good books for bright 12/13 year olds

Recommend the following : A kestrel for a Knave (Barry Hines), Catcher in the rye, Animal farm, Great expectations, Jane Eyre,The Hobbit

My DS (10) liked:

• The Hitchhiker's Guide To The Galaxy (5 books) by Douglas Adams.
• Northern Lights (3 books) by Philip Pullman.
• Animal Farm by George Orwell.

What about The Riddle of the Sands or The 39 Steps?

I'll second John Marsden. I'm from NZ and we read the series at school there (age 15 or so). The first one anyway. They get better as the series goes on too.

The last three yes and enjoyed. Couldn't get either dc into Cornelia Funke - don't know the John Marsden. DD presently reading "my sister's keeper".

DS loved the Michelle Paviour books but dd wasn't interested. Mine were both quite precocious readers but it has been difficult to get ds to actually read for pleasure since he was about 14. He's 17 now and oddly English is one of his highers - he managed an A* for English literature without reading the book .

PS - hope your dd is OK and has survived the week.

marriedinwhite - has your dd tried:

The Inkheart Trilogy (Cornelia Funke)
Tomorrow When the War Began series (John Marsden)
A Company of Swans and Magic Flute (both Eva Ibbotson)
Cuckoo in the Nest and A Spoonful of Jam (both Michelle Magorian)
Wild Swans (Jung Chang)

Actually, I think I have read "a gathering light". I think it's a book about a girl in America who witnessed a murder on a lake and the background of her home life and ambition to go to university and her analysis of her situation and what took her to up sticks and actually go in spite of all the pressures to keep her at home.

I may be wrong but it's starting to ring bells. If I'm right, I'm not sure it's the sort of book that would appeal to DD.

Of Mice and Men always used to be a GCSE text, so might be worth checking. Ditto To Kill a Mockingbird (although I really recommend both!).

I'm rereading Alice in Wonderland at the moment - it's one of my absolute favourites and I think I first fell in love with it around then... I'd read it before but suddenly at about 12 it just clicked.

She says no and was pleased with your feedback - should we get it and report to you?

At that age I was reading Alistair MacLean (The Guns of Navaronne, Ice Station Zebra, etc), Frederick Forsyth (Day of the Jackal, The Odessa File, etc.).

Just about any decent adult author should be accessible to a gifted 12/13 yr old.

This has been a brilliant thread for getting new ideas for dd who is voracious.

Good luck sphil. Hope it goes well - do update us.

Definitely Noughts and Crosses if they haven't already read it (it has 3 sequels too) The Curious Incident is a good option too.

Roll of Thunder Hear My Cry and its 2 sequels (Mildred D Taylor I think)
Northern Lights Trilogy (Philip Pullman)
To Kill a Mockingbird (Harper Lee)
The Looking Glass Wars (Frank Beddor)
Exodus (Julie Bertanga)
The Garbage King (Elizabeth Laird)
The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas (John Boyne)
Of Mice and Men (John Steinbeck)
The 39 Steps (John Buchan)
I Capture the Castle (?? Dodie Smith ??)
The Book Thief (Murcus Zuzak)
Sophie's World (Jostein Garder)
Refugee Boy (Benjamin Zephaniah)
Face (Benjamin Zephaniah)

Mind you, they might have read all of those!

I would actually avoid things like Dickens and 1984 - I think they'd enjoy them better as middle/older teens. 12/13 is still quite young, however bright the child.

Yes, I loved 'The Body In The Library' at around that age. I second Watership Down - a fantastic book - and anything by Gerald Durrell. I read 'My Family And Other Animals' loads when I first discovered it and on about the third time I did it with a dictionary to check the words I had guessed meanings for, to make sure I was correct. 'Truculently' was the one I was most off the mark with (I imagined the -uc as an -ooce sound and so thought it meant timidly!), but remember words like 'saturnine', 'unctuousness' and 'belligerently' all being ones that were looked up.

Distopian novels were also a favourite around then, but presume a lot of them will be set texts? Adrian Mole is fun - how about the Hitchhikers series as well?

Robert Cormier.

Won't they already have read Noughts and Crosses?

The 10pm Question is very good - a bit like 'curious incident' - but they're far less likely to have read it themselves.

This is a fab list to start with. Some are easy reads but never the less fun.

www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/books/news/the-50-books-every-child-should-read-2250138.html

I'd be more troubled by the drug taking in sherlock holmes than the f**k in the dog in the night time tbh! And private peaceful gave me night mares- I understand it's read in primary along with war horse I'd absolutely love to read it with some teens (maybe older than your 12-13s) who are of an age where they realise "it would/could be them". Terrifying....

Are they boys or girls?

Ds is just reading The Day of the Jackal and is loving it. He's just enjoyed 1984, too (although that might be a school text later on).

I think both sexes enjoy Agatha Christie. As they are rather old-fashioned now they could provoke quite a bit of discussion on how detectives "using zee little grey cells" or observing people over one's knitting have been superseded by forensics.

Imo, boys and girls equally can smell a preachy book with a message a mile off.

Fatherland (Robert Harris) could generate an interesting discussion and of course a debate when you finished it; did she get away? My DS and I say yes my DH no!

The Curious Incident is excellent for that age as it is all about the voice. And the voice is far stronger than other books for that age group.
Both my 12 year olds loved it.

Also Slam by Nick Hornby. Again a very strong voice though the content does include sex (not explicit).

Personally, I also rate Noughts and Crosses for the theme (as opposed to the writing). Plenty to discuss, I think. MY DC read it and then Othello, which worked well.

And how about Henry James The Turn of The Screw for a nice challenge?

How about doing Jane Eyre and The Wide Sargasso Sea back to back?

Rebecca?

We're open minded here and believe that if the children learn the words, know what they mean and aren't frightened of them they are less likely to use them gratuitously. You probably need to be more mindful than us as a family.

Funny though - we removed dd from a school where the girls were swearing at teachers where the school would never have read a book with swear words and moved her to a school (independent) where the girls effing and blinding would not be tolerated but the attitude towards literature is probably broader minded.