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?

@Butteredtoast55
Sorry, hit a raw nerve! My 12 year old is a bit of an outlier and it’s a struggle.
But loves Miss Read, amongst many other more modern books!

She might like the Anastasia Krupnik series by Lois Lowry. I loved them around that age and my 9 yr old DS also does!
Set in America, Anastasia is the daughter of a scatty professor and book illustrator mother. The stories revolve around her loving family, school dramas, navigating thoughts around growing up. All pretty gentle. There does seem to be a fair amount of thinking about ‘crushes’, but still tame!

I used to love lots of the Enid Blyton books, you just have to accept that they were written in a very different time. I loved the famous five, the St Clare’s and the Mallory Towers books, along with lots of others.

I also loved the Swish of the Curtain and read it over and over again.

I would recommend some Noel Streatfeild books, especially the Gemma series, about a child actress who goes to live with her more ‘ordinary’ cousins, and Ballet Shoes and White Boots.

My daughter is a bookworm, and at that age she liked the Roman Mysteries, the Lady Grace Mysteries and a series called The Diary of… which were diaries of different people at different times in history. Her absolute favourite was the Diary of a Young Tudor Lady-in-Waiting.

‘My Story’ are the diary books. They’re lovely and have been a gateway to historical non-fiction for DD.

Parrotonmyshoulder, (fantastic name, I love it!) the ‘My Story’ books are great, and my daughter enjoyed those too, but the book I’m talking about is from another series, the History Diaries.

Oh I didn’t know about those - thanks, I’ll look for them. Always room for more books!

The Lido by Libby Page. It's adult but I don't recall anything particularly adult. Others correct me if I'm wrong! It's about a group of people coming together to save the local lido and loneliness and finding yourself. I came away feeling really good. It's an easy read.
There is a bit about panic attacks and a character hating her body and some sex.

Definitely the Discworld books, I started them at about that age. And I also loved Gerald Durrell, she could try My Family and Other Animals.

They're quite dated now (Bebo, anyone?) but Grace Dent's Diary of a Chav series is fantastically funny.

Anastasia Krupnik is great!

Thought I’d come update since so many provided helpful suggestions.

A bit by accident she started reading the Cassandra Clare Shadowhunters series just before Christmas and ADORES them. Lots of dark stuff happens (and frankly pretty violent and not what I would necessarily have chosen!) but because it’s so obviously fantasy fiction it hasn’t bothered her in the same way. She’s now read all 20 odd books and is hanging out for the next one in November.

in the meantime she’s moving on to some of the suggestion from lovely mumsnetters thank you