What classic book did you live when you were 13?

I loved ghostly books. Can't even remember the name of most of them. Stephen King obviously. The Exorcist! I know I was a bit young. I loved Pride and Prejudice too. I would read anything back thing.

Back Home - Michelle Magorian. She’s more well known for Goodnight Mr Tom which I also loved but Back Home was my all time favourite. It’s about a girl who was evacuated to the USA age 7 at the start of WW2, but now the war is over and she’s come home. But obviously she’s changed a lot between 7 and 12, and life for everyone at home has been indescribable. She’s trying to fit back in. I can also now see it from her mum’s point of view which makes it even more poignant.

I read Northanger Abbey at 13. It is absolute proof that teenage girls have been the same for at least 200 years. I identified so hard with Catherine and the way her overactive imagination was influenced by her books.

At thirteen I was hugely into James Herriot and Gerald Durrell.

I loved Flowers in the attic at that age. Also Judy Blume and Sweet valley high.

LM Montgomery also wrote Jane of Lantern Hill, which I think is a stand-alone book. My copy's quite battered (but slso older than i am.)

YY to Anne of Green Gables but also the Emily trilogy by the same author - first one is Emily of New Moon, IIRC.

I also loved The Secret Garden by Frances Hodgson Burnett.

Absolutely loved these too! In fact i recently read her very last book, which her daughter completed after she died.

Oh i loved this too! And had forgotten all about it. Thank you for the reminder ☺

Yes. Tim Yorke or something.

I remember those, they weren't her best...Tiny?

I recently reread some Joyce Strangers- a short series about a young vet. They weren't very great literature, but readable enough. I think the first I read was from the school library.

Yup, also liked the Hal and Roger Hunt books, they have dated. The Black Stallion and its sequels. There was a writer, Joyce Stranger, who wrote a lot of animal themed books. The caravan site where we holidayed always seemed to have her new titles in, so she was always my holiday reading.

Me too!

I was really into James Herriot and Gerald Durrell books at that age (animal lover).

@BloodAndFire
Ohh I had no idea! Thanks for flagging that, yikes.

I read everything (we didn't have a TV.)

As well as KM Peyton's Flambards series, she's written tons of others, including the Pennington series, Ruth Hollis (Fly by Night) and Jonathan Meredith (Prove Yourself a Hero) - they all overlap. But there are other horse and sailing stories which are one-offs.

I was keen on John Christopher at that point - Tripods, which was adapted by the BBC not long after I first read it, and I was allowed to go to a friend's for tea so I could see it. Also the Death of Grass and the Sword of the Spirits series.

Ray Bradbury, Fahrenheit 451.

Rumer Godden (especially the Greengage Summer.)
Margaret Mahy (especially the Changeover.)
Diana Wynne Jones

Various classes including Hardy, Austen, Dickens, to Kill a Mocking Bird.

Also Lace, Flower in the Attic, Judy Blume's Forever.

And I was rereading Narnia, Lord of the Rings, Laura Ingalls Wilder, Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy and all sorts.

It's a great age - homework not yet unmanageable, no exams yet, no part-time jobs, just lots of time for reading in between school and swimming club and violin practice.

I really wouldn't recommend this to a 13-yr-old girl (or indeed to anyone!)
It was written by an American man who totally fictionalised and lied about the women in it, and was sued for defamation by the woman he based the main character on
www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/books/news/memoirs-of-a-geisha-scorned-284089.html
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Memoirs_of_a_Geisha#Lawsuit
mai-ko.com/travel/culture-in-japan/geisha/the-memoirs-of-geisha-and-mineko-iwasakis-story/

At thirteen I was reading Jane Austen novels. I think I started with Emma as my English teacher recommended it.

I also liked A Little Princess and The Secret Garden.

I don't even know if these are still in print, but my granny had a selection of hardback cloth covered books which I loved at that age. My favourites were The Bond Maid (Pearl S Buck), Joy and Josephine and The Story of Esther Costello. All full of tragedy! I wouldn't necessarily recommend for your 13 year old, but I remember loving them! I think I also read Jane Eyre for the first time about then and loved it.

All the stories of genteel ladies of standard classics never appealed to me.
I absolutely loved The Willard Price books about the adventures of Hal and Roger, two teenage boys, who travelled the world working for their father’s wildlife business. They are dated now because we know more about animal conservation (they were written in the 50s) but they were thrilling to read because of the adventure and danger and there was always a villain in the plot.

I think I read Memoires of a geisha at that age and found it incredible

A Town called Alice by Neville Shute is a book I remember having a massive impact on me at that age. Also Fahrenheit 451, Ray Bradbury.

DD1 (14) says the word on booktok is to start with Emma so suspect that might be her first Austen. I'd have thought P&P (or as @Mardyface says Northanger Abbey) would be more accessible.

I was in to the classics then- Sense and Sensibility being the stand out favourite but I worked my way through the penguin classics as my mum had them all.
Plus the whole Little Women series. They were her old volumes from the early 50’s. I still have those, they are precious. I was named after a character in it.

Tuppence to cross the Mersey series as mentioned already. I basically read all my mum’s books.

My friend Flicka was also a big favourite around that age too although it is desperately bloody sad. I can’t do it now it makes me sob. I was (still am) a horsey kid.

All creatures series and Anne of GG too.

I devoured books. I wish I had the time to read now, best I get is audiobooks on the commute. Too tired to actually read often now.