Books for advanced 11 year old

[PutDownThatLaptop]

My DD is 11 and reads extremely well. She has asked for the Pet Semetary novel and I have refused.
Can anyone recommend books for her age? She is currently reading The Curious Incident.

Has she read the classics? Little Women, Black Beauty, The Secret Garden, The Borrowers etc. Rich language but suitable themes.

Philip Pullman?
Michael Mirpurgo?

Morpurgo

Goldfish Boy or the light jar by Lisa Thompson
The many worlds of albie bright by Christopher edge
Liar and spy by Rebecca stead
The 1000 year old boy by Ross welford
Holes by Louis sachar

My 11 yo is currently re-reading all the Harry Potters (she initially read them when she was 7/8). Previously, she had read the Narnia series, the Philip Pullmans, the Miss Peregrine series. She loves the historical Lucy Worsley novels.

She recently really enjoyed "Skylarks" by Karen Gregory - she insisted I read it afterwards - and I would totally recommend it. For Christmas she has asked for "The Hate U Give" which i'm in two minds about (may read it first) and also the Hunger Games series (ditto). Fortunately I have a good friend with a 13 year-old and they seem to have similar tastes so I have an idea of the kind of thing she's reading. To be honest, I'm happy with anything "teen" or "young adult" but sometimes I read them as well and I always make sure I chat to her about what she's reading.

By the way, I think Curious Incident is a great idea - I must dig that out for her.

Holes (and the sequel)
Animal Farm

Thanks for the suggestions, I will look into them all.
She has read all of the Harry Potters, Morpurgo, Hidden Figures and the Spooks series. She's really annoyed with me about the two books I have refused to buy, one being the King novel and one being The Rosie Project, both of which she found on a list of 'books you need to read before you die.'

Has she tried Tolkein? Edge chronicles and Ali Sparkes books popular here. Ross Welford popular too. Hunger games is quite violent at times but once you accept that people will die it is mostly a social commentary and quite gripping. Many seem to read it in yr6/7.

Trying to think what I read at that age... Ursula Le Guin's Wizard of Earthsea trilogy, The Neverending Story, loads of Agatha Christie and P.G. Wodehouse, the occasional Virginia Andrews, Jane Eyre.

Following this for a while

Agatha Christie is a good suggestion - I swear I must have read all the Poirot stories around that age.

The Girl of Ink and Stars, Island at the End of Everything - and the latest one by the same author.

Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy and a bit of Terry Pratchett maybe?

Another vote for Animal Farm
The power

The care and feeding of an advanced reader is a tricksy thing (I have two myself and am a primary school librarian so this is a big chunk of my life). The problem is that literacy development is out of step with emotional maturity and life experience; give a book too early and they won't get the best out of it, making what is otherwise a great book deeply unsatisfying. And then of course you have the potential for unsuitable material. Because of my job I managed to read and discuss most of what my eldest was reading at around 11 and it's set the foundation for a lovely relationship - I know I can trust her to come and talk to me about anything she finds unsettling (she's 13 now and eg able to spot unhealthy relationships, which YA is frankly riddled with).

I'm currently feeding my advanced Y5 & Y6s any and all of the following authors depending on their tastes:
Christopher Edge (sci fi)
Emma Caroll (historical, lots of time periods to choose from)
Padraig Kenny (robots)
Sinead O'Hart (adventure)
Francis Hardinge (creepy historical)
Katherine Rundell (adventure)
Lisa Thompson (contemporary/issues)
Ross Welford (contemporary/issues - particularly lovely if you live in the NE)
Stewart Foster (contemporary/issues)
Gill Lewis (contemporary/environment)
David Solomons (humour)
Sylvia Bishop (contemporary)

I would look at Pullman, Cathy Cassidy, James Patterson, Geraldine McCaughran, Piers Torday and Lauren St John too. Handle Pratchett with care. The Tiffany series has a young protagonist, yes, but the third in the series opens with a pregnant teenager being beaten so hard by her father that she miscarries. It should not be on the 8-12 shelf. This is a good rule of thumb for any series where the characters grow up over a number of books - your voracious reader will want to gobble the series within months, but won't be ready for the emotional challenges encountered by an older main character. I've had to stop stocking a particular series after six books because the main character's relationships have become unsuitably grown-up at 15 for my readers of 7-11.

There are many more fantastic books at the top end of middle grade before you step into YA, those are just the ones I've had budget for this year and I know they do the job.

I would honestly avoid things that you remember reading in high school English. Chances are she'll end up doing them herself and it's immensely tedious to repeat a novel when you're an advanced reader (yes, I was that child too).

Also don't assume that always "reading up " is the right thing to do. Kids do just fine with a range of books - "easy" books read repeatedly can offer new insights as children grow. Age-appropriate graphic novels are brilliant for visual literacy (understanding how pictures and words combine to make a story - the basis of newspapers and adverts). Go wide rather than high - and never underestimate the power of non-fiction, either.

I'd go for some of the Rosemary Sutcliffe books like Eagle of the Ninth - adventure and rites of passage book ( with a little bit of very innocent romance) set in Roman Britain.
There's also a great historical fiction series by Barbara Willard ( if it is still in print)
There's also "When Hitler Stole Pink Rabbit" about a Jewish family fleeing the Nazis ( which is actually a fictionalised autobiography of the author of the Mog the cat books)

Patrick Ness books are a bit with my 13 year old and she isn't a natural reader.
My 11 year old has read the Hate you give and is also reading the Darkest Minds series.

hit not bit

Thanks so much everybody for your suggestions. @silentcrow that is a hugely helpful insight, thank you.

If she wants horror how about going with Dracula or The Woman in Black. DD read both those aged 9/10 and absolutely loved them. She also devours Point Horror (but you have to pick them up second hand!).

Agree with Ross Welford books and Five children on the western front by Kate Saunders.

At her age i was the same, but hated the typical classics (little women, pride and prejudice etc), so cracked on with the Wilbur Smith's. I really enjoyed those.

You're very welcome - it is my joy and my pleasure to feed readers, whether they're greedy little bookworms or just finding their feet

Wrt horror mentored further up - if you're able, check in with English teachers at her high school as to what's on the syllabus. My Y8 is doing Gothic Horror this term and has read The Woman In Black, Dracula, Poe, and some poetry and Shakespeare in the same area. She's got a lot out of analysing the text, more so than if she'd read it for pleasure, I think.

Ross Montgomery's Christmas Dinner of Souls is a suitably macabre title my Y6 reviewers enjoyed lately!