Books for 14 yr old dd - PLEASE

[Hullygully]

She's read everything - I warn you...

Desperate for ideas.

Had some BRILLIANT suggestions for ds, got them all, and he loved them all.

Now it's her turn.

Dd has enjoyed books by Sarah Dessen here

Oh yes, she liked her, might try a couple more

I know she really wants contemporary stuff, but might she like some KM Peyton (thinking the Flambards series for instance)?

She's read all them, loved them (except the last one where there is war and marriage). And Monica Dickens etc And James Herriot

Animals, partic horses, have exceptions made for them

My 15 year old is loving:
13 Little Blue Envelopes
The Fault in our Stars (John Green and lots more by him)
Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children (Ransom Riggs)
The Summer I Turned Pretty
If I Stay
The Perks of Being a Wallflower
The Declaration

she's read if i stay and the declaration, will look at the others. thank you

have ordered some this am from amightygirl, but i think they might be a bit young.

She might not like some of Jane Gardam's other stuff, but Bilgewater is about a teenage girl and is brilliant.

Also another vote for Before I Die and I Capture the Castle.

And has she read any Jenny Valentine, eg Finding Violet Park?

Yy I'll try Bilgewater, I loved it.

She didn't like Before I Die, said it was miserable.

Read Violet, I think she's read Broken Soup (will check) and will get the third The Ant Colony - thanks!

Oh, and has anyone mentioned How I Live Now by Meg Rosoff?

Patrick Ness also worth a look - Chaos Walking trilogy, plus A Monster Calls.

Have got Rosoff - but she's v odd my dd, she doesn't like anything not straightforward.

Have got Ness, not interested so far.

These are dystopian but she may not have read them - Bloodtide and Bloodsong by Melvin Burgess (post-apocalyptic London but the stories based on the Icelandic 'Volsunga' saga)

Also in the fantasy/dystopia vein - The Traitor Game by BR Collins (set in our world and a world made up by two teenagers in it

Sapphique and Incarceron by Catherine Fisher

I would also very much recommend Useful Idiots and The Eclipse of the Century by Jan Mark.

Also all of the Dance sequence by Aidan Chambers (winner of Hans Christian Anderson award) - Breaktime, Now I Know, The Toll Bridge, Dance on My Grave, Postcards from No-Man's Land (winner of Carnegie/Printz), and The Pillowbook of Cordelia Kenn.

Also -

Mal Peet - Life: An Exploded Diagram (set in 1960's around the Cuban Missile Crisis)
Neal Shusterman - Unwind (dystopian novel about how unwanted/ASBO teens under 17 can be 'unwound' for their body parts)
Kevin Brooks - Lucas (strange youth incomer onto Scottish island meets resistance to his presence)

All of Sonya Hartnett's books - Sleeping Dogs, What the Birds See, Surrender, The Ghost Child, Butterfly, Thursday's Child

Also, Little Brother by Cory Doctorow (teens in futuristic US who are subverting the govt's totalitarian control via the internet/technology)

Most of my kids are post-14 yrs now but they would seriously rate all of these books in various ways. They had read most of the usual available series of books too - Mortal Engines/Piratica/Garth Nix/Noughts/Crosses/Charlie Higson's zombies etc etc etc

Thank you

Wasn't unwind grim? The actual unwinding...

love mal peet

lots there for me to look at.

Does your DD like biographies / autobiographies? I was thinking of inspirational characters such as sports personalities or actors, explorers such as Ranulph Fiennes etc. Admittedly you might have to censor some of the content for sex / drug use, depending on emotional maturity, of course, but it could also be a good starting point for useful discussions eg mental health issues Paul Gascoigne or self harm Paula Radcliffe (?)

No, I don't think she would. If I talk about things like self-harm etc she gives me one of her fathomless clear-eyed looks and says, What is wrong with people? Why are they so mad?

Oh to be a teenager and see things in black / white rather than wringing your hands over the gradations of grey / well on the other hand stuff that muddles so much of my thinking now! I hope I still remember about all this when my DC are that age!

oh yes...

How about non fiction? Travel? Peter Mayle and so on?

Does she not read classic novels? I note you say "not the adult stuff"

Hitchikers guide trilogy of 5 ? (DS read of the summer he's 16)

Anna karenina

My 13yr old and 19yr old DDs are working there way through as many free classics as they can get on kindle - Dracula , frankenstein etc It's really really interesting to realise you 13yr old has " got it"about the creature - that it isn't about scary zombies etc

Margaret Attwood for a bit of dystopian controversy?

I have kids with slightly odd tastes as they have (especially the 13 and 16yr olds) grown up on radio 4 extra (aka radio 7) but I don't think i's harmed them..... much ....LOL (though it does man that in year 7 when they get introduced to sherlock holmes they actually know the real stories rather than TV and are a bit insufferable- sorry teachers!)

What about detective stories. Agatha Christie, Dorothy L Sayers. Ruth Rendell, PD James, dragon tattoo, etc.

If she's not into the older classics, what about some of these:
Huxley
Orwell.
Donna Tartt.
Barbara Kingsolver
Olivia Manning.
Alice Walker
Maya Angelou
Toni Morrison.

Junk. Can't remember the author! It's dark and about drugs but it is for teenagers.

Is she quite mature for her age? I recently read The Hour I First Believed (Wally Lamb) and thought it was excellent, but it deals with Columbine and Hurricane Katrina which might be too much for her?

Gone With The Wind. I absolutely adore this text but as it is long she would need to be patient.

Flight/Indian Killer/Reservation Blues (Sherman Alexie). The author is Native American and his writing is fantastic. They really open your eyes to contemporary social issues, as well as being funny and accessible. IMVHO of course!

Thank you.

I really appreciate all these suggestions from everyone. My amazon account does too...

random _ I have all the above.

I wonder if part of th eproblem is me having them? I'm always waving at the bookshelves and saying look, there's millions, have a browse. But she won't. If I present her with a pile I got from amazon for her, she'll plough through them all, but she won't ge tmine of the bookshelves

WHY NOT DD YOU LOON?

She did read Room recently when she'd completely run out, but that was it.

I can't recommend a kindle highly enough for teens. You can send books to it for them to look at which is fun and (esp for DD2) you can't see how thick a book is. DD2 wont try reading a book it it's " thick" as it's "too hard" but she'll read any thing on kindle.

(she reads with largish print too which is interesting, not sure if she needs it visually or she likes to be continually turning pages but, who cares, it works!)

theas - dd nicked my kindle in the summer - she had bought 12 books before I stopped her..I daren't get her one of her own.

Hully, DD1 has her own Amazon account linked to her Kindle. She can only buy books when she has an Amazon gift certificate to spend. She gets lots for birthdays and Christmas.