is my main worry. She took a book back to the school library because she deemed it "inappropriate". When I questioned what could be inappropriate in a school library book she said it mentioned sex a lot. I read the bits she was talking about and it was all very innocent but it still made her feel uncomfortable.

I may have sheltered her too much maybe

OP posts:
SpeedofaSloth · 23/02/2020 20:52

Oh yes, DS likes the QI books too.

ChequerBoard · 23/02/2020 20:51

These may be a little hard to find, probably have to be secondhand via AbeBooks or similar;

Fifteen by Beverley Cleary (set in a IS high school on the 1950s, very innocent, lived this as a pre-teen)

Hanging Out With CiCi by Francine Pascal (time travelling teen who meets her Mum as a teenager and gets to know her in a whole different light)

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