That there are no great books for year 9 pupils

[Multispool]

When you include the criteria:

around 200 pages (short)
no sexual abuse/assault elements
no racist language (even when used to reveal the dreadful racism of times past)
nothing suicide related

I mean there are books but I can’t find anything loveable

Am I just shit at looking?

Dyslexic and Reluctant Readers - Teenage and YA | Waterstones https://share.google/Htr3YBoSdbALKHGrU

Try these - actually go to a Waterstone's if you can and have a browse. The staff are generally really helpful.

14-15 year olds should surely be able to go to the library and choose their own books, I know I did. There may be unpleasant things in some of the books but they need to be learning to deal with that and not to live in a sanitised world.

Oh My Gods https://g.co/kgs/i5QJwUq if it's a girl (or even if it's a boy) I rather enjoyed this when I read it to reluctant reader DD.

Loki: A Bad God's Guide to Being Good: The funny diary of a trickster god stuck in a school kid's body, packed with doodles, comic strips and Norse ... 8, 9, 10, 11, 12 (Loki: A Bad God’s Guide, 1) : Stowell, Louie, Stowell, Louie: Amazon.co.uk: Books https://share.google/LhhpFH0YGRlGK6uFr

This was good fun too.

Just from the write up on those three books suggests either assault or some racial content.

Yes absolutely - that's why I suggested going to the shop.

I have some sympathy. I was once sent out to visit a bunch of year 6s with a pack to welcome them to secondary including a free novel.

Every.Single.One was about an orphan!

Children's literature has always featured orphans or children at boarding school as it allows the characters the freedom to get into adventures or scrapes without adult intervention. Stories where nothing unpleasant ever happens would be extremely boring, drama involves an element of peril.

Couldn't agree more. Young Adult fiction didn't exist when I was in my teens in the 1970s. You just started trying to find things that appealed in the adult section of the library and the bookshop and gradually stopped reading children's books.

When I was that age, at school we had Jane Eyre and Great Expectations as set books in class. Not long after that we read Lord of the Flies (O level set book). In my spare time I was reading a lot of John Wyndham, Raymond Chandler, Agatha Christie and Daphne Du Maurier.

Agree with posters who say year 9 is old enough to read adult literature. Your criteria is ridiculously overprotective. Unless your child is home schooled with no social life or access to the internet, they have been exposed to these issues and will continue to be. Trying to shield them is creating a taboo which will be counterproductive.

Less than 200 pages is very short. That is going to really limit possible options. Novels aimed at YA and classic novels popular or commonly read at that age tend to be longer.

Why the length limit?

The range would be much larger if you scrapped the page limit. We have loads of books longer than that read by my just finished Y9 child.

Is there a reason for your subject matter criteria/exclusions? A lot of teenagers really like "dark and gritty" books, in my experience.

Your "no racism" criteria excludes a lot of books that might get them into more classic/literary fiction, even when racism/racial violence isn't the only central theme eg. Of Mice and Men, The Great Gatsby, and books that encourage thinking about racial injustice: To Kill a Mockingbird, The Buddha of Suburbia, White Teeth, Brick Lane (those last two are probably longer than 200 pages).

"Animal Farm" - if they understand the context of the allegory? "Lord of the Flies" is violent but not sexually violent. "The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie" - I can't remember if there's actual racist language in that one or charaters' racist views are just implied.

What’s driving your criteria? You’ve made your job harder I think.

Is the page limit because they are struggling with reading? If so that makes the choices fewer.
Otherwise I agree that at that age they should be able to choose for themselves as I certainly did.
My DC are adults now. One wasn't much interested in reading but enjoyed non fiction books about maths and physics. The other was a keen reader and just picked what he liked at the library.
I do think 14 to 16 is tricky, partly because of being forced into reading specific books for GCSE which can put them off reading for pleasure.

Short story collections might be a way in. Also, if this isn't a teacher looking for possible set books for a Year 9 class, what about Terry Pratchett? Discworld is very accessible to younger teens, if my children were anything to go by, and they're not that long.

My year 9 daughter and friendship group are all completely obsessed with the Shatter Me series. They look like absolute drivel to me but she can read whatever she would like to and I am just delighted that she has started spending most of her time reading.

Penguin had a range called “Puffin Plus” in the 80s and lot of which would meet your criteria. I’d try: Robert Westall (maybe start with The Windeye), Alan Garner (start with The Owl Service), Jan Mark…
But fully agree that a Y9 can totally be accessing adult novels by then. I think I’d read everything by Agatha Christie by that age which meets the short criterion. Obvs involves murder, bug nothing graphic.

I would think a typical year 9 student would be old enough to read about the topics listed.

I grew up in Australia and when I was a child loved the Tomorrow When the War Began series by John Marsden - not sure how well known they are in the U.K.

It is a ridiculously overprotective criteria - because I am looking for a school text. That adds in another layer I didn’t think to mention of trying to avoid the badly written or sensationally over plotted.

The cohort I work with are more vulnerable than many and the content restrictions are necessary. The length is purely pragmatic as a longer text simply won’t fit.

that said I might be desperate enough to accept one!

At the same age I was working my way through the local library's adult section. Biographies, classics.... tried a number of authors and genres and never had any restrictions on what I read.

Why so short? Most books for age 9+ are longer than 200 pages.
I would take the teen to a bookshop and talk to a bookseller and browse the YA section. Or go to the library and try a few things risk free.

Oh and thank you for the suggestions - I will go through them.

As for Of Mice and Men - too many parental complaints.

Try biographies related to people / areas of interest.

The Windeye is one of my favourite books of all time — but The Watch House is even better imo! Or The Devil On The Road? Robert Westall is fantastic.

The Broken Bridge by Phillip Pullman comes in just under 200 pages.
Race is an element within it but I don't recall any racist language.

The Sally Lockhart Trilogy (Ruby in the Smoke etc) are also about 200 pages