To ask you for happy book suggestions

[twinsister]

I have a 12 year old DD who absolutely loves to read but this year has been tough and she’s getting easily upset and anxious. Dystopian, scary or sad books (even if they turn out ok) are too much for her right now and it’s all everyone seems to be writing. Final straw was the Divergent series.

Can you help me with happy, light, adventurous books for teenagers where no one dies (including animals!) and the world isn’t messed up and needing to be saved by brave youths???!! Do these books exist?

Jeeves & Wooster, Hitchhikers, Adrian Mole and Hitchhikers are all excellent ideas! I do think books that are more 'adult' (not that type of adult!) are the way forward, esp. if humorous. You can't beat a good laugh!

I came on to suggest I Capture the Castle, I loved that book. Or My Family and Other Animals for something funny?

They are a favourite cosy read of mine too, but I fear they wouldn't meet the OP's brief of 'no animals dying'.

Oh yeah—whoops!

How about Noel Streatfield's books? Ballet Shoes, Tennis Shoes, Circus Shoes, the Gemma series etc? They're very well written and no-one dies. I re-read the entire lot over lockdown and they were even better than I remembered.

Michelle Magorian, anything by LM Montgomery(free to download on Fadedpage), Mary Grant Bruce, also on FadedPage. Antonia Forest, Autumn term is on Fadedpage.
Jenny Overton. Noel Streatfield.Gordon Cooper ( An hour in the morning trilogy).
Rosemary Sutcliffe if she would like historical fiction.

Re Rosemary Sutcliffe, ones like The Armorours house, not the Roman ones.

The Babysitter Club books are perfect; my DD is really same and I've bought her these. I literally devoured these as a child. That and the Goosebumps series of books.

Noel Streatfeild, very good call.

I haven't read anything in months, maybe even since the first lockdown. I think I'm going to take Hitchhikers Guide to bed tonight after this.

Ooooh, what about Cold Comfort Farm? That's such a good read. I'm sure I was about 13 when I first read it.

Might she enjoy Discworld books? I think they're good for any keen reader 10+ I second Jeeves and Wooster stories, they're very funny indeed.

Georgette Heyer?

The Lost Art of Keeping Secrets is the nicest book ever written.

Oh someone else said I Capture the Castle which is the best suggestion ever.

Just William - someone said they’re the funniest, toughest children’s books ever written. And P G Wodehouse; the Jeeves books kept my spirits up very successfully during the first lockdown.

My DD sounds very, very similar and the same age too. She currently loves:
Jeeves and Wooster (and watch the 90’s TV series)
Chalet School
Percy Jackson and the rest of the ‘universe’ - the peril is somehow manageable. Leading onto anything Green Myth
Diana Wynne Jones
Terry Pratchett - Tiffany Aching séries, then the rest of Discworld
Often dips back into Anne of Green Gables and Little House series

What a lovely, nostalgic set of suggestions.
So many of my child adult hood favourites.
As regards Just William, if you haven't yet listened to the dramatisations by Martin Jarvis you are in for a treat.

@ArblemarchTFruitbat animals die in Jilly Cooper I’m afraid

Wind in the Willows - a winner at every age!

Oh yes, Martin Jarvis reading ‘Just William’!
Only topped by Stephen Fry reading Wodehouse or Sherlock Holmes.

Remembered my DD has loved Gervase Phinn too. Very gentle reads.

[quote LilyandBilly]@ArblemarchTFruitbat animals die in Jilly Cooper I’m afraid[/quote]
Yes, you're right .

My first thought was that she’s just the right age for Austen and Brontë.
Herriot, Hitchhikers and disc world are good calls too.

You seem to be getting quite a few older book suggestions here.
I’m a secondary school librarian and a couple that 12 year old girls have liked that fit your description are ‘Jemima Small versus the universe’ and ‘The list of things that will not change.’ ‘Murder most unladylike’ series is also popular and not actually grim or serious.

@Ubiquery

My first thought was that she’s just the right age for Austen and Brontë. Herriot, Hitchhikers and disc world are good calls too.

But Bronte is so GLOOMY! Ok, I admittedly haven't read all of them but the ones I have read are grim - horrible relationships, people dying right left and centre, lunatics locked in attics, women and children treated badly. I can't think of anything happy in any of the Bronte books I've read.

At her age I loved the Tamora Pierce books, Babysitters Club, Harry Potter etc oh and the ever classic Watership Down!

Watership Down! Read the brief!!