Book recommendations for a keen 12-year-old wanting longer challenging reads

There are so many brilliant modern books for young people. Some of the above mentioned although good books might be quite hard going to today’s 12 year olds. I would take her to the young adult section of a good independent book shop and have a browse.

When We were Liars so good. And The Secret History.

Mine really enjoyed the Ya Ya sisterhood books at that age and still re reads them.

Some things my 13 yo enjoyed a year or two ago:

Hunger Games and Twilight series. Kiran Milwood Hargrave. Raina Telgemeier. Neal Schusterman Scythe series. Holly Jackson. Lauren James. Patrick Ness. Pittacus Lore. Michael Scott Alchemist series.

Maybe take her to the library’s teen section and let her take her pick (with a quick sense check from you). Our library has teen and teen plus and the racier stuff is teen plus which helps me a lot!

Re all the “when I was 12 I loved” suggestions above. I read loads of those too and loved them. However I have tried and failed to get my voracious reader 13yo DD interested in any of them. (Ok she quite liked Hitchhiker’s Guide). I think writing styles have changed and a lot of the older books come across as old fashioned and use complex language which puts them off unfortunately. But you may have more luck.

Lois Duncan - wrote some great kids supernatural thrillers in the 70s/80s which were great. Some are out of print. Daughters of Eve and Locked in Time were my favourite.

Roald Dahl short stories?

agree Michelle magician

Assistant to the Villain series - Hannah Nicole Maehrer
Divergent series - Veronica Roth
The Mortal Instruments series - Cassandra Clare

Conan Doyle / Katherine Arundel / Diana Wynne Jones

Catcher in the rye. I capture the castle

A court of thorns and roses is Definitely not for a 12 year old unless you rip a few sections of the book out 😅

I loved the Dark is Rising series by Susan Cooper at that age. Not modern but not old fashioned either and really well written.

I agree with the possibility of older books aimed at the 10-12 year old reader, especially historical fiction.
Geoffrey Treece, Elizabeth George Spear, Jill Paton Walsh and Barbara Willard. They are a longer and more dense read than would be usual for that age now, but really well written.

Also maybe some of the " non graphic" murder mysteries like Ellis Peters' Brother Cadfael books.

Anything by Meg Rosoff is great - some may be a little mature for her but she's wonderful. Slightly younger but suitable for 12 is Septimus Heap series (and then the spin off Pathfinder) books by Angie Sage. They're AWESOME.

also I would recommend checking out this site https://schoolreadinglist.co.uk which is brilliantly curated and kept up to date

I'd start her off on a shorter book that is the first of a series. The joy of finding a vol. 1 of something that really grips you and realising that there are another x no. of books to go has never left me. Especially if it coincided with the start of a summer holiday :-)

If she likes fantasy I would recommend Robin Hobb, especially the Farseer trilogy starting with Assassin's Quest. Utterly brilliant world building! Alternatively Garth Nix is a good choice.

If she's more of a sci-fi person Ender's game is a short but fabulous gateway to a 5 volume series.

Matt Haig's The Humans opens up multiple paths into further reading as well as being absolutely stunning in its own right. He writes for multiple age groups, including adults, and his work is genuinely uplifting.

If she prefers more 'real world' settings, Holly Jackson's Good Girl's Guide to murder is a trilogy and is plenty gripping.

Joan Aiken - Wolves of Willoughby Chase and others, my favourite was The Stolen Lake.

Emma Carroll books? The Girl Who Walked on Air, and other historical fiction.

One of the first "big solid books" that I read as a teen was "Goodnight Mr Tom" by Michelle Magorian. I also loved her book called "Back Home".

@GreenMarigold I was definitely reading Point Horror at 12

I read them at that sort of age, but don't know if they're slightly too old, but I loved a few books by Margaret Mahy - the changeover, tricksters and the haunting.

Phillipa Pearce: Tom's Midnight Garden
Any of Rosemary Sutcliff's children's books if she likes history. Sadly, I think many are out of print but you can find them secondhand online. A friend who is an author of teen fiction says they are considered too long and require too much concentration these days. I loved them when I was your daughter's age and they brought the different periods to life (mainly Roman and Middle Ages in Britain) and made me realise people in the past were just that - people with feelings just like today. I did go on to study Mediaeval History at University!
Captain Marryat: Children of the New Forest
Louisa M Alcott: Little Women and sequels
L M Montgomery: Anne of Green Gables
Elizabeth Goudge: Linnets and Valerians
I read all Gerald Durrell's books, from My Family and Other Animals onwards and wanted to be a zoologist. I went back to university and did a second degree in Environmental Conservation when I was in my 40s and changed career to manage nature reserves. Never underestimate the influence of childhood reading!!!!n😁

Does it have to be only modern authors? She is the perfect age for Jane Austen.
I also loved PG Wodehouse and Agatha Christie at that age, although I accept that they are a bit more "frothy".

Wonder, by RJ Palaccio.
The London Eye Mystery.
Not modern, but I used to devour the Agatha Christie books at that age.

Discworld, Terry Pratchett. Maybe start with the Tiffany Aching books which are aimed at teenagers and older children.

Phoenix by SF Said.

Inkheart series by Cordelia Funke.

The Various trilogy by Steve Augarde.

Everything written by Geraldine McCaughrean.

Has she read all of the Carnegie winners? They are 13+ in the last 20 years but fine before that.