Novel Suggestions for 12 Year Old Girl ( non -scary! )

[barefootcook]

Can anyone suggest a novel that my 12 year old niece may like? She is a very good reader but hates scary things- ie she was not at all interested in The Hunger Games. She likes school stories and has read some of Enid Blyton's but they seem a bit easy for her now. I want to buy her a book for her birthday which is a bit challenging but still enjoyable and within her comfort zone. Any thoughts?

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Thanks Jilted- just the ticket!

Has she tried Artemis Fowl? I still enjoy them and I'm a lot bit older than 13!

That's the only non scary series I can recommend as I was a horror buff as a teen!

I have drawn up reading lists for 11/12 year olds and 12/13 year olds. You can find them here: www.booksteensandmagazines.com/reading-lists
The school based books I know are not light or fun but I Capture the Castle by Dodie Smith is lovely but very romance based so depends how mature she is. There is also the lovely Bridge to Terrabithia which is sad but beautiful. More modern, challenging but not scary - I'd go for Gods and Warriors by Michelle Paver or Noughts and Crosses by Malorie Blackman.
Good luck.

The Little White Horse
What Katie Did
Terry Pratchett's Tiffany Aching books?

The little white horse is a fantastic book, and you can buy the moon acre DVD cheaply on amazon to go with it.

My 12y jumped from Jackie W to twolight and the horrible hunger Games, but DD1 reads all sorts. I'll ask her after school.

My suggestion is Percy Jackson, slightly scary, but very very funny.

DD1 liked Skulduggery Pleasant at that age.

The Casson Family series by Hilary McKay are excellent - funny real-life stories. The first one is Saffy's Angel.

Time Riders series
Percy Jackson
My 11 year old DD likes Cathy Cassidys' books

The incorrigible children of Ashton Place- maryrose wood fantastic books, quite funny, mysterious and about a governess so 'schoolish'

Angus, thongs and full frontal snogging.

I would highly recommend Eve Ibbotson also Antonia Forest( if you can get hold of them). My girls also loved Philip Pullman's 'Ruby in the Smoke' series and girls I teach love Louise Rennison books.

Anne of Green Gables, beautiful, beautiful story, and I imagine given it's such a classic you'd be able to get a lovely hardback edition! I loved it at that age.

Also Charlotte Sometimes by Penelope Farmer, which is a boarding school time travel story, definitely better than Enid Blyton, but might still be a bit unchallenging it she's a really good reader. Both have slightly sad endings, but not scary in the slightest.

Watership Down is fab, though bits of it are quite scary/vicious. The book isn't disturbing in the same way the film is though, and the fact it's all happening to rabbits maybe removes the reader from the scariness a bit.

I read To Kill A Mockingbird at 10/11, but looking back I'm not entirely sure it's appropriate for a child of that age. It's excellent, a very important book, and definitely worth reading at some point, but it might be a bit much for a sensitive 12 year old.

Charlotte Sometimes - Penelope Farmer
Any Noel Streatfeild's
A Stitch in Time - Penelope Lively (I think)

The Flambards series by KM Peyton (the last in the series isn't as great, she wrote it years after the first three)

Anne of Green Gables is my favouritist of books of all time. You can also now buy Before Green Gables, written recently ie not by LM Montgomery.

Same vein of books are Little Women, and What Katy Did. All classics.

Street Child by Berlie Doherty is a modern classic, but may be a bit easy for a 12 year old.

When my DD was 14, she enjoyed Numbers. It was about a girl who could see the date you were going to die written on your forehead when she looked at you.

Have a look at:

Margaret Mahy
Nicholas Fisk
Penelope Lively

Also second the Anne of Green Gables, Little Women and What Katy Did suggestions plus Noel Streatfeild.

I think I was reading Flowers in the Attic at that age but wouldn't recommend it...

Wow- thank you all. I've got enough for Christmas as well as birthday now.

oh and A Tree Grows in Brooklyn by Betty Smith. Lovely coming of age book.

Adding to this.

LM Montgomery (Anne of GG) wrote a series of 3 books starting with 'Emily of New Moon' which I loved as much as Anne. In fact, I have an Emily because of it...

Michelle Magorian - everyone knows Goodnight Mr Tom but there is another great book called Back Home about a 12 year old returning from the US after 5 happy years as an evacuee to the post-war UK. It's about fitting in, or not, family relationships, growing up....
Michelle Magorian wrote quite a few others which I didn't come to until much later because I just didn't realise: Cuckoo in the nest, a spoonful of jam and others. They are all set during the war but don't deal especially with it, IYSWIM.

I loved the Trebizon series at that age - school stories but more grown-up than Enid Blyton - the girls had boyfriends!!!

The Dark is Rising chronicles - Susan Cooper. Fantasy adventure- very good.

And non-fiction - My Family and Other Animals perhaps?

Oh I remember Back Home! Lots of stencilling iirc

Can I also add Rosemary Sutcliffe and Leon Garfield - really good historical fiction.

And Catherine Storr - slightly magical/supernatural but also very real.

'The Harp of Elvyth' by Debbie Daley would be ideal. Have a read of the blurb on Amazon.