What classic book did you live when you were 13?

Adrian Mole

Yes loved Christopher pike!
Also remember loving Tamora Pierce Lioness series, was great to have a proper female heroine at that age.

The Gate to Women's Country is excellent, I need to reread it, it's been a while. I loved all the Truegame stuff, imagining what powers you would have (shifter), as a standalone I have always had a soft spot for The Enigma Score.

Oh and tHe Dark is Rising is definitely still in print, DS10 and I have read them all in the past year.

@IcakethereforeIam
My favourite is The Gate to Women’s Country

Lovely to see Sheri Tepper get a mention. Her books I always enjoyed, but a little variable in quality. Great feminist writer.

Robert Westall is still one of my favourite writers and Diane Wynne Jones.

I'm trying to think what I was reading when I was 13. I recall a paperback copy of The Rats by James Herbert, that was passed round the school year, maybe not that.

The Weird Stone of Brisingamen, in fact all of the books by Alan Garner.

We had to do Northanger Abbey and pride and prejudice at school and it put me off Austen permanently. I think it's really difficult to enjoy a book if you've been forced to read it line by line in a room full of grumpy reluctant teenagers.

Thanks for inspiring such a great thread@Mardyface Will go through it with my daughter this eve and see which ones she has/hasn't read.

I read C&P in my 20s and enjoyed it. I think that poster was on a wind-up though.

(Also eng lit 1st degree & also a Ulysses fan - I read the whole thing aloud when pregnant with my 1st.)

Crikey. I'm a voracious reader. Eng lit degree. Love Ulysses. Got through Lincoln in the Bardo. Will read pretty much anything. Keep trying Crime and Punishment and still can't hack it. It's one of those books I start, put down, and just don't pick up again. Certainly wouldn't have enjoyed it at 13.

Or on second thoughts, maybe you have to be 13 to have the right mindset.

Black Beauty
Pollyanna

I loved horse and pony books, but my favourite ones were the Jinny and Shantih at Finmory ones.

Still love them now!

I wanted an Arab mare to have fantastic adventures with (the mystical ones were my favourites) and to gallop about in the Highlands all day with.

Ooh and 'the outsiders' by SE Hinton

LM Montgomery but not Anne of Green Gables- instead a series called Emily of new Moon.

I've not thought about these books in years but heading straight to Amazon ...

Jane Eyre. I loved that book.

On John Wyndham, my daughter loved Chocky at the same age, but if you're worried it might disturb her, my favourite was always Trouble with Lichen. I don't think Wyndham is a strange choice for this age group at all. Loads of young teens love dystopian fiction and his texts seem to me far less disturbing than the modern equivalents - Slated, Hunger Games etc
What about From the Mixed up Files of Mrs Basil E Frankweiler? Best title ever

A lot of the ones previously mentioned and i also loved the 'What Katy did' series...

The ‘Gemma’ books by Noel Streatfeild. Anything by Antonia Forest.

She needs to read Anne Frank's diary at that age, as Anne was 13 when she began to write it. Best age to read it!

When I was that age, I read My Darling Villain by Lynne Reid Banks about ten times and loved it. Made a big impression on me politically too.

If you after a classic I'd recommend Treasure Island or the Count of Monte Cristo.
I read both at around that age and still remember them fondly.

(The films just don't cut it!!!)

Sophies World as mentioned above is also worth reading.

Loads of books on this thread strike a chord.

I loved Flambards! And Charlotte Sometimes, and The Diddakoi! Moondial and Tom's midnight Garden are similarity and brilliant. The House at Green Knows and Box of Delights were BBC adaptations that led me to the books

Also all the Michelle Magorian books and on the theme of WW2 I also liked books by Robert Westall and The Silver Sword by Ian Serallier. Carrie's War too. The Dolphin Crossing by Jan Mark was really good. We read The Endless Steppe at school and it stayed with me.

I also loved The Snow Spider trilogy (perhaps a bit younger but I reread a lot) and books by Philippa Pearce like The Way to Sattin Shore.

Berlie Doherty's books were good (especially Children of Winter), and A Traveller in Time by Alison Uttley in a similar vein. Plus the plague book A Parcel of Patterns.

It worries me that children aren't half as bored as I used to be - I read voraciously and loved it. But there was v little else to do!!

I was really into historical fiction so books by Rosemary Sutcliffe, Geoffrey Trease and Barbara Willard. I hated anything to scary/creepy or anything too full of teenage angst.

My faves were the green knowe series.
I love the Terry pratchet tiffany series starts with the wee free men

Flambards, One More River by Lynn Reid Banks, Summer of my German Soldier by Bette Greene, The Silver Crown by Robert C O Brian, Mrs Frisby and the rats of NIMH, all the James Herriot books

Had completely forgotten:

The Gormenghast Trilogy - Mervyn Peake

Utterly superb. (The Folio Soc have a new limited edition for £750 - which fact is going to make me unhappy for days to come. But you can still get them as normal paperbacks!)